cross vise specs, etc needed for GI mortiser

[John Moorhead]

Folks -

Okay, any of you that were going to post a response regarding your guts rather than a General In'tl mortiser.....fuggetit!

Now - I am going to build a table to include my mortiser (and several other machines) and I would like to know more about that modification some of you have done - installing a cross vise (grizzly??) in the base and using a riser on the mortise head to regain the depth capacity. I'd like to do this, but need to know how tall the vise is so I can use a common table and fence for several machines along one wall.

I seem to recall something about having to reverse one of the axis screws as well... Does any of this ring a bell?

John Moorhead

[Alan Bierbaum]

I had to drill and tap ( 1/4-20) two holes to reverse the screw used for in-out movement in my Grizzly vise. Simple to do with a drill press (cast iron drills and taps easily). My vise is 3 7/8" from the mounting surface to the "floor" of the vise jaws (where the wood rest when clamped in the vise). You can see a small picture at:

just removed the supplied base and fence, rotated the head on the base 180 degrees, and built up the mortiser by 1 1/4" for my Jet mortiser.

[JGS]