Bench Top Mortiser???

[Dan Lyman]

I know it's been discussed many timesa nd I have read through all the old posts that I could find. Are bench top mortisers worth it? Seems like mixed reviews.

I was saving up for an FMT, but due to the untimely death of my 20+ year old Black & Decker jig saw, I had to get a new on thus depleting the funds available for the FMT. The new Bosch jigsaw kicks butt by the way. The old one was a real piece of junk.

I don't want to buy a tool that I will not be pleased with, or that I'll look at each mortise and be disappointed. Oh yeah, I'd rather not have to clean up the mortises extensively either, though a little bit is ok.

I'm looking at the nicer Delta and the General Int. (non-tilting head). I have the funds available for either now.

So, wait a long while on the FMT, or go with a bench top mortiser now? If they work as advertised, I'll probably take the plunge now :)

Thanks

Dan

[Larry D. Wagner]

Dan,

I personally have a Craftsman mortiser and have been more than happy wtih it. It for me, is an occasional use tool, but I use it frequently enough to justify having it. Unless you are going to be doing mortises regularly, I think the choices you have made would be more than adequate. By the way my unit runs at 1750 RPM and if I did have it to do over, probably would buy one that ran at 3450. Just my .02 worth.

Larry:) :) :)

[John Miliunas]

Dan, I think your decision may easier be based on how much you think you'll use the tool in question. While I don't have the FMT, I've heard nothing but rave reviews on it. Personally, I have the higher end Delta, which does a fine job for me. :) But, getting back to the "use" question. My take on it is this: If you plan on doing a LOT of M/T's, then the FMT may be the hot tip, as it's much quicker than the Delta or similar. The only caveat, which I can see with it is, if you intend on through-type mortises, they will have rounded edges, as opposed to the traditional square edges. OTOH, if you intend on more occasional use, I think the Delta or General would serve you well. Just my $00.1 (Hey, I'm cheap!) :) :cool:

[Mike Cutler]

Dan.

I think it depends on exactly what you forsee yourself doing.
If I'm not the mistaken, the FMT does quite a bit more than a simple mortiser. I'm not sure that a comparison of an FMT to a benchtop mortiser is applicable.

I have the Delta 14-651 benchtop mortiser. It does what it is supposed to do. One of my original reasons for picking the Delta was the increased fence height, which after the first project became a non issue because I installed an XY table on the mortiser. Moving that holdown was tedious. I didn't think that I needed a tilting head, but wouldn't you know, the second project required a lot of through mortises at 16 deg. angles.:rolleyes:
The chisels that came with the Delta are OK, but I hear that the Clico's and Fisch's are better chisels.
I broke the handle on the Delta doing deep mortises in Jatoba. The engagement mechanism is a cast piece, and it broke. It took a week to get a new one from Delta.
If I was looking to do just plain jane Mortises for "traditional" M&T joints, and not all of the fancier stuff that the FMT can do, in retrospect, I should have bought the Powermatic floor standing unit with the tilting head like my wife told me to do at the time.:eek: It's about the same cost as the FMT.
Good luck in your decision. Tool choices can be tough sometimes

[Jim Goldrick]

Have you considered a horizontal router table?

http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/orderstatus/html/smarthtml/pages/horiztabl.html

Not sure exactly what you want, just thought I would throw this out.

HTH

[Mike Henderson]

Another option is the Grizzley G0540 which people have used as a horizontal slot mortiser.

The slot mortiser is ying to the hollow chisel mortiser's yang. With the slot mortiser, it 's easy to cut mortises into the side of things. Making the mortises on chairs, for example, is easy with a slot mortiser. But when you want to do a mortise on a large surface, like a through mortise on the side of an Arts-and-Crafts chest, the chisel mortiser is easier to use. On most slot mortisers, it's difficult to cut mortises at an angle.

So it depends on what you will be doing. I prefer a slot mortiser because I do more chair work than mortises on large surfaces - and when I do need to cut a mortise on a large surface, I drill a hole at each end of the mortise and then use a chisel to clean out the space between.

Also, the slot mortiser makes a very clean mortise compared to the hollow chisel mortiser.

Mike

[Steve Clardy]

I have the Jet. Nice machine.

[Joe Unni]

I too have the Jet...love it!

-joe

[Jim Benante]

Anyone have the Woodtek 1 hp? Seems to be the most machine for the money. Wondering if anyone can provide comments on it?

[willie sobat]

I have the Powermatic 719A (non-tilting). I bought it 2 years ago. I love it. The one task I used to dread more than all others was mortising. I had a drill press mortiser. It was worthless to the point I just used the drill press without it and then cleaned the mortises by hand. If you had a lot to do it was a tedious to say the least. Now, I barely give any thought to the process. The tilting head wasn't available when I bought mine or I probably would have gotten it. However, I haven't done any angled mortises since I got it. Hope this helps.

[Jerry Olexa]

I have the Jet. Works fine..

