How stiff is your bench mortiser?

[Jeremy Gibson]

Today I took delivery of a second Delta 14-651 benchtop mortiser. The first arrived with a broken cast iron motor mount, but Amazon was quick to pay for return shipping while they sent a new unit 2nd day air. This one works just fine. My question is about how stiff the lever should be. I was expecting it to move up and down (without borring through wood) similar to a drill press. While I wouldn't say I have to lean into it just to move it, it does take some effort to move it up and down (or down and up as the case may be). Is this normal? Will it loosen up over time? Should I adjust the dovetail mount?

Attached is the obligitory picture for the police as well as two other items I recieved (hidden gloat). A Woodpecker plungelift for my Hitachi M12V and a 6-piece Marples/Irwin chisel set.

[Mike Cutler]

Jeremy. I have the same mortiser, and wondered the same thing when it was new.
If you look at the rack in the back you will notice that it has some adjustment of the "ways", for lack of a better expression. I fiddled with mine a bit, and ended up resetting everything to the way it came out of the box. If you loosen it for a smoother action, It may cause the mortising chisel to be allowed to move. It loosen's up a bit when used.

If you think it takes some force now, wait until you use it on some nice hardwood. It's gonna take a little "butt" to operate.

Sharpen your chisels really well, and be sure to hone the backside of the chisel. All of the drill bits I got with the machine had a burr that needed to be removed for the twist drill to work better. Something to check for.

It's a nice machine, very functional.
Nice gloat. I like the marples chisels.

[Chris Dodge]

I got the same chisels as a gift when I started woodworking about thirteen years ago. I thought I would quickly replace them with some better quality chisels but they are still my primary chisels. Pretty good quality...especially for the price. They just need to be sharpened and honed real nice and they will stay nice for a long time.

[Marty Baucom]

Jeremy when I got my mortiser it was just as you described. Here is what I did to smooth things up. If you will notice the motor slides up and down on a dovetail that is adjusted on the right side by a brass block. If you take the brass block off the head will come off the main assembly. Be very careful doing this, the motor is pretty heavy and it can get away from you. After you remove the motor you will notice the dovetail way on the main support. The gears that are mounted on this can be removed, remove them. If yours is like mine the machining on the main support that the motor rides is as rough as a cobb. Clean all the gook and grease off the parts. I took a file and cleaned the machining marks up the best I could and worked my way down with different files to a fairly decent finish. Be patient doing this so to keep that surface flat. There may be some rough machining on the motor side as well that can be cleaned up. Once I did this I lubed it up with some lithium grease and reassembled it and it worked much smoother. It will take some time adjusting the brass adjustment block that is one half of the dovetail to get the best balance of tension and slop. This is what I did and hope it works for you too. Just remember this is not the best quality cast metal and it can be removed fairly fast with good files.

[Jim Becker]

My Jet operates the same way...unlike a DP, there is no "spring" to bring it back up to the top.

Nice "extra" gloats, too!!

[Jeremy Gibson]

My Jet operates the same way...unlike a DP, there is no "spring" to bring it back up to the top.

Nice "extra" gloats, too!!

I guess I should have snapped a pic of the new outfeed table too. It's your design and covered in the Formica I could find - a dark grey marble pattern. This thing is heavy but was a joy to have the first time I ripped a board longer that 15".