Delta Mortising Attachment Review

I finally got around to trying out my new mortising attachment for my new delta drill press. Contrary to some of the posts I read in this ng, it is awesome. It is a breeze to set up and not difficult to square (square enough) to the fence. The attachment (model 17-924) says on the box that it is a "New Improved Design". I had to raise the depth stop on my drill press up on the shaft in order to accept the collar for the attachment. I lose about a 3/4" in quill travel, but I can always lower the depth stop back down after removing the mortise attachment. It came with 4 mortising chisels (1/4", 5/16", 3/8" and 1/2"). The attachment goes onto the drill press without using ANY wrenches or tool of any kind. Quick and easy. The only thing that was somewhat of a pain to put on was the fence, but I plan on leaving this on when using the drill (unless it gets in the way).

I tried the 1/4" chisel to mortise some red oak and it went through like melted butter. Squaring the chisel to the fence, which can be a problem as some posters have stated, but I think I have found a method that gets the chisel "square enough" After all it doesn't have to look pretty, because the mortise his hidden behind a tenon.

**** (four stars)
Reply to
stoutman
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I have one, but even *I* wouldn't call it awesome. Try that 1/2" chisel in some hard maple. You'll break the levers off the press pulling on it. I use it mostly on pine, poplar and other soft woods. My biggest complaint is the setup time. Switching between drill press mode and morticer is time consuming. I use both tools concurrently, and everything has a price - in this case, convenience.

JMHO,

Greg G.

Reply to
Greg G.

Do you have the old model or the new one?

I'm curious if the older model required tools to attach the mortiser.

Reply to
stoutman

No tools needed, other than possibly one to loosen the drill press quill stop clamp when first setting it up. I don't have the model number handy, but it's about a year old. All thumbscrew assembly.

My drill press has diagonal hold-down slots instead of parