OMG I’m in love. AGIAN.....

[Brian Holcombe]

Patrick, that machine is restored by Andrew Hills, he is located in England. He has an Instagram account that is worth following and restores similar machines on the regular including the full range of Wadkin Mortisers.

I thought the lack of tilting table would hamper my use of the Wadkin, but it does not. Rather, I make a wedge then use that same wedge also for cutting tenons. I find it helpful as the angles are always the same and I don’t need to reset any of my fences.

In the machinist world it is common to leave the machine as is and use an auxiliary tilt table to accomplish the tilt. This is done for multiple reasons and one of the majors is that people often do not want to retram the machine each time they need to adjust a table. The same reason one avoids taking a saw fence out of square once it is made perfect.

[Darcy Warner]

Those little wadkins and Robinson's and dominions are good machines, they just lack some things that I think a mortiser should have, tilting table, lots of table travel, integrated dust blower, etc.

The little wysong or Oliver are great manual machines.

Never seen any accuracy issues when the have a drill chuck, still have a bushing to hold chisel.

Most don't change bit/chisel sizes that often anyway.

[brent stanley]

One thing about the big Robinson is the table assembly swings away and you can do door lock mortises with it, or anything else too large, kind of like the Stenner. I do what Brian does for angles and now that I have a routine down and am pretty fast at it, I dont know if my MF was magically given a tilt feature if I would use it.

[Patrick Walsh]

I’m not buying any machine right now as I clearly have been on a tear..

I am considering hocking the Felder ASAP though while I have my shop in shambles and setting the funds aside for a chisel mortiser.

One thing that is important to me is travel. I have no idea what the wadkin or Robinson has. Brian and others I’m sure can tell me.

I like to make big stuff passage doors, pipe organs. But let’s be realistic I barely use my home shop.

However I dint plan fir or expect that tube forever and I have zero patients for being limited by machines when if purchased or chosen more wisely one machine could achieve all tasks such as the case of a mortis machine.

[peter gagliardi]

Andrew does some very nice restorations for sure.
I can tell you, that from drill chuck to collet system, there will be no measurable runout difference- I have had both, and converted my Yates from collet to drill chuck with no issues.
I can tell you that I have a box that I got in a package deal with dozens of chisels, bits, and bushings that has several collets with bits welded in them, when the bit spun in the collet.
That simply will not happen with a drill chuck.
I have been fortunate to not have had the "welding" experience myself.
A lot of the new bits are not long enough to work with the old collet system, so if and when I need a bit I do not have, I look for old stuff.
I do not think I would like the arm lever after using the foot pedal.

[peter gagliardi]

If you want capacity, buy a chain mortiser.

[David Kumm]

For passage doors and most other stuff I use my Bacci oscillating mortiser far more than anything else. Dave

[Patrick Walsh]

Hmm is about where I’m at.

But it’s time to start figuring out exactly what machine suits my needs and parameters.

The bacci is attractive to me in many ways except space.

I was able to see Brian’s dm this weekend and my take away y wow it’s so cute in a bulldog kinda way.

I like stuff compact but thick. Well everything but women. I like them strung out and starving like Kate Moss. Oh Kate Moss I love you

[brent stanley]

Andrew just brought in 3 DMs for you to pick from !

B

[Patrick Walsh]

I couple people over on Instagram shared his info with me today.

And just sitting down for lunch now I am seeing them posted.

The issue with overseas I imagine will be I’ll need a transformer.

I’d much prefer to find something in the United States for that reason.

However it’s a double edged sword. I’d love a fully restored brand new machine as I dint have the time to do everything myself. But other than by maybe Mark or this guy or myself Or Darcy is just be disappointed.

[Darcy Warner]

For passage doors and most other stuff I use my Bacci oscillating mortiser far more than anything else. Dave

I agree that a slot mortiser or chain Mortiser are the best for passage doors. Hcm suck when trying to do that work.

[David Kumm]

Patrick, if you stay on the old iron road you will eventually have vfds and transformers. I made a 240-600 transformer and bought a 240-480. Condition is always more important than volts or hz. Find a good motor rewind guy and watch for used transformers. A vfd will adjust hz for any 50 hz motor and most low voltage three phase can be converted to 240. Dave

[Warren Lake]

I prefer the handles over foot stuff. My hands and arms are stronger and more coordinated, guess i didnt do enough Riverdancing. I can put my body weight into a handle and there is more leverage. The best improvement on that machine was turning down the cold lifeless suck the energy out of you metal handles and turning Birdsye maple handles. Night and day. Im probably Jadded as i just tried a Hoffman and it had crap blades in it and was pathetic in both pressure and lack of cut quality. Not to do with the machine, just the owner.

The chain mortiser is a monster and flies through stuff fast. Chisel both ends then chain between.

My machine came from a school that means just about for certain some Cannibals used it, even the odd teacher is a concern. Machine came with chisels used for many years by those students, zero welding, the only negative i see is from over tightening large set screws and leaving an impression in the auger. From that aspect if its going to be used by Cannibals id say a quill is better. If they are not taught common sense then the machine will suffer.

On mortise chisel length three of us did an order from Wadkin years back and when you choose your sizes every one we ordered came in two different lengths. The stuff ive seen from say Lee would be the short length of Wadkin bits only the Wadkin stuff was all made to imperial dimensions and not dimensions from Mars. In that case the depth of cut is related to the tooling, 16 inch blade can cut deeper than the 10" cabient saw.

[Mark Hennebury]

Patrick it's fairly obvious that you need one of each kind of mortiser. So, a small Maka, and a large one, the multi head machine are nice, a automatic slot mortiser for chairs, so either a Bacci like Davids, or a Balestrini like mine. You then need a hollow chisel mortise, may I suggest a combination machine Wadkin or Robinson hollow chisel / chain. And just to round it out a nice French made Alternax. Of course then we will have to start on the tenoners. With all of that you will need a bigger workshop, and you really won't need a house any more at this point as you wont be spending any time there anyway. Did no-one warn you about just how deep this rabbit hole was?

[Joe Calhoon]

Mark is right that one mortiser does not fit the bill for everything. Those Bacci mortisers with the tenoners are the way to go for chairs or anywhere you need angled tenons. the HC is probably the most universal. For years we built doors with loose tenons using a slot mortiser. Don’t use loose anymore so that dictates something that leaves a square mortise. Chain or Maka for production doors but in semi retirement I find myself doing a lot of one off entry’s and don’t mind the HC for that. Not on a batch of doors though.

I’m pretty happy with my DM. I tried a Oliver with foot feed and prefer the lever. The Good points of the DM is good looks, the haunching stop, the big handwheel, a lot of table movement both ways, ease of adjusting table movement and Brian’s blower. Only had to make a angle table a couple times so not a big deal for me. I have never had a problem getting oversized augers from LV or ordering from the UK. Down side of the DM is the older ones have the crazy Whitworth threads and dealing with the auger bushings. I hope to acquire a UK chain-chisel at some point. Preferably one with the turret stop for mortise width.

Never seen one in person but the Japanese HC’s seem to be very high quality.