Delta dp mortise jig

[Brian Keith]

I just bought a drill press mortising jig from Delta, does anyone have this or have used one? I dont do alot of mortising nor do I have room for a dedicated machine. Will I regret buying this?

[Joe Mioux]

I just bought a drill press mortising jig from Delta, does anyone have this or have used one? I dont do alot of mortising nor do I have room for a dedicated machine. Will I regret buying this?

Probably, but join the club.

[Tom Grice]

In my experience my Delta mortising jig on my Delta 17-900 will do a good job. But they take more time to set up and there are a few tricks to getting it to work well. They can also work very poorly if not set up well.

A dedicated machine is hands down easier and will do a more consistant job with a lot less messing around.

You will find most people are in favor of the dedicated machine and don't like the mortising jigs for a DP. Time savings is a big factor in favor of the machines.

[Greg Cole]

I bought one well over a year ago. I think I used it 3 times and decided to hang it on the wall of shame (where things I dislike go to reside for a reminder to be a little more prudent with purchases at least this one way cheap!). I have much better success chopping mine the good old fashoined way, wooden mallet and a motrise chisel. By the time I got the Delta jig installed, set up and aligned correctly I can chop a couple of mortises by hand. As long as I don't have to chop 50 mortises in a day.....

[frank shic]

brian, you can always return it and save the money towards a festool domino. you'll free up your drill press and it won't take you as long to set up!

[Greg Caputo]

Brian:

I'm gonna buck the trend a little here. I don't think you'll "regret" the purchase, although you may decide eventually to get a dedicated mortiser if your space, budget, and projects allow. I bought the Delta DP mortise attachment several years ago. I found that with a little practice and patience it worked quite well for the projects I was doing then. It certainly takes a longer to use because of the set-up required etc. But the price was right and, since the shop space was tight, I didn't really have the room for the dedicated machine anyway. Over the years, my projects have changed a bit, and I've moved into a new house with more workshop space, so I've upgraded to the dedicated machine. Obviously, I'm not using the DP attachment any longer. but the chisels and bits are the same, so I'm able to use those. And I feel that I learned a lot of "how-to's" that are now useful by using the DP attachment for a few years.

Greg

[Rod Sheridan]

Brian, I had one about 10 years ago. It worked OK, sortof, in a round about way.

pretty poor reccomendation, wasn't that?

It was time consuming to setup, and you needed a fence/clamping system. I know, nothing you cannot do, as I did.

However, the mechanical advantage of a mortiser is far higher than a drill press, since a drill press was never designed to push a chisel through wood. I found that with white oak, a 1/2 mortice was beyond my ability to arm wrestle the drill press lever. (Yes, I do know how to sharpen augers and chisels).

A mortiser doesn't have that problem as the handle is about three times the length of the handle on my drill press. Couple that with always being setup, having a nice cast iron fence and vise (I have the GI unit), I gave away my drill press attachment.

Not to indicate that you might not be happy with it, however I wasn't...Rod.

[Kyle Kraft]

Brian,
I have a mortising attachment for my Jet DP and I can have mine set up and running in ~20 minutes. It works fine for the few M & T jobs that I run into and for me (at this time) it does the job well. If I had all the money in the world I would certainly buy a dedicated mortiser just to ensure my DP would be open when I need it.

But for now I will remain in the minority.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

As you, I don't do a lot of mortises. I found the drill press attachment to be fine. I also have a small shop and am not willing to dedicate any space for it either.

-Jeff :)

[Brian Keith]

Thanks for all of the replies. I have yet to even open the box, waiting to hear peoples response on here.