Delta Drill Press Mortising Attachment

[Doug Walls]

I recently bought a Delta drill press mortising attachment kit from a fellow Creek member & plan to set-up a dedicated mortiser using a old 17" Delta drill press head & parts. The base I originally planned to use is from an old Craftsman swing saw (last pic) But I may also use the base from a current modified 17" bench model I have.

I temporarily set-up the mortising kit on my modified bench model 17" Delta drill press just to see how everything goes together. It worked out pretty good, But I needed to extend the quill about an inch into the mortise chisel holder.

It's not really a big deal having to extend the quill an inch, But that also means I'll lose an inch of travel!
With 5" travel on my drill press & the mortising chisel/bit only having a 3" depth of cut I'll be well within the range of use. On the other hand making another arbor/spindle 1 inch longer would let me regain that lost inch of travel.

Being I'm somewhat new to mortising in general!

I was just curious if that extra 1" of travel would make that much of difference?

I'm also looking for ideas on making an adjustable X-Y table for the mortising set-up.


Doug

[Doug Walls]

Here's a couple pictures of the drill press I'm using to figure out the final set-up.


Doug

[Bob Vaughan]

It looks to me that the mortising accessory is one that was intended for the 17-900 series of Asian import drill presses and not for the early USA-made type shown in the photos. Probably the simplest solution would be to get a longer chuck like a keyless chuck from Shars or other importer for the 33 jacobs taper spindle on your press.

The later versions of the Delta 17" USA-made presses (1960s and up) had a spindle cartridge that was maybe a half inch longer or so, but getting one of those spindle cartridges will be difficult and expensive even though they are interchangeable in the quill.

Mortising with a drill press rig is a make-do setup at best compared to floor model mortisers. That very strong USA-made press will do as well as any and better than most drill press rigs.

[Doug Walls]

Mortising with a drill press rig is a make-do setup at best compared to floor model mortisers.

Yeah I agree, But I also don't have an extra $1000 or more on hand either.

I do however have the parts on hand for two more 17" Deltas.
Their kind of scattered around through-out my garage, But I'm pretty sure most of them are here somewhere.

Doug

[Doug Walls]

It looks to me that the mortising accessory is one that was intended for the 17-900 series of Asian import drill presses and not for the early USA-made type shown in the photos.

Yeah the mortising accessory kit I got is a universal kit made for metric sized quills, I needed to make a adapter/spacer to match my Deltas 2-1/4" quill.

The original chisel holder for the older Deltas also had a eyelet on the side for the depth stop.

Doug

[Doug Walls]

Probably the simplest solution would be to get a longer chuck like a keyless chuck from Shars or other importer for the 33 jacobs taper spindle on your press.

Yeah but that would be too easy

In my case I have a custom made spindle/arbor on my drill press that uses a 5/8-16 threaded mount, The chuck is a Jacobs 33-BA which may also be a little shorter than the standard 33 jacobs taper chuck.

I may just end-up having another spindle arbor made that's about an inch longer?

Here's a picture showing the standard spindle arbors for my old Delta & the one I had a friend make for me.
The original stub arbors with the #33 Jacobs Taper are hard to find, So that's why I had on made.

Doug

[Doug Walls]

Probably the simplest solution would be to get a longer chuck like a keyless chuck

Doing a little more searching for "Keyless Drill Chucks" I came across a Grizzly G8585 chuck with a 5/8-16 threaded mount!
g8585-e8010c62449b25e4210d9ca0ea986644.jpg
The Grizzly web site did not list any dimensions for the length & width.
I sent them a e-mail, Hopefully they get back to me.

It will hold up to a 5/8 drill bit which is way more than I'll need, But as long as it fits within the chisel holder's yoke it should help to make-up the lost 1" of travel.

Doug

[Doug Walls]

Got the Grizzly keyless chuck & it just barely fit!
The lower outside edge of the chuck actually touched the chisel holder when I first installed it. I ground the inside of the chisel holder's casting just a bit & readjusted the chisel holder to give the chuck a little more room. It's still a pretty close fit, Only about 1/16" of clearance with the lower outer rim.

Using the Grizzly chuck I gained back some of the lost quill travel I had with my first set-up!
I was able to still use the original depth stop collar/assembly & I'm only loosing about an inch of travel now which still gives me 4" of quill travel. A nice benefit to this set-up is I can easily remove just the chisel holder & leave the depth in place. (last pic)

Doug

[Doug Walls]

Here's a couple of pic's of my modified base that will eventually have both X & Y travel to set-up the mortise location. I believe I have the Y-axis (front to back) figured out, But the lead screw I'm thinking of using for the X-axis (side to side) is metric & I'll have to try to find a matching nut for it.

Doug