FMT vs Powermatic Benchtop Mortiser

[Tim Null]

I am in the market for one of these two. Anyone have either one and can give an opinion?

Space wise the FMT would probably make more sense, I am in a small shop.

But I do have room to put the Powermatic if I decide to go that route.

Would like opinions from owners of both, thanks.

[paul cottingham]

I have an FMT and once I figured out my squaring stock issues it is great.

[Ray Schwalb]

I had a FMT and it was one cool machine. Now I'm looking at the Richline machines, which I think are the best of both worlds. http://www.richlinemachines.com/

[Tim Null]

Yeah but the website does not even list prices. In most cases, if you have to ask......LOL

[Darnell Hagen]

The FMT is nice for making angled tenons or for tennoning awkward parts, like bent laminated table skirts or chair strechers.

The mortiser is a better machine in every other aspect. Complete freedom in mortise sizes. Square holes. Faster. Easier set up. Quieter. Safer.

I dunno which one you're looking at, but if you go with a mortiser get one with a x-y table.

The mortise and tenon is my bread and butter joint, with a hollow chisel and a dado stack in my tablesaw I can make a set of four to eight joints in twenty minutes, accurate and ready for glue up.

[Steve Rowe]

I have an older FMT (now marketed as the FMT Pro) and had a Delta benchtop mortiser but sold it. I purchased the FMT to make a series of tables with small and angled M&T joints. The FMT is IMO a much more versatile machine with respect to various size M&T and excels at angled tenons too. You will get clean M&Ts with this guy. It is also a very high quality jig and the dust collection works surpisingly well. The downside is that if you do a lot of M&T on this, picking up a heavy router repetitively is tiresome.

With a benchtop hollow chisel mortiser (HCM), you are limited on mortise size >= 1/4". If everything you do is this size or larger, it would be a less expensive and noisy alternative. The mortises will not be as clean as the FMT but they will have square corners if that is important to you. The HCM is also slow and dust collection was non-existent. I ended up replacing the HCM with a slot mortiser primarily for speed and quality of cut.

Good luck with your choice.
Steve

[Leo Vogel]

Tim - I have both.

I have had the Powermatic benchtop for a number of years and have made a lot of mission furniture with it. In fact, I wore out the hub the handle fits in. Although I used it a lot, I was never really please with the rough mortises it produced, nor the job of cutting the tenons on the table saw. I always sort of hated the ordeal, never really pleased with the results.

About two weeks ago I got a new Leigh FMT. It is the older model, not the sheet metal one they recently introduced. All I can say is wow, what a difference. Although the mortise and tenons are rounded on the end, they are beautiful. They fit snug as a hand in a glove, and are as smooth as a baby's butt. Plus, you can make them a tight as you want simply by turning a thumb screw. You can duplicate the m&t over and over, and they all are perfect. The machine, although expensive, is a piece of art. A lot of thought has gone into it and it works perfectly. I was skeptical of spending that much money on a jig, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

You are somewhat limited by the length of the router bit, but it fits my needs exactly. Remember, the FMT not only makes the mortise, but the tenon too. I just couldn't be happier.

Go to youtube.com, type in Leigh FMT and watch the videos. They show exactly what it will do.

[Philip Rodriquez]

I have both. Bla bla bla, I agree with the other guys. The fmt is easy to set up and use. I purchased it to do a project that had 140 m&t joints. It did them all in a fraction of the time it would have taken to do them the old way. Too bad the thing costs a small fortune...:eek:

[Tim Null]

Thanks for the replies guys. I am a bit surprised at the reviews of the Powermatic. It has gotten glowing reviews on most of the sites I have visited.


So your experience has been that the mortises are a bit rough, the size is limited to 1/4" or greater and dust collection is non-existent.

Only Darnell prefers a mortiser, but did not say which one he uses. Which one do you use, Darnell?

[Paul Murphy]

One point that may matter to a potential buyer of the FMT is the 1/4" bits cut to a max depth of 1-1/8". The 1/4" hollow chisel machines will cut a 1-7/8" deep mortise. A sharp hollow chisel bit will cut a mortise that glues up to a very high strength. Once I learned how to sharpen the hollow chisel and bit I decided it would be ok :D.

I would like to have a FMT, but have managed to get by with the hollow chisel rig on my drill press. If I could justify the expense, I would love to have a nice slot mortiser.

[Neal Clayton]

Thanks for the replies guys. I am a bit surprised at the reviews of the Powermatic. It has gotten glowing reviews on most of the sites I have visited.


So your experience has been that the mortises are a bit rough, the size is limited to 1/4" or greater and dust collection is non-existent.

Only Darnell prefers a mortiser, but did not say which one he uses. Which one do you use, Darnell?

the problem with smaller mortisers is insufficient clamps. no benchtop mortiser will be rigid enough for a door stile, for instance. you'll have to add some other clamping mechanism of your own for anything large.

the problem with the FMT as paul mentioned is depth. the mortiser has more.

the FMT is easier to set up, and easier to be precisely accurate with. there's also no way to create a tenon within a rail/stile joint on the FMT. it's great for flat shouldered joints, for tenons that need to be within a rounded profile, not really good at all (can't easily be done).

