Jerome Hanby
02-04-2009, 7:59 AM
I looked at a craigslist Craftsman Mortiser last night. It's Craftsman, so I wasn't expecting top of the line, but I wasn't able to make a half-inch mortise through a piece of pine 2x10 (may have been SYP). It basically got to the point where the chisel would engage, then it pretty much stopped and eventually started to burn the wood. I didn't do an exhaustive examination, but the chisel seemed fairly sharp. I'm wondering now if maybe it wasn't set up properly. How much of the bit should protrude beyond the chisel at the start? I assumed that the drill bit would engage, drill pretty much to depth, then further action on the handle would slide the chisel down and shear off the sides of the hole to give you the square. This is the first time I've touched a "live" mortiser and any information I have, I read here, thought out myself, or picked up watching Norm. Speaing of which, Norm doesn't seem to be putting nearly the force I used last night. From the plate, the mortiser was half HP, didn't have the micro adjustment for the fence, appeared to be an older version of the current model with a straight handle instead of the new (longer ?) one with the right angle handle at the end.
I offered the guy $80 for it (asking $150) figuring I could eventually tune it up, but I'm not really excited about the $80 after last night's experience. Unless I really missed something, I'm back to waiting for the spare cash to buy a ShopFox instead of picking this thing up as something to play with in the mean time.
Any helpful info? If I just handled the tool incorrectly, it might be worth it to me to spend $80-$100 and have something to with which to work. I could probably get my money back out of the thing when I'm ready to buy a "good" model.
I offered the guy $80 for it (asking $150) figuring I could eventually tune it up, but I'm not really excited about the $80 after last night's experience. Unless I really missed something, I'm back to waiting for the spare cash to buy a ShopFox instead of picking this thing up as something to play with in the mean time.
Any helpful info? If I just handled the tool incorrectly, it might be worth it to me to spend $80-$100 and have something to with which to work. I could probably get my money back out of the thing when I'm ready to buy a "good" model.