Tool purchase dilemma, chisel mortiser vs bandsaw+dovetailer+briquette maker

[Albert Lee]

I've given an opportunity to purchase a shop floor display chisel mortiser for $12,000USD (originally $16,000 USD). It's a Masterwood OMB1V.

I already have a floor standing mortiser and I spend at least 2-3 hours on it each week due to amount of work I do. I don't spend more than this because I can't afford to do more as I have other things that I need to make.

Should I buy this based on the huge discount and the chisel mortiser can save me a lot of time? I could get the following for the same amount of money:

a brand new Minimax MM16
a second hand dovetailer (made in Japan)
a second hand briquette machine.(made in Taiwan)

I have never needed a bandsaw in my workshop, it could be a bonus. I need a dovetailer because I want one(dislike holding router). I could use the briquette machine to turn dust/shavings into income instead of throwing them away, but I need a lot of dust/shavings to make enough briquettes to recover the investment on a briquette machine.

your thoughts please?

[jack forsberg]

The swing chisel mortisers are nice . I tend to like the chain myself and then of course the hollow chisel is the only one that will do a single square. I have a Maka swing chisel that is fully auto but tend to love my Stenner the most . I mortises for house doors where i do like a heaver mortiser. The stenner is a door lock mortiser like the Masterwood. I picked my Maka up for $400 so to me that's way to much to pay but that could just be me. What is it your mortises are for?

[Kevin Jenness]

It's hard to give an answer without knowing anything about your business and what you produce. Only you can assess what the relative return on investment will be on various machine purchases. I will say that the mortiser you are looking at appears to have lighter duty guides than the Maka's and similar machines I have seen pictured, and the manual plunge operation will take more effort than an auto-cycling unit. No doubt the used machinery market is much different down under, but I have seen used Maka's for sale in the US for considerably less.

You only use your present mortiser a few hours a week. If the oscillating mortiser cuts that in half, how long is the payback? How do you compare that to investing in a bandsaw which you have not yet needed? Are you planning on changing what you produce? What is the volume of shavings you are currently producing, is it enough to warrant a briquette maker, do you foresee a larger volume soon? How much time do you spend at your current dovetail setup, how much time/effort will you save with a better machine, will it free you up to do other things? Those are a few questions I would be asking myself.

[Jeff Duncan]

I'm assuming this is for a business? If so invest in the one that is going to provide the most benefit in the near future. IOW….what has the shortest ROI?

I myself would look into a used automatic mortiser of some sort before spending that kind of dough on a new one…..but that's just me. $12k would have bought most of the equipment in my shop….and it's a pretty full shop!

good luck,
JeffD

[Moses Yoder]

To me it is obvious you don't need any of the machines. If you actually have the money, I would either invest it or put it into saving until you need something. If there is a bottle neck in your shop preventing you from shipping orders on time, then you need something.

[Albert Lee]

I make beds and bunkers for kids, need long mortise & tennon that's about 4 inch deep/long

[Albert Lee]

Thanks for this, the used market here is relatively small (he population is only 4 million here), one would wait for years before a good mortise machine come up for sale, and often they cost so much you might as well buy new. it's a sellers market here for specialist machine such as a chisel mortiser.

The questions you have proposed, They are right on the spot, I've actually thought about them...

I originally intended to buy the bandsaw only as I want to resaw timber for my work I plan to expand. When I visited the agent for SCM, they told me SCM/Minimax is pulling out of New Zealand and they are offering some discount on their NZ stock. The chisel mortiser has been on their shop display for years.

I probably will just get the band saw then, I do a lot of ripping on my panel saw. I have been told BS are safer than table saw/panel saw.

[Peter Quinn]

If you are breaking down thick stock and beams into boards the bandsaw is a safer and IMO often faster tool than a circular saw, less waste too. For breaking down typical cabinet thickness wood, say 18mm-50mm, it can help with tension wood, still a little faster, could be similarly as clean with a carbide blade, fences are typically shorter so stock length plays a factor. On the bricquette maker.....more research is needed. What does your waste cost you now if anything, what will the machine cost, how stable are the briquettes ( shelf life is limited on some types) is there a market? My casual impression from conversations I've had is they require a certain scale to work efficiently, and you have to have an outlet to sell the product. Can be a winner....can sink your ship.

on the oscillating mortiser, already mentioned, what is ROI, how long before it's paid for and making you money, what would a kid with a good left arm cost (ie hire somebody to work the mortiser you have now more hours per week). Do you have sales you can't fulfill due to slow production? If yes, might make sense, might still not. Imagine you had to take out a loan to pay for it, even from your self for instance, how many beds do you have to make per month to pay the note, can you reasonably expect to increase your sales by that amount presently? You have to be an optimist in business but also a realist.

[Chris Parks]

When I visited the agent for SCM, they told me SCM/Minimax is pulling out of New Zealand and they are offering some discount on their NZ stock. The chisel mortiser has been on their shop display for years

Gabbett's are getting out of NZ? I find that very strange but I do know that they are having a huge revamp of their retail network so it may be the case.

[Jim Matthews]

What is your time worth?

Will the $12,000 save you that much value in your time in your shop?
Better to have a tool that does one thing really well, than to have one that does many things poorly.

[Chris Parks]

$12k would have bought most of the equipment in my shop….and it's a pretty full shop!

Those that live in the colonies only dream about the prices that you guys pay along with the availability of all woodworking equipment. Australia is better off than NZ but still a long way from the US in this regard.

[Albert Lee]

Gabbetts is closing down their Christchurch branch in April/May, and Auckland office within another 4-6 months, I was told by Paul Edmunds, I think he is a senior member of the company, we've also briefly chatted about the close down, there will be new people representing SCM, I suspect Machine r us will be the one.

I was hoping to get good discount on their tools including the SCM tennoner TEN220 but they said its unlikely they will do crazy deals as they can get a container and ship them back to Australia.

[Albert Lee]

I have decided to go with the mortiser and the band saw. Guys at Gabbetts gave good discount... It's still a lot of money. $3k for the saw and $11k for the mortiser.

the Masterwood mortiser will probably last forever...