Mortising machine - clean mortises?

[Brian Holcombe]

A maka can’t make a 1/4” square mortise unfortunately, minimum stroke length is going to be longer than that.

288 square holes:

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[Mel Fulks]

I am pretty sure Brian is right.

[Jim Becker]

I am pretty sure Brian is right.

Yup...he owns a very nicely restored and majorly enhanced Maka.

[Mark Hennebury]

Couple of things; you never said how many mortises you need to cut, or the full size of the mortise. A lot of mortises can mean different things to different people. If you mean a couple of dozen then you need a different machine then if you need to do thousands; an automatic machine that can do hundreds per hour.

Brian said that a Maka can't make a 1/4" square mortise, but then the OP didn't say that he wanted one. But it can make clean 1/4" mortises and a whole lot more.

A Maka SM6PII for example can make a wide variety of mortises, it can make them fast, clean and accurate. and they were made in manual or automatic versions.
Below is an automatic one.

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A sample of mortises cut with a single chisel in a single pass to show the range.
Widths from 1/16" -1-1/8"
lengths up to about 4-1/2"
depth up to 4"
Ends can be square angled of round.

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It can also make double mortises in one pass.
Identical or different size.

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It can also make complex double mortises, including haunched mortises , in one pass
Below is a left and right hand matched set.

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Double mortise set small square end and a larger angled end.

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Chisels

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[Joe Calhoon]

The Maka does cut a very clean mortise and with the right length chisel through mortises can be cut in one pass with a back up block held with the air clamp against the back. I prefer the Maka for production work especially where larger size mortises are used. Maka is also good if you need a different width of mortise than your tooling. It will make a second pass without any bit flutter. Here are pictures of Maka produced work.
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these through mortises were made with the Wadkin hollow chisel machine. a little rougher mortise than the Maka but certainly acceptable.I have tried cutting through mortises with a back up block under but feel I get a better job coming in from each side. It’s pretty simple to just flip the piece keeping the same side against the fence. My HC mortiser is easier to set up than the Maka and find I use it more for one off work and small mortises.

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I know the OP is looking for square end mortises but the Domino cuts a very clean through mortise. I’ve never tried it but I wonder if a Domino mortise could be squared on a HC.

[Joe Calhoon]

A full through mortise will depend upon the thickness of the work piece and the width of the mortise you intend to make..

With a mortise machine and a sacrificial piece, under your work piece, I don't see why you wouldn't get a clean mortise edge on both sides.

This might help you decide.



Here's the link if you can't see the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIJWNBAUtyk

Chris, I like your dust collection setup! Looks like it works well.
joe

[Alex Zeller]

I think we need to understand that the OP said money is an issue. That tells me he's most likely looking at a bench top HC mortiser, possibly used. My neighbor has one and it's amazing to watch. But even the smallest used one I have seen sell in the $1500 range. It's also more of a production tool.

[Mark Hennebury]

Money is an issue to most people. If you have work to do, it will cost you money to do it, one way or another.
So what way you proceed depends on how many mortises you need to do, how often you need to do them, how fast and what quality you want.
You can do 1000 accurate and precise mortises in a day with the right machine, or spend a week doing a couple of hundred with the wrong machine.

"if you need a machine, then you are already paying for it"

[Brian Holcombe]

Ah, I clearly misread the op thinking he was planning square (not rectangular holes). Yeah the Maka is superior at rectangles over any other method I have used.

I use it often for bridle joints also.

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[Dave Cav]

If you're cutting your through mortises in one pass (from one side) with a hollow chisel mortiser, then you'll need a sacrificial backer board, but you're still probably going to get a bit of blowout. One thing to try would be to cut the stock slightly oversize, then after cutting the mortises, rip the stock to final size, ripping off the blown out section.

[Leo Graywacz]

If you have enough length in the chisel then cut the width of your board by 1/4" and then cut all your mortises. After you're done cut the 1/4" off the other side and you get your clean exit hole.

[Tom Bain]

If you're cutting your through mortises in one pass (from one side) with a hollow chisel mortiser, then you'll need a sacrificial backer board, but you're still probably going to get a bit of blowout. One thing to try would be to cut the stock slightly oversize, then after cutting the mortises, rip the stock to final size, ripping off the blown out section.

I like this idea, but it most cases wouldn’t one side of the through mortise be covered up by the shoulder(s) of the mating piece anyway. I suppose you would need to make sure in the layout that the mortise can be cut from the show side of the piece.

[jack forsberg]

chain the best . Maka is good but not a flat bottom you need a slot mortise for that . chain goes as small as 3/16 . hollow chisel as small as 3mm but for through and fast chain all the way . clean is a matter of sharping the tooling .



storage is helpful .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o8DTNzqIz4

[Mel Fulks]

Jack, you are certainly right. But especially for sash work MAKA is great. Doesn't do the crushing on white pine sash n'
such , like the hollow chisels do.

[jack forsberg]

Mel , yes that cut was in white cedar. very easy to cut clean in hardwood .