I have had a Delta bench top mortiser for years and finally decided that I wanted something more substantial. I looked at General, Powermatic, and Grizzly. I already have a large Grizzly jointer, planer, and bandsaw so was predisposed to Grizzly but wanted to keep my options open. I have no experience with powermatic but I've heard stories of poor customer service. The General gets great reviews but I also had no experience with it. An added consideration is that my shop is in a very rural area of northern CA and arranging a freight delivery and the help to move a machine is sometimes a logistics headache. The delivery of the other Grizzly machines was smooth and the freight drivers very accommodating.
I ended up getting the Grizzly G0448 Heavy Duty Mortiser and stand. Setup was easy and the only thing I needed to adjust was the tilt of the head since it was slightly off vertical. This took minutes by zeroing a Wixley angle gauge on the mortiser bed then attaching it to a mortising chisel mounted on the head. (I know my Wixley is accurate at 0-90 since I checked it perviously.)
Note that the Delta mortising chisels will NOT work in this mortiser since the shanks are too short.
My first use of the mortiser was to cut 20 mortises for the sides of a Greene and Greene style crib for my soon-to-arrive granddaughter. Adjusting the table was much, much easier than on the Delta. The longitudinal table movement allowed me to cut several mortises before repositioning the workpiece. Getting the chisel centered was easy with the fine front/back table movement. The depth stop is easy to use and fast to adjust.
The only drawback is that the hold down clamp doesn't extend far enough to hold any piece less than about 2" thick. I solved this by drilling and tapping the front of the hold down and adding a wood face. (I probably would have done this anyway.)
After cutting 20 mortisers, I can say that this machine is exactly what I was hoping for. I was concerned that I would have to bolt it to the floor but it wasn't necessary. It is rock solid and feels very well built.
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