Benchtop Mortiser?

[Jim Kappel]

I'm looking at picking up a benchtop mortiser...

Looking for insight into what you think is a good tool for the money. Planning on staying in the $200-300 range. What are your thoughts?

I'm thinking about Delta in particular. Seems to have reviewed well. What do you guys/gals think?

Others in my sights are General, Jet, Crapsman, etc. Kind of a lot of tools in the price range so insight is obviously necessary before I pull the trigger.

[Cary Falk]

Jim,
I have the Steel City and like it. I think the last time I priced bench tops most of them were above $300. If you can spend a little more then $300, Jet has $150 in rebates on a floor model. CPO Jet has it for $499 before rebate and I think I saw on another forum that delivery was $15. If you have the room That is what I would do. It is probably 2x the maching for less then $100 more. If my job was more secure, I would think about upgrading myself. I don't have any info on any of the other benchtops.
http://www.cpojettools.com/products/708589k.html

[Rick Fisher]

I would try to swing a floor standing machine. I upgraded from a benchtop and there is no comparison.

The adjustable X-Y table is fantastic.

[Dewayne Reding]

Woodcraft has the Steel City for $269 now. I suspect that is a decent price. I have the Delta and it meets my needs (usually for making small table legs). I am going to spring for some decent chisels. I think it would be very noticeable.

[Brian Penning]

I would try to swing a floor standing machine. I upgraded from a benchtop and there is no comparison.

The adjustable X-Y table is fantastic.

I upgraded to a DowelMax and there's no comparison ;)
I think my General mortiser is getting close to my "¼ inch" rule -if it has a ¼ inch of dust on it then it's time to get rid of it. lol

Seriously there some reviews herehttp://www.plansnow.com/reviewmortise.html

[Mike Cutler]

Jim

What are you looking to use it for, beyond the obvious. For example; Do you need to do angled mortises? What is the size of the material you will be primarily using?

I have the Delta 14-651, a very nice benchtop mortiser, and wouldn't ya' know the second project I used it on needed angled mortises, which the General with the tilting head would have been better suited for.

I like the fact that a benchtop can be "placed on a benchtop", and the height better suited to me. It's also very easy to adapt any number of XY vises to the mortiser, which many people have done.

The fence and hold down on the Delta are "so-so". The fence is square to the table, but that hold down clamp gets in the way, which is why I prefer an XY sliding vise.

The chisels are "OK", but nothing special. They will need to be honed and sharpened right out of the box. You'll also want to have some small diamond sharpeners for the twist drills. None of mine were sharp enough, and had to be dressed and sharpened to use.

I've used the 1/2" chisel that came with the Delta on Brazilian Cherry, which is about as hard as it gets, so it is capable of being used on harder material. I primarily have the 3/8" chisel on it. On softer domestic hardwoods the chisels do just fine.

Clearing the debris from the mortise while mortising is an absolute must. I have my mortiser plugged into my Fein vac with a inductive switch. When the mortiser turns on, the vac turns on automatically. I just bungee cord the vac hose to the mortiser and set it right at the chisel to pick up the waste.

Chisels and bits do kind of a crappy job on the bottom of the mortise,and I clean up the bottom with a mortise chisel. Even though it's not necessary. I like the bottom of the mortise cleaned up. The glue doesn't care though.;)

[Chris True]

The Delta does the job for me, used it for a kitchen trestle table + set of 6 arts and crafts style chairs which involved over 200 mortises;)

[Thomas Williams]

Since you asked about a bench top mortiser, I will assume you have ruled out larger stationary tools and portable power tools. So I would suggest that you look at the Shop Fox. I have used one for a few years and have been very pleased with its performance, and it is in your price range.

[Jim Kappel]

That previous post about the JET for $499 - $150 REBATE is seriously getting my attention!!!

[Andrew Nemeth]

Jim,

I was lucky enough to get in on one of the JET floor standing machines. I just got it put together and am still working on getting it cleaned up. I could not resist making a "test" mortise as soon as it was all together. I can not begin to tell you how much easier and it is to make repeatable accurate mortises with this set up than with any off the shelf benchtop machine I have used. If you can afford the shop space the floor standing machines are worth the little bit of extra money (assuming you find it on sale and get a rebate) just for the x-y table and face clamps they come standard with.

[Neal Clayton]

any mortiser without a face clamp is inherently insufficient in my opinion. not to mention the fact that without a sliding table aligning it for cuts will be tedious at best.

i would search ebay and craigslist until i came across a used proper mortiser.

the old non-tilt powermatic 719s come up for sale in the 400 dollar range pretty regularly, that would be infinitely better than any benchtop model. grizzly has one for less than 900 new as well.

[Jim Kappel]

Wow, my wife is amazing! I dropped the subject on her and she said, "why don't you buy it?" when I asked her about the possibility of buying the JET for $350 after the rebates.

Unless I hear some serious negative reviews for the JET in the next day, I'm thinking the leader is the JET. I have the space and for that price, basically the same price as many benchtop models, I'd be crazy not to consider it.

Right?

[Anthony Anderson]

Wow, my wife is amazing! I dropped the subject on her and she said, "why don't you buy it?" when I asked her about the possibility of buying the JET for $350 after the rebates.

Unless I hear some serious negative reviews for the JET in the next day, I'm thinking the leader is the JET. I have the space and for that price, basically the same price as many benchtop models, I'd be crazy not to consider it.

Right?

Jim, you would be crazy not to order it right now. Who knows how many of these machines are remaining. The sale on the machines have been talked about on the forums now, for at least two weeks. It seems that if I overthink these things too much, then I usually lose out. This machine allows you so many more applications, plus you can purchase a line boring head with 5 drilling bits to attach to this machine. Sure, it is not a 13 hole line boring machine, but certainly much quicker than drilling one hole at a time. The floor model mortiser also allows for X-Y table adjustment via hand crank wheels. Don't be like me, don't wait too long and then kick yourself, because you waited too long. Good Luck, Bill

[Jim Kappel]

I pulled the trigger! I'm super excited as it sounds like a pretty nice tool for the dough....

BUT it doesn't come with chisels....any recommendations? Any other accessories I should be adding now? It should arrive next Friday.

[glenn bradley]

These (http://www.woodzone.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=mortise_chisel&Category_Code=DBA) chisels do well in the tests as do the Lee Valley. Out of the cheaper variety, my CMT's dull quicker than my Grizzly's for about the same price. You'll want a good flat stone to sharpen the sides and a cone set for the inside profile.

[Cary Falk]

Any other accessories I should be adding now? It should arrive next Friday.


You will need one of these.
http://images.rockler.com/rockler/images/24727-01-200.jpg

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=11153&filter=mortise

[Derek Stevens]

Jim

What are you looking to use it for, beyond the obvious. For example; Do you need to do angled mortises? ;)I have the same Delta as "Norm" and love it though I regret not getting a Mortiser with angle ability. The cost difference versus time spent building jigs is a loss for the jig building. IMO