Plans to convert a regular hollow chisel mortiser to x-y table?

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I’m not sure if it’s possible, or even financially practical: years ago I bought o General International hollow chisel Mortimer for a big job I needed to do. I don’t use it much these days, but when I need it, it’s there.
The issue is that it doesn’t have the sliding L-R table, only the front and back adjustment.
Shopnotes had a plan to modify it using a sliding base, but it makes it too unwieldy for my flip top cart. Has anyone seen or modified their unit for the 3 dimensional adjustments?
I know the arguments; sell it and get a domino, sell it and get a pre-made unit, and yes, they’re valid, but I already own it and upgrading to even the 500 is over $1000.00 Canadian.
Thoughts?

[Tom Dixon]

A couple years ago I built an XY Table for my Nova Voyager using Ball Screws. It sounds like all you really need is the x axis since you already have y axis movement. You might be able to adapt what I did by robbing some ideas from my plan for my Totally Insane, Ridiculously Over Engineered, X-Y T-Track DRO Drill Press Table (http://www.teetomterrific.com/downloads/xytable/XY_TableBuildNotes.pdf). It includes a link to my Sketchup drawings for the table as well as parts lists and where I purchased stuff. You should be able to build an x axis only table for a fraction of what my monstrosity cost.

[Bill Carey]

A couple years ago I built an XY Table for my Nova Voyager using Ball Screws. It sounds like all you really need is the x axis since you already have y axis movement. You might be able to adapt what I did by robbing some ideas from my plan for my Totally Insane, Ridiculously Over Engineered, X-Y T-Track DRO Drill Press Table (http://www.teetomterrific.com/downloads/xytable/XY_TableBuildNotes.pdf). It includes a link to my Sketchup drawings for the table as well as parts lists and where I purchased stuff. You should be able to build an x axis only table for a fraction of what my monstrosity cost.

You have very aptly named your drill press table, but it is a thing of beauty indeed. Can't wait to see your improved mouse trap. :D

[Pat Rice]

Wow Tom, that is a very nice Totally Insane, Ridiculously Over Engineered, X-Y T-Track DRO drill press table, love it ��

[Mark Carlson]

I use an x-y vise on my jet mortiser. Allows for left right, front back adjustment. I sometimes use it also on my drill press. I might be misunderstanding your question.

[Frederick Skelly]

Aaron, Im not familiar with the Shopsmith plan. But I have seen some videos where you buy a harbor freight type XY vise and make a couple basic mods to use it on a mortiser. I dont know if that works with your flip top cart. But it might be worth a little googling.

Hope it helps. Good luck.
Fred

[Bill Dufour]

I have seen Bridgeport and clone vertical milling machines bases for sale with no head. Under $500 with manual xyz. table motion. Would not be hard to mount a drill press head onto them if you do not need tilt or nod.
Bill D

saw this on vancove rClist

https://whistler.craigslist.org/tls/d/north-island-cnc-bridgeport-milling/7323466659.html

[William Hodge]

I’m not sure if it’s possible, or even financially practical: years ago I bought o General International hollow chisel Mortimer for a big job I needed to do. I don’t use it much these days, but when I need it, it’s there.
The issue is that it doesn’t have the sliding L-R table, only the front and back adjustment.
Shopnotes had a plan to modify it using a sliding base, but it makes it too unwieldy for my flip top cart. Has anyone seen or modified their unit for the 3 dimensional adjustments?
I know the arguments; sell it and get a domino, sell it and get a pre-made unit, and yes, they’re valid, but I already own it and upgrading to even the 500 is over $1000.00 Canadian.
Thoughts?


What are you trying to do that you can't do now?
I have one of those mortisers.

[Jim Allen]

I purchased an x-y vise from HF many years ago, it has served me well on my drill press.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

William I’m trying to be able to clamp a piece of wood onto the table and set the fore/aft depth for a mortise and then not loosen it in order to go left-right and complete the mortise

[Keegan Shields]

I would recommend just making a standard set of shims to control the front/back motion. Unclamp your work piece, slide a 1/4" space between it and the fence, and re clamp it.

Should be accurate if your mortiser has stops to position the left/right placement. Adding an XY table might not be worth the squeeze. I'd rather spend my time making furniture as opposed to fabricating several versions of an XY table (it usually take me three attempts to make something acceptable :mad:).

But lots of people enjoy the fabrication aspect and maybe you do too. I will have a PM 714T for sale in a few weeks if you want to drive to Texas.

[Michael Drew]

A couple years ago I built an XY Table for my Nova Voyager using Ball Screws. It sounds like all you really need is the x axis since you already have y axis movement. You might be able to adapt what I did by robbing some ideas from my plan for my Totally Insane, Ridiculously Over Engineered, X-Y T-Track DRO Drill Press Table (http://www.teetomterrific.com/downloads/xytable/XY_TableBuildNotes.pdf). It includes a link to my Sketchup drawings for the table as well as parts lists and where I purchased stuff. You should be able to build an x axis only table for a fraction of what my monstrosity cost.

Damn......way cool. I kinda want to build that, just to say I did it.

[Alex Zeller]

I agree with Jim. If you have enough height (or if you could add a block) you could get a cheap X Y table for a drill press and modify it to work. It should be possible to find one that you can remove the Y adjustment to lower the height. It would require plenty of work though as you would need to modify the clamping system most likely and extend the fence.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

Keegan I could possibly get to Texas but I have 2 issues; will your mortise fit on the back of my Harley (the truck isn’t insured for the summer) and secondly, while the border is open going south, we’re still closed for coming back north.
Hmm. Probably not. Thanks anyway.

[Stan Calow]

Like Jim, I bought an X-Y vise from Harbor Freight to modify my mortiser. The trouble was, it was so tall, I needed to either use 2+ risers (eReplacementparts.com) which made it a bit unstable. Or remove the base, and come up with a different way to support and mount the mortiser. I ended up doing neither, and put it on the back burner. But its doable. Without an X-Y vise, the fence alignment, mounting and clamping process on my mortiser was unreliable.

[Edward Weber]

I would suggest doing a google search for "milling table"
They can be had pretty cheap depending on the travel and so on.