Did my Powermatic 701 Hollow Chisel Mortiser come with the wrong bushing?

[Alan Lightstone]

Have a strange issue. I've never owned or used a hollow chisel mortiser before, so this may just be ignorance, or I may have an issue here.

The best I can determine, my mortiser is supposed to come with 5/8" bushing and a 3/4" bushing. The problem is that the smaller bushing measures at .605" (19 mm), significantly smaller than 5/8" ID. The larger one seems barely 3/4".

My Fisch mortise chisels measure at 5/8" (.625") exactly, so there is no way that the chisels will fit in the bushing.

Did they accidentally send me the wrong sized (metric) bushing?

[Alan Lightstone]

Does anyone own one of these, and is able to measure the ID of the 5/8" bushing?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Alan,

Have you contacted PM service?

[Alan Lightstone]

I did, Ken. They seemed clueless at first - I had to argue with them for a while that the machine comes with a 5/8" bushing - then the light bulb went off. They are sending me a new bushing.

I'm still curious as to what the dimensions are in a correctly dimensioned bushing. In other words, how much slop is built in to the bushing over 5/8"?

[Shawn Pixley]

My bushing was a hair under 5/8". My chisel was also a hair under 5/8". The dimensions could be off slightly due to the position I measured in. (I didn't take the bushing out to ensure squareness of the measure). Mine works just fine. Hope you get yours fixed with the new bushing.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Alan, I have the General International mortiser with a 5/8" and 3/4" bushing. I would be happy to measure them but they aren't the same brand so it might be a meaningless comparison.

[Alan Lightstone]

Perhaps, Ken, but many companies make the mortise chisels, so I'm just looking to see what tolerance works acceptably. The Fisch chisels seem to be bang on 0.375 OD.

Thanks, Ken.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I'm going to the shop right now so I will measure my bushings and post back here Alan.

Alan.....both of the bushings measured 0.002" oversize. The 5/8" bushing measured 0.627" and the 3/4" bushing measured 0.752"

[Alan Lightstone]

Thanks. Certainly a lot more useful than mine at .605. :eek:

[Alan Lightstone]

Just to follow up, and give some kudos to Powermatic.

They did send a replacement bushing that measured 0.002 oversized which fits my Fisch chisels wonderfully. As promised, it was postmarked the day of my call to them.

Must have been a rough Monday morning for the guy who machined the one that came with my machine that was no where near the correct size.

Anyway, nice customer service. Now I can't wait to try out the machine.