Which mortiser?

[Marshall Harrison]

My local WoodCraft store has three mortisers - the Jet ($249), a Delta ($269) and a SwampFox (???). Can some one give me the pros and cons of each. What about personal experiences? Heck I'll even take biased opinions. :D

I've got a little bonus money and I'm hoping SWMBO will let me purchase one if I give what's left to her for bills etc.

[Bob Smalser]

Which mortiser? Let's see...I don't have any of the ones you mention.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/3442941/68580316.jpg

The laminated Japanese are nice...but brittle. I much prefer the longer New Haven Edge, Douglas, and James Swan millwright's mortisers shown above. The longer lengths make them much easier to plumb and lever out waste. Adding several ounces of lead to my mortising mallet helps a lot, too.

;) Seriously, back in another age, I cut an uncountable number of mortises on larger, commercial machines.

You need at least two sets of bits, even for hobby use. They are difficult to sharpen and are usually sent out for that...that's time consuming. Use a dull bit for long and the additional force required to make the mortise ruins the machine by torquing the overarm out of alignment.

[Joe Meazle]

Marshall,

I have the Jet. I think it is a good unit. I took it up to Terry H. at the CSBBQ. He said thatit was stouter than his Delta. That is not the newer pricer Delta. Of the three you mentioned if I had to start over I would get the Shopfox. It seems to be more versitle with mutiple height ranges and able to do work off its base. Usually in the 220-250 range. I am happy with the jet and probally won't repalce it anytime soon. Hope that helps.
Joe

[Charlie Schultz]

I have the Jet and it is "adequate". The hold down wasn't too good (probably applies to most benchtop mortisers). Like many others, I replaced the hold down with an XY vise. One of the woodworking magazines reviewed these not long ago and I think their complaint about the Jet was that its handle wasn't long enough (less leverage), so you might keep that in mind in comparing them.

[Don Turner]

I have the Shop Fox, it has been a very good investment. The 1 3/4 hp motor makes cutting oak and cherry a snap. The set up and chisel changing is very easy.
I got it a couple of years ago for $189.

[Mike Cutler]

I have the newer Delta mortiser. It's a nice machine. It seems to be well made and I had no difficulty adjusting it. I'm not sure that the chisels are of the highest quality. I had ~ 250 mortises to do and had to "dress up" the chisels a time or two, and the mortises required finishing touches with chisels, ala' Bob Smalser. I hear that Clico is reputed to make better quality chisels, but I can't attest to that, not having tried them.It came with a riser block but I haven't found the need to install it yet. I did have to use some additional spring clamps to hold the material tight against the fence. One tip I picked up off the board here for setup was to clamp a 6" or 12" machinist rule to the chisel and square the fence up to the ends of the ruler to ensure that the chisel was 90 degrees to the fence. This worked great! I picked the Delta because I could get it for 60 bucks less than the Jet at the time, and a Powermatic was more than I could justify. I'm sure that both of those machines work equally as well. Check out the Shop Fox from Grizzly, it seems to be a well recieved mortiser also.

[Marshall Harrison]

Thanks everyone.

After reading forum posts and reviews ar Amazon I decided on the Shop Fox. Just got back from picking it up. Had to get the one on display but talked them into throwing in an extra chisel.

Pics will follow shortly in another post so I can have a tool gloat thread. :D

[Keith Christopher]

I have the delta 651 and it is working wonderfully for me there is always some tuning but it has worked VERY well. I used it to make the mortises on the headboard I'm making and it did need a little cleanup but it runs quiet and worked very well.

[Joe Meazle]

I think you will really like that mortiser. It begs to have the xy vise added to it. I thinks you could do with little modification to the factory base. I had to buid a new base to makeit work with my Jet. Now go cut some square holes;) .

Joe