My first taste of mustard! (Gloat)

[John Kain]

Well, after being backordered for 2 months, she finally found her way here.

This was an amazon.com special, though not the best deal they've ever offered. I got her for $268. Chisel and bit set is on its way from Lee Valley. Chisel sharpener on its way from Rockler.

It came with only a small defect on the plastic bit rest as shown in the 3rd pic. Not a big deal from my point of view.

I'll try to post some pics of it in action with the chisels after factory sharpening and then after I sharpen the chisels. I'm guessing there will be a good difference. We'll see.

Anyway, this thing is a monster and it's HEAVY!

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[Craig Zettle]

Is that the 3/4 HP model? What a deal! It looks to me like you stole that baby.
Hope you like it!

[John Kain]

Is that the 3/4 HP model? What a deal! It looks to me like you stole that baby.
Hope you like it!

Damn right, fully loaded 3/4 HP.

Just learned my chisels are backordered. That's a low-blow about right now.

[Pete Brown]

Try the Lee Valley chisels. I have the same mortiser and have considered non-powermatic chisels. I don't have them yet, but they were recommended to me here.

Also, does your hold-down tighten down evenly? Mine pinches on one side and is loose on the other. Similarly, my two rollers that hold the work to the fence are out of round, so they hold unevenly.

I'm seriously considering a retrofit with an X/Y table as the mortising head is good.

Pete

[Frank Snyder]

Very nice! I think that is one of the nicer benchtop models out there.

You think your mortiser is heavy? I had to disassemble my 600 lbs. PM720HD to move it.

[Corey Hallagan]

Congrats on the new tool!

corey

[John Kain]

Try the Lee Valley chisels. I have the same mortiser and have considered non-powermatic chisels. I don't have them yet, but they were recommended to me here.

Also, does your hold-down tighten down evenly? Mine pinches on one side and is loose on the other. Similarly, my two rollers that hold the work to the fence are out of round, so they hold unevenly.

I'm seriously considering a retrofit with an X/Y table as the mortising head is good.

Pete

My LV chisels are on back-order.

My rollers are OK, I think you could easily go buy replacement wheels and install them. I can't test how level the machine is since I have no chisels.

I'm also very happy with how quiet the machine is.

[John Kain]

Congrats on the new tool!

corey
What's the CB, Iowa? Council Bluffs? Cedar Bluffs?

[Don Bullock]

Congratulations on your new mortiser. Once all the bits come in let us know how well it works.

[John Kain]

Here's the follow-up I promised on the Mortiser.

I received the set of chisels from Lee Valley. Made in Japan, sharp as heck. I figured I've give them a run without any sharpening.

A couple pics of the spacers than come with the machine to help with auger depth adjustment. They work very well.

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Here's a pic of the chisel and bit installed. No need for the bit extender as the LV chisels/augers are full length. The chisel is easily squared to the wood using a parallel board.

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Here's my first attempt at a 1/2" mortise in yellow pine. I think it looks darn good. Easy to pull the chisel through the wood. I've decided not to sharpen the chisels now as I think they came razor sharp looking at the finished mortise. No splintering in the soft pine noted. The last pic shows the bottom of the mortiser after, literally, 6 seconds with a manual chisel cleaning up the very bottom of the mortise.

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[David Wambolt]

Looks nice. I'd email Amazon in the refunds department and ask for a partial credit to cover the damage or have them source a replacement part. I bet you'd get another $30-$50 off. Your items should be in new and not damaged condition. Amazon has credited me several times when larger equipment arrives blemished (but works).

[Pete Brown]

Your mortises look good. How is your hold-down? Does it tighten evenly without racking?

Woodwork just did an article (several actually) on mortises. In one of them, they compared a bunch of different chisels. The Lee Valley ones were one of the sharpest out of the box.

Most (but not all) of the others did fairly well after some sharpening, despite a sometimes 10x difference in price.

Pete

[John Kain]

Your mortises look good. How is your hold-down? Does it tighten evenly without racking?

Woodwork just did an article (several actually) on mortises. In one of them, they compared a bunch of different chisels. The Lee Valley ones were one of the sharpest out of the box.

Most (but not all) of the others did fairly well after some sharpening, despite a sometimes 10x difference in price.

Pete

I gotta tell you, the hold down is fantastic. The "U" vertical hold down is fine, but the wheels for holding the piece up against the fence are perfect. The piece only moves when I want it too. Everything seems well tuned with very little effort.

Great machine so far. I must admit, after reading a couple of threads on here about Powermatic's decline, I was worried. But this machine is everything I could ask for.

The LV chisels really aren't too expensive. $105 for 4 of them.

[Don Bullock]

That mortise looks mighty fine. Thanks for the input on the Lee Valley mortise bits.

[John Heitz]

I ordered mine two weeks ago from the local outfit. Ordered the LV chisels, I'm anxious to get er set up and going. Did it come with a sharpening cone? I thought that I read that it did?

[John Kain]

I ordered mine two weeks ago from the local outfit. Ordered the LV chisels, I'm anxious to get er set up and going. Did it come with a sharpening cone? I thought that I read that it did?
It comes with a very course grit cone. I chose for the Rockler, which comes with a course and fine grit + a handle. Haven't needed to use it so far. I noted the guys at FWW chose it to demonstrate their technique for chisel sharpening, so I figured it would be good enough for me.

[John Heitz]

Lv had a cone set. Wonder how it compares?