[Gary Muto]

I just bought a Super FMT so it took me a little longer to set up for my cuts but I found it much easier to fine tune. The actual joints look better too, but no one else will see that.
Don't forget that there is less depth capability with the FMT as well.
Bottom line is that I'm glad I bought it and would recommend it to others.

[Josh Rudolph]

Thanks for the replies guys. I am a bit surprised at the reviews of the Powermatic. It has gotten glowing reviews on most of the sites I have visited.


So your experience has been that the mortises are a bit rough, the size is limited to 1/4" or greater and dust collection is non-existent.

Only Darnell prefers a mortiser, but did not say which one he uses. Which one do you use, Darnell?

Tim,

I don't know that they rough is the best description for the surface left by the PM mortiser. When you compare the finished surfaces of the mortiser next to the FMT, then yes they are rough. The finish from the router bit is very nice.

I have the FMT in my shop and it is an awesome jig. It does have a little bit of a learning curve, at least for me it did until I wrapped my head around it. Once I understood everything, it is a piece of cake. Each joint is very consistent to the next. I can repeat my settings (just remember to write down your settings in the workbook) by dialing it in. The cost is a hard pill to swallow at least on the Pro version, but once you take the plunge, you will be happy with it. I enjoy cutting joints by hand on occassion, I do not enjoy cutting an entire porjects worth of the same joint over and over. The FMT makes it a quick process.

Sorry for sounding like an infomercial for the FMT, I just love that darn thing though. :D

Good luck with your decision.

Josh

[Rod Sheridan]

I have a General International hollow chisel mortiser that has made about a thousand mortises in the eight years I've owned it.

Properly sharpened chisels make all the difference, and as others have stated the mortiser can make deep mortises.

The mortiser is also quiet, which is why I don't own a router.

I have consider added a slot mortiser to my jointer/planer however the hollow chisel mortiser works great, so why bother.

The hollow chisel mortiser also makes square mortises, something of value if you like the look of square pegs in joints, such as for Arts and Crafts furniture.

Regards, Rod.

[Neal Clayton]

i also have the general international mortiser, and recommend it if you go that route. one house full of doors and windows so far and no complaints.

[Dan Lee]

I have PM floor standing mortiser. I think any hollow chisel mortiser will have a rough finish as compared to a router jig approach.
One other consideration is FMT won't do through mortises in chair or table legs. If thats important to you.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Yeah but the website does not even list prices. In most cases, if you have to ask......LOL


FWW 1/1/10: Richline 18-8 $1,850.

[Josh Rudolph]

i also have the general international mortiser, and recommend it if you go that route. one house full of doors and windows so far and no complaints.

BTW...
When I was looking, the General mortiser was the mortiser I was considering.

[Darnell Hagen]

Which one do you use, Darnell?


I've got a Canwood, the now defunct House of Tools brand. It's ok, but I won't recommend it, as I've broke all the plastic and pot metal handles. It will do until I get my vintage Preston mortiser up and running.

The benchtop PM is an ok machine, it looks similar to the old Multico I used to use. It will get you by, but you will have to layout the ends of every mortise. The hold down is kind of a pain, too.

The X-Y table is a feature worth it's cost. You don't need to layout all your mortises, and because of the stops the mortises are all exactly the same.

If I were to buy new, I go for the General International, 75-075. The tilt head is nice, but the real thing to look for is the x-y table.

[Michael Heffernan]

I have both the Powermatic PM-701 and the Leigh FMT Pro. Up until about a month ago, all I had was the Powermatic mortiser. Then I found the FMT Pro on CL for a great deal.
I love the FMT for its ease of set-up, repeatability and precision joints. I've been using it almost exclusively for my past few projects. For most hidden M&T joints, I will reach for this jig.
That being said, my PM mortiser still has its place in my shop. I modified it with an X-Y cross vise, which makes it so much easier to set-up and plough out mortises. I will still use it for through tenon joinery and stock that is too big for the FMT, as well as for deep mortises.
As others have posted, if you go the route of a hollow chisel mortiser, get a good set of chisels (I got the Japanese ones from Lee Valley), a honing cone, and keep the chisels sharp and tuned. Makes all the difference for clean mortises.
Here is my post of the mods I did to my PM mortiser, adding an X-Y vise and riser table. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=121734
If you go the way of a hollow chisel mortiser, be sure to check out the General Mortiser 75-050TM1. This is their benchtop version and gets very good reviews. FWW rates it high for benchtop models. The next model up, the General 75-075M1, includes a X-Y cross slide table, but at a price premium. Both have tilting heads for angled mortises.
I like both piece of equipment, but the FMT gets my vote for most of my M&T needs.