[Jim DeLaney]

Mine's the Delta. 1725 rpm. Works fine.

[Scott Vigder]

I have the General International benchtop model. The tilting version was a $170 premium and for tables and chairs I could not justify the cost difference. I originally bought the Fisch but returned it because the fence was too clumsy.

[Dan Lyman]

Thanks for the feedback.. I have been acquiring tools slowly and have tried to get good bang for the buck. I definitely like to purchase with longevity in mind, but there are some tools that one can "compromise" on. While I'd like the FMT or something comprable, I'm sure I don't need it. At least not yet, so after reevaluation of finances, I'd like to get something useful now.

Larry,
Seems you think the this type of mortisers are adequate. What would the faster speed do for you? I have read that the slower speed is actually an advantage in less burning. Appreciate any further insight on that.

John,
My intent is to do more furniture projects, chests, tables, chairs and more, in different styles. Last project was a hall table and I used biscuites to join the aprons to the legs. Not sure if that would be strong enough, but I figured I'd give it a try. Would have prefered to have used M&T. I plan to use whatever jig quite a lot. but I am a weekend warrior with 2 little kids, so while I may do M&T for in a large percentage of my work, the volume of my work at this point is more af a steady trickle. Maybe the FMT is overkill at this point. Certainly overkill on the budget.

Mike,
So at this point, you would consider the floor standing PM over the FMT? That's interesting.

Jim,
I had not seen that before. I will have to think about that and see if that would fit the bill. May take some head scratchin'.

Mike,
Seems like a drill press on it's side. How easy is it to get lined up accurately? I forsee doing larger projects like you mention, so I'll have to thnk about the application on thisone.

Willie,
That looks like a nice unit. Glad you enjoy it. Unortunately I'm trying to keep the cost down and hear you are tempting me higher.


Thanks.

[Marcus Ward]

http://www.f-64.org/repost.jpg

[john mclane]

I'm a slow amateur woodworker and have the Shopfox. So far I have found a use for it in most every project I have done since I bought it when before I would have skipped a M&T or a project that needed them.

[Mike Cutler]

Thanks for the feedback.. I have been acquiring tools slowly and have tried to get good bang for the buck. I definitely like to purchase with longevity in mind, but there are some tools that one can "compromise" on. While I'd like the FMT or something comprable, I'm sure I don't need it. At least not yet, so after reevaluation of finances, I'd like to get something useful now.


Mike,
So at this point, you would consider the floor standing PM over the FMT? That's interesting.

Thanks.

Dan. Don't get me wrong about the FMT. I've seen one in use and have their instruction video, the FMT is a high quality piece of equipment. I think the only comparison, or competition for it in making such a wide variety of M&T joints is the WoodRat.
I'm a "Plain Jane" type of guy when it comes to M&T joints. I learned to make them with a brace and a chisel in 1971. Spent countless hours learning to size them,get the mortise square, and matching the tenon to the mortise. It's just what I know. Even with a dedicated mortiser, I still find myself tuning them by hand. For me, the PM 719, tilting or not tilting would be a more comfortable solution than the FMT for traditional integrated M&T joints.
One thing to consider, that caused me to pass on the Powermatic is floor space. I have a limited amount of it, and the bench top mortiser is a better "fit" for me.

[George Kretschmann]

I have a cheap benchtop, nameless, I picked up a an Armory sale one day. It is pretty bad!!! I think I would prefer a Powermatic stand alone they look like it would do a good job.

[Dan Lyman]

Thanks John,
Sounds like you are happy with the Shop fox.

Mike,
Good info, I like the powermatic for the cool factor if nothing else. I too will need to stick with a bench top model.


Ahh, Come on now Marcus, probably 50% of posts have already been covered at some point. I tried to make it a bit more than just which one to go with but maybe that didn't across well.

Anyway, I was already leaning towards the mortiser route and was looking for info on weather or not they performed as advertised. Seems there was some difference of opinion in the threads i have gone through.

I think I'll go ahead and pick one up and give it a try. Then I'll know for sure how good they are.

Thanks to All

Dan

[John Tarro]

I bought a bench-top some years ago. Great machine, worked quite well. For the last four years it has gathered dust.

Four years ago I needed to put 150 +/- mortises for spindles for a bed . . The rails were too high to fit under the chisel on the mortiser so I (remembering the "atachment" that came with my JET drill press) decided to do them with a compound vice on the drill press. It worked so well that I dedicated the drill press to mortising and bought another drill press.

I have done some of the cuts on my router table but the majority are done on the drill press. Can't hardly beat it.

If you use a compound vice to hold the stock, make sure the travel in the lateral motion is great enough. Will send a picture later.

[Julio Navarro]

There was a comparison review in Fine Woodworking comparing some bench top mortisers.

HF sells the Reliant which scorred the worst, Multico rated best over all,

Here are a couple of links of the articles:
http://www.pulterfi.com/images/mortiser01.pdf
http://www.pulterfi.com/images/mortiser02.pdf