Delta mortiser 14-651 trouble

[Christopher Haag]

I'm doing some long mortises in oak and I'm noticing that as I pull the handle, there are times when the head is not lowering. Opening the metal door on the front of the unit, I can see that sure enough, the large round gear on the handle shaft is not turning as the handle is pulled. Something's not right between the handle and that gear.

I'm pulling on it fairly hard but I just sharpened the 3/8 " chisel. At times it goes like a hot knife through butter. Other times it takes quite a tug.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Chris

[Doug Shepard]

It's been a while since I sold my mortiser but there's a cogged setup on the handle that lets you position the handle in various orientations. Is the handle actually slipping from one position to the other without turning the gear? If that's it, I think there's a screw adjustment that sets how tight the handle positioning spring holds on.
Also look close for any cracks in the housing especially back by the dovetail way. Had to replace mine at one point. If you've got that problem, there could be a number of different symptoms showing up.
The only other obvious thing I can think of is if the depth stop rod has slipped down unnoticed and stopped you from going any further. Had that happen a couple of times.

[Bruce Wrenn]

The gear is fastened to the shaft in one of three manners. Either it is keyed, and key broke, it is fastened with a roll pin which either broke, or worked it's
way out, or it is retained with a set screw that has come loose. Could be a combination of all three. Keyed would be my first choice.

[Lance Norris]

I pulled the handle out one time to reposition it and pulled the handle completely out. There was no roll pin ever installed. After fighting with it for several hours, trying to reassemble the whole thing, I finally got it back together. Just another example of Deltas fine off shore manufacturing. I just dont try to change positions with the handle anymore, and if I do, Im very careful. I'll bet your never had a roll pin either.

[Christopher Haag]

The problem was a shattered pin in the gear that the handle attaches to. Once I alinged things again, the splinters fell right out, sort of... when I looked, they were all stuck to the little magnet that holds the door open.

That pin was not desinged to handle the forces applied by that long handle.

Thanks for the help guys!

[John Bush]

Same thing happened to me, with the additional failure of the gear. Three teeth on the gear had fractured as well as the roll pin. Replacement parts were in hand within five days and the repair was fairly simple. It seemed as if I was always reefing on the handle a bit agressively but that was the first malfunction of a relatively low end machine that I've gotten lots of use out of.