Has anyone else built a horizontal mortiser?

[Chris Holder]

I am interested in building a multi-router type devise (shop made horizontal mortiser with sliding tables) and am wondering if anyone else has built one of these. If so, please provide pictures. The one made on this link is pretty amazing, but the guy who made it had ready access to several sets of high quality linear bearings. I am considering using drawer slides to produce the X-Y motion of the table, but still need to develop a solution to mount and be able to fine-adjust the z axis on which the router will be mounted. Any ideas?
http://www.woodcentral.com/shots/shot390.shtml
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/FWNPDF/011141067.pdf

[Steve Perez]

Chris,

Grab yourself a copy of Bill Hylton's Woodworking with the Router. In it you will see plans for a horizontal router table with X-Y-Z motion. I think its well thought out and it works great. Also it is relatively easy to build. It uses t-track for the X-Y sliding table motion and 3/8" threaded rod for the Z-motion.

What I liked about the design is that it is not a rickety-rackety design. Second, most of the materials are readily available. The only thing that had to be ordered was a special solid T-nut (cost only a couple of dollars). Well that and the mini-t-track which was always sold out locally.

It excels with typical furniture & cabinet sized components. The sliding tables may resist with components of considerable heft.

[Peter Quinn]

I looked into making one, wound up buying a Laguna Platinum mortiser. Wasn't sure a home made attempt would handle 1/2" and 5/8" mortises, might work well for smaller mortises. I have seen the wood central pics before, looks like a great design. Perhaps you can contact the maker for his proffered CAD plans.

If you look closely in the back ground of the first pic in that article you can see a bridgeport in the right hand background. My question is do you need a bridgeport to make one, and what exactly does a person with a bridgeport need a shop made multi router for? I have always wondered about that one.

[Dewey Torres]

I will second Steve's idea for the Bill Hilton book. It is at the very least worth a trip to Barnes and Noble to check it out for free.

When it comes to router genius it is hard to beat Bill's findings in many cases.

[Chris Holder]

Thanks Steve and Dewey, I'll definitely check out that book.

Peter, I wondered about many of those questions myself...but mainly, where did this guy get $500 worth of bearings that he could put in a jig? HAHA I tried emailing the guy, but his website and email address are no longer available.

Does anyone know of a good source for linear bearings that might be more affordable? I am thinking used is my best bet. If I could get rods and bearings for less than $150, I would probably spend the money.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Yah.
I used the Triton Big dog because the whole assembly works like a quill which I can feed.
To which I mounted an X-Y milling table like what Griz sells for about $100.00 VIA extra heavy Iron Angle that I cut and bolted together.


I can move the router up and down vertically as well as tilt at angles for things like chair making.

I removed the crank handles and lead screws from the milling table and installed my own set of lever type handles like you will see on most slot mortisers.

I use the T slots in the milling table to clamp work and jigging. I made my own T nuts from 3/8" thick steel bar stock that just fits in the slot.

Of course the whole project requires that you have some Taps and tap drills so you will likely need to buy them. You will need 3/8-16 and 1/4-20 taps. Don't get the crappy ones they sell at car parts stores.

Now I have a variable speed tilt head slot mortiser that is absolutely flawless repeatable and deadly precise. I've made parts in that thing with tolerances of less than 0.005" with repeatable precision.

For mortising cutters I use Whiteside's 3/8" stagger tooth cutter. It's long enough to get me in plenty deep.

[Jim Kountz]

I made this one a few years ago.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=6677&highlight=horizontal

[Joe Spackle]

http://www.arbolloco.com/bcs/multirouter/images/mortiser_8_27_001.jpg

Like this?

I got all my linear bearings on ebay. took a little effort and some time but I only have about $125.00 in the bearings and rods. this was about 6 yrs ago so who knows what prices are now.

the rest of the pics are here.


http://www.arbolloco.com/bcs/showpage.php?page=multirouter
.

[Jim Kountz]

Joe, so there are 6 rods w/bearings altogether? Four for the X,Y table movement and two more for the Z axis or depth of cut adjustment?

