BT Mortiser - PM701 or General 75-050T ?

[glenn bradley]

Well, you know how you get it in your head that you GOTTA have some tool. I'm dwelling on mortisers. The General gets very high praise and has feateures like almost totally toolless adjustments. The PM has quite a nice array of features as well. Any users out there or any opinions?

I would love to have a larger unit with an XY but have not found anything worth looking at for under $1000 and I'm not going there. The PM and General are around the same $400 ballpark.

[John Hedges]

If you can spend up to 1K, I would be looking at an FMT rather than a mortiser. Much cleaner and does the mortise and tenon, which can be adjusted to a tight or loose fit easily. A much more versatile solution in my mind.

[Mike Heidrick]

I own the 701. With the exception of the chuck/key is is also tooless. It is a very high quality benchtop mortiser. I added the lee valley mortise chisel set and it is a machine. Adding the stand makes it a "big" machine minus the super nice tilting and other options the additional coin buys you.

[glenn bradley]

If you can spend up to 1K, I would be looking at an FMT rather than a mortiser. Much cleaner and does the mortise and tenon, which can be adjusted to a tight or loose fit easily. A much more versatile solution in my mind.

The FMT is sweet but as I said in the OP, $1k is something I am not going to spend; $400 - $500 is about tops. I have jigs that meet my current need, I wanted to save the chisel time. Floating tenons rounded to match the routed mortise are OK but I prefer the square ones.

I may just be barking up the wrong tree. A mortiser may not be as slick as I think it will be. I thought I needed a biscuit joiner and bought a real nice one. About a year later I sold it as I had only done about a dozen biscuits. I do mortises on almost every project so I think I'm safe on the need, just not sure of the method ;-)

The Mortise Pal looks slick but I am doing that with my shop made jigs now so, no benefit in my mind. I wonder if a mortiser is one of those things you either love or hate(?).

[glenn bradley]

Thanks Mike and John. I've seen a couple videos on the 701 and with the way the fence and holddown lock it looks like a slick setup. I wonder if I would miss the tilt of the General? I can't say as I have never had a mortiser. Do you use wedges and such if you need angled mortises? Maybe I should ask do you ever need angled mortises?

[Ben Cadotte]

I have had the 701 for a couple months now. I originally ordered the better Delta but cancelled it and switched to the PM. Very good choice in my opinion. The only thing I don't like about the PM is the base and fence come with a fairly rough surface finish (grinding). Their thinking may be that it helps for holding the material in position. But since I get humidity changes in my shop I need a surface I can treat and polish. So I took the time and put a better finish on the base and fence. Not quite totally smooth yet but getting there. Figured as I clean and treat it more in the future it will smooth out even more. But at least now I can wax and treat it, and not have to worry about left overs in hard to clean out, small ridges of metal.

[John Hedges]

I have actually owned a 701 for a few years now and as Benchtop Mortisers go it is very nice. Don't get me wrong they are nice to have when you want to slam out some quick mortises, but the resulting mortise is rather rough compared to a routed mortise (actually gives glue a better hold though from what I have heard), but because of this they do not work well for through mortises. Never used the General but the ones I have played with at Woodcraft seemed very nice, and I have always liked the build of the General tools that I have used. I just got a deal on the PM for a little over 200 at amazon a few years back so I went that route.

As far as angled mortises, I have never had the need and figured I could rig up a jig if necessary so it wasn't a deciding factor for me.

[Neal Clayton]

If you can spend up to 1K, I would be looking at an FMT rather than a mortiser. Much cleaner and does the mortise and tenon, which can be adjusted to a tight or loose fit easily. A much more versatile solution in my mind.


i agree with this wholeheartedly, and have both in my shop unfortunately. the PM701 isn't exactly what you would expect from powermatic quality wise. the one i have has about 1/4" of play in the gear shaft and you can't take it out without tightening the guides to the point of almost binding it. maybe i just got a bad one, but after using it and seeing the trouble it would take to precisely do things like door rails, it's just not worth it, i cut my losses and went with a router jig instead.

like anything else, smaller = worse. and for the price of a proper floor mounted mortise machine the FMT starts to look like a viable alternative.

and, imo, one tool to produce something is always better than two. with the mortiser you're still going from table saw/radial arm saw to mortiser, two tools is two chances for error. whereas with a router jig you've got one machine to set up.

[glenn bradley]

the one i have has about 1/4" of play in the gear shaft and you can't take it out without tightening the guides to the point of almost binding it. maybe i just got a bad one, but after using it and seeing the trouble it would take to precisely do things like door rails, it's just not worth it, i cut my losses and went with a router jig instead.

This is interesting. Neal is doing (although with the FMT) what I am doing now. Any of you 701 owners have problems too?

[Mike Heidrick]

I do not have teh gear play in my 701 at all. It is way nicer than the Delta I checked out at Berlands - and I am a huge Delta fan. I gave $225 used for mine from a buddy in Dekalb.

It is all the benchtop mortiser I will ever have. In fact I should probably sell the one I have for the shopsmith now that I think of that :o:o:o

I have not cut angled mortises yet but if I had to I would use an angled block. Here is mine on the stand. I also have the riser block for it that I have not installed yet.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, I've owned the General International mortiser since 2001 and am very happy with it.

It cuts accurately, has good leverage, a good fence and the head slides very smoothly on the dovetail ways.

I wouldn't hesitate to purchase it again (or the newer tilt head version).

It was my first purchase of a General International product, and I remain pleased by the quality of the product. (The remainder of the shop is General/Hammer/Oneida so I am fairly critical of equipment).

Regards, Rod.

[Brad Townsend]

I also have a 701 from the $220 Amazon blowout of a couple of years ago. It's a good machine. Haven't used it that much, but get good results when I do. Have also read lots of favorable comments on the Steel City one. I believe it also has table extensions on the sides, which I think would be a nice feature.

[Mike Wilkins]

I may just be barking up the wrong tree.
With a quote like that, I get the feeling you are from the South.
I originally owned the Delta benchtop mortiser,but sold it after getting the mortising attachment for my J/P machine.
I missed the mortiser for making square holes, especially for Arts & Crafts type projects, so I got the Powermatic. I originally looked at the General for its tilting feature, but the PM was a great deal, especially with the free stand they tossed in. I did'nt think I would use the tilting feature often enough to justify the higher cost. So far so good. If the coins got any longer, I might look into the heavy-duty floor standing PM machine.

[Randy Carnley]

I bought one at the show in Atlanta last January. Came with "free" stand. It's large for a "table top" tool but the few times I've used it, it has performed flawlessly.

[glenn bradley]

Well, now that I've read some posts on the Mortise Pal, maybe this is the way to go. Sorry this has become one of those threads where we just amble along trying to land. Having looked at a few mortisers, I think I would end up with a $400+ machine.

Results of my meditation:

Dedicated machine:
Pro - Solid, powerful, repeatable.
Con - takes up room.

Mortise Pal
Pro - $200, well made, I already have a plunge router, collars, etc. from my shop made jigs
Con - Range of sizes limited, (the piece I'm working on now has 2-1/2" mortises but the jig could be shifted).

I do have somewhere to put a machine on a stand. The MP is pretty interesting though. More meditation required.