Mortising Machine

[harry strasil]

Well, this is what my portable one looks like. What's yours look like.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/scissorsmortiser.jpg

[Alan DuBoff]

Well, this is what my portable one looks like. What's yours look like.Well, I don't have a picture, but I can take one...mine looks a lot like a chisel, in fact mine is a chisel!;)

That's a way cool galoot tool. There's a guy near me that has an old mortising machine, that is made out of steel, and has a foot pedal to stamp the chisel into the wood.

I was using it on some hardwood, it wasn't too hard, but it wasn't too easy either and did require quite a bit of effort as I recall.

Is yours difficult in hardwoods, or is that more dependent on the sharpness of the chisel?

His chisel looked very similar to a modern hollow mortise chisel, just didn't have a bit on the inside.

[harry strasil]

Alan, my scissors mortiser is a bench top copy of a big one I saw on the Woodwrights shop visit to Upper Canada Workshop.

I have one of those foot operated ones also. On both of mine the chisels are made similar to a hand mortising chisel and they work better in hardwoods than softwoods, but you have to be careful how much you attempt to cut.

If a mortise is started at the end of a board no starting hole is necessary, but if the mortice is to be somewhere in the middle, a starting hole is necessary and then you cut both ways from center to a line.