[Greg Hines, MD]

In one of the old issues of either Shopnotes or Woodsmith, they make one, using heavy duty drawer glides between the tables to allow for easy movement, and stops that adjusted to limit travel.

Doc

[Andrew Joiner]

Cliff, I'm searching like made for that X-Y milling table but all I find is H7659 for $ 325.

Do you have Pics? Did you buy yours along time ago? Your idea sounds great!

[joe aiello]

I have made three so far,each more advanced than the previous.The last incarnation is three directions(x,y,z) with air cylinders for movement and one for hold down.The x does the horizontal slot, the z does the vertical slot, and the y the depth,each has its own air controller. I sometime use it as a drill - for dowels. It is made with 8020 stock and all used parts from the salvage yard,total cost $50- 75. By the way if you buy a complete(or close to) machine it is much cheaper and you get to see how things function. The next phase is to set the appropriate stops ,load the work piece and push a button. ---- joe

[william Ku]

Joe, could you post some pictures?

Sounds like an interesting setup.

I'll have some extra linear bearings, rails, and actuators from my cnc project that could be used for such a machine.

Bill

[Chip Lindley]

Anyone out there have the CAD drawings of the *HoMade* Multi Router as offered by Dan Barber? Would be much appreciated!

Concerning Thomson linear bearings, the plain bearings can be had much cheaper than buying them in their fixtures ready to mount. But precision boring might be in order. That Bridgeport would certainly come in handy then!

[Joe Spackle]

Anyone out there have the CAD drawings of the *HoMade* Multi Router as offered by Dan Barber? Would be much appreciated!

Concerning Thomson linear bearings, the plain bearings can be had much cheaper than buying them in their fixtures ready to mount. But precision boring might be in order. That Bridgeport would certainly come in handy then!

Precision boring amounted inn my case to boring the holes for the bearings through wider stock then ripping the two bearing block apart.

I mounted all my own bearings and rods in this manner and all functions are very accurate.

so to answer your question Jim yes 6 rods, 12 bearings

William: The link shows the pics I have online, PM me if you want more.

Joe

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Cliff, I'm searching like made for that X-Y milling table but all I find is H7659 for $ 325.

Do you have Pics? Did you buy yours along time ago? Your idea sounds great!

Mine is about a year old. I got my XY table on the Flea Bay for about $98.00 Grizzly had the same table for $100.00 at the time.

I got pics somewhere not good ones but, I'll look.

[Chris Holder]

Thanks Joe and Jim for the pics and notes. Cliff, thanks also for your notes. I'd love to see some pics if you have them. I have almost completed mine using drawer glides and it works fairly well. In its next iteration, I will probably spring for linear bearings.

Couple of additional questions that came to mind:
1. The mounting of my router is done with an aluminum store bought plate which I drilled the corners to attach to vertical T-track running on either side of the router. I would like to attach a fine adjustment mechanism and was considering using threaded rod tapped into a couple of aluminum squares. How did you make your vertical adjustment unit?
2. Has anyone installed dust collection? best method?
3. Does anyone have pics of the handles to move the tables? I'm not sure how to make these.

[Chris Holder]

I thought I would share a few pics on my first round attempt at this mortising table using heavy duty drawer slides. Any suggestions or comments are welcome.
I'm still debating how to make the arm assemblies, so any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks,
Chris

[Steve Perez]

Well done. Same basic concept as the one I use built per the plans previously mentioned. On mine, the router mounting plate is 1/2" MDF and it rides along a pair of vertical t-track much in the same way as yours, except mine is grooved to hug the t-track. Vertical adjustements are accomplished using 3/8" threaded rod and handle. The rod threads through one t-nut installed up top. On the lower end of the threaded rod are a lock nut, plastic washer, eye bolt, plastic washer, and lock nut. The lock nuts are tighten just enough to allow free rotation of the threaded rod through the eye bolt without any slop. The eye bolt of course is bolted to the router mounting plate.

I am not sure how rigid your alum mounting plate is but you could probably simply drill and tap it to secure the eyebolt into it. Of course thread a nut and washer on to the eyebolt first behind the plate so you can lock it in place.

Good luck and once again: nice build!

[Sparky Paessler]

See this thread for one I built several years ago.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=1572