Gloat #2 Delta Benchtop mortiser plus initial thoughts(Better PICS)

[Jeff Sudmeier]

It was a good weekend last weekend! I received two tools, one in another thread.

This one is a Delta Benchtop Mortiser. I received it the same day as the radio!

Some people said that the hold down on this machine was not any good at all. I have found it to be really good so far. It is a really secure hold down. I do see how an x/y table would be a great addition, but I don't think that it is a must have. I would use the x/y table mostly to move the peice to continue a longer mortise. Moving it by hand works well, but I can see how the table would be better.

The machine was all set up out of the box. All I had to do was attach the handle and whipe of the grease. It was great!

It took me about 45 minutes to lay out 44 mortises, becuase I am SLOW at it! I can't lay out evenly spaced mortises very well. Once they were layed out, it took me about 30 minutes to cut all 44. I thought that was very good for my first time with the machine.

If you are thinking about a mortiser, this is the one!

[Corey Hallagan]

Wow, what a weekend for you Jeff. Man enjoy the new tools.

Rock rock rocking around the mortising machine tonight!!!!

Corey

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Hi Jeff, Congrats on the mortiser; they sure get the job done. The hold down on my Shop Fox works fine too. I don't see any need for a vise either.

[Mike Cutler]

Nice gloat Jeff. I have the same mortiser, but it appears that you are a lot faster than I am, of course I'm slower than erosion :rolleyes:
It's a nice machine I've enjoyed mine quite a bit. Don't pass on the XY sliding vise idea just yet. If you can cut mortises that fast with the hold down, you'll be really fast with an XY sliding vise. :D

[chris toomey]

jeff, congrats on the new tool. you'll be looking for ways to use mortise and tenon joints now! i put an xy vise on my shop fox. can't say i needed to, but wanted to try it. i'm glad i did. have fun

[Brent Smith]

Congrats Jeff,
I've had mine for years now and never could figure out why people complain about it.I've never found a reason for an XY vise,but then again most of the mortising I do is pretty straight forward.The hold down has always worked fine for me.Hey,that's an impressive time to do all those mortises for the first time using the machine.
Brent

[John Miliunas]

Congrats Jeff! Nice unit, ain't it?:) Ditto to what the rest of the guys have said; Man, you're cruising through them square holes! Way to go.:) (But, you really need to do something about the pixelation in your pics!:D ):cool:

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Yeah I know about the pixelation! Woodworkers web is on the fritz and I usually use them to automatically resize, instead I used microsoft imaging, a terrible tool!

As far as the vise goes, I do see it as being a great addition to an already great tool. The fine adjustment would be great. Also, it would be nice to use the cross slide to continue a mortise, without unclamping.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

John, there you go!!! The pixelation is reduced greatly now that I have my better apps at work!

[Doug Shepard]

Jeff - Congrats. I've got the slightly older model of that HCM. One upgrade I did that you might be interested in was to set mine up for completely tool-less adjusting. Actually I found Delta's Allen set screws pretty soft and rather than replace them with the same parts when the sockets got sloppy, I went tool-less. I changed over the Allen Set screw that holds the bit, and the one that locks the depth stop to this type of handle from Grizzly (haven't noticed anybody else that carries the metric ones) http://www.grizzly.com/products/item.cfm?itemnumber=G7332

At least ONE of the two was 8mm - maybe both. I just can't remember. Either way Griz had the size(s) I needed to convert both. You DO have to cut the bolt to the right length, but otherwise it's a pretty cheap/easy mod and beats having to keep track of the allen wrenches.

[John Miliunas]

Doug, Delta went and put the correct allen head driver on the opposite end of the chuck key! Handy. The chuck key does have that silly spring-activated rod in the middle of the key, which I promptly cut off. What a royal pain!:) :cool:

[Doug Shepard]

Doug, Delta went and put the correct allen head driver on the opposite end of the chuck key! Handy. The chuck key does have that silly spring-activated rod in the middle of the key, which I promptly cut off. What a royal pain!:) :cool:

Yeah - removing that spring thingy was the first thing I did too. I think it's supposed to be a safety feature so you can't accidently leave the key in the chuck when you hit the ON switch. What a PITA.

[Lou Morrissette]

Jeff,

Congrats on the new toy. I have limited use on mine but have had nothing but fun using it. Enjoy.

Lou

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Doug, thanks for the details of your mod. I will have to keep that in mind!

As far as the spring goes, if someone does leave the key in the chuck they deserve the damage :) Aww well, haven't cut mine off yet, maybe someday.