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Thread: Best old iron hollow chisel mortiser?

  1. #1

    Best old iron hollow chisel mortiser?

    I'm considering a hollow chisel mortiser for my shop. Currently making mortises with a plunge router / edge guide, which is sort of fine, but it's no comparison to me against a solid chisel mortiser.

    I'm in the beginning stages of having just started my own woodworking business (small scale and supplemental at this point) but also work full time in a shop that has a Powermatic Model 400 chisel mortiser that I've used enough to know that I want a mortiser that is at least as beefy and stout as it is.

    I've considered a slot mortiser, but I really like the look and feel of square mortises and tenons, have plans for plenty of thru tenon, Arts and Crafts influenced furniture, large outdoor gates, possibly entry doors...

    Not really interested in a Domino. I've used one plenty and they are fantastic tools, but not really the way I'm looking to work for most projects.

    Beyond vintage Powermatic...what are some quality vintage makes and models of chisel mortisers (specific is good) that I should consider. I don't have a ton of space in current shop and whatever machine I eventually get will likely go on a mobile base so I can roll it into the corner when not in use.

    Thanks!

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Go over to the old tools forum OWWM and you will spend a large amount of time eye-balling more old iron than you can imagine. Maybe even find some iron for sale.

  3. #3
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    Any old iron mortiser that is complete, has the hold downs, and the collets for all the chisel sizes. Brand is less important with industrial machines than completeness. I have a Fay and Egan 509 from the late 1920s or so and it is still better than most new. You want three phase and a vfd so you can adjust the speed. 50hz seems to be the sweet spot for mine. At the high end of the automated machines is the Maka. If you do lots of mortises the Maka is pretty sweet. Dave

  4. #4
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    I have a Newman T-20 from the late 50s or early 60. It's about the same size as the PM 400 but not as common. Newman was more known for their heavy duty planers, but the mortiser is great. I use mine quite a bit.

    As mentioned upthread, go to Vintage Machinery dot Org , to to the photo index indexed by machinery type, then look at mortisers.

  5. #5
    The wysong 284 was the furniture shop standard.

    There are others, but the wysong was everywhere.

  6. #6
    I have operated that Powermatic and never really liked it- too light and not enough leverage to drive large chisels in and out easily. My neighbor has an old machine, possibly a Whitney, with a semi-automatic feed like the Wysong and that is the way to go for any kind of production- not as fast as a Maka but the next thing to it. You would need some serious casters to roll the beast around though.

  7. #7
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    The bottom line is that classic floor mount, foot feed mortisers are no longer in production, and your choices are limited to what you can find. Powermatic made two more or less identical mortisers, the model 10 and 400, and there should be a lot of them still out there. It and the Newman like I have are admittedly on the light side for heavy production work, and they generally don't like to cut anything over 3/8 to (maybe) 1/2" mortises where one of the heavier production models will go bigger (and faster if it's a semi auto machine). However, you can still do good work with a "lighter" mortiser; I just finished a run of 18 interior passage doors using my Newman.

  8. #8
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    Its hard to beat the old iron chisel mortisers. Centauro makes a nice manual chain - chisel but you are looking at over 10K new. I had a chance toy buy a Wysong auto mortiser but we already had a auto feed Maka and was looking for something easy to set up for one off low volume work. Wysong had a nice manual mortiser also and I think most of their machines had chucks instead of the bushings for the auger.

    Ended up with a Wadkin DM and happy with that except for the auger bushings. If you are changing chisel sizes a lot the bushings are a pain. I like the high end Japanese chisels better than the old Wadkin and Greenlee chisels but the problem is the augers on these are smaller than the Wadkin bushings. Probably the same problem with the US machines. I am going to have custom bushings made but in the meantime using Warrens method of tape to adjust the fit.
    The good points of the Wadkin are the large overhead lever, precise table adjustments, the large wheel for table side to side, the stop for haunched mortises nice heavy clamp and ease of setting up.

    Square pegs.jpg
    Mortise in oak euro door.jpg
    Mortised euro door.jpg
    Double hung window mortise.jpg
    Martin, Wadkin & Maka.jpg

  9. #9
    Great info. Thanks for all the response, fellas.

    I'll look out for Wysong. I feel like I've seen them for sale before, but didn't really know what I was looking at.

  10. #10
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    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

  11. #11
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    Keep in mind that Ex Factory listed prices are always close to double what they should be. Dave

  12. #12
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    For what you are doing, an automatic feed mortiser would be an expensive and difficult machine to use. With a foot feed mortiser,one can line up the mortise line with the chisel by eye, and slowly feed the chisel into the work. There is no need to set up end stops.

    General, Newman T-20, and Powermatic are all good machines. The ergonomics of all three makes them easy to set up and use.

    Maka mortisers are a lot of fun. You step on a foot pedal, and air pressured hydraulics lower a cutter head towards the wood. Just before the cutter hits the wood, an electric motor turns on and this little oscillating chisel literally digs a super clean mortise in the wood, like a crazed Beagle after a chipmunk . The smallest one, the SM-6P, is probably closest to what you could use. The smallest mortise is 1/4" wide by 3/4 long. The length of the mortise adjusts with a lockable eccentric setting. This has to be the fastest single head mortiser out there. Even faster are the multihead Maka mortisers, which can make five 1" x 3" x3" deep mortises at once, in 4- 6 seconds. These machines all need air and three phase power.

    A lot of people get Oliver mortisers, like the 91 D. Oliver tenoners and table saws are great. The design team had a liquid lunch before they designed this mortiser. The ergonomics are terrible. Take a look at the pictures, and imagine trying to step on that foot pedal. I worked with a short legged guy. He couldn't use that machine. Also, there is a screw clamp, instead of a cam clamp, to hold the wood in place. If you have long legs and no fear of carpal tunnel problems, the 91-D will work for you.
    Last edited by William Hodge; 06-30-2018 at 9:55 PM.

  13. #13
    Wysong 284 is easy to feather the pedal and drop to the work slowly and just do one or two strokes.

  14. #14
    Joe

    while I think about it I think I saw a Lee Valley flyer for some lower price mortise chisels and the shank sizes were standard like Wadkin Forest and others. Maybe they listened to me as i pointed it out several times and sent a video to show the problem. Maybe the next run of their better ones will be made that way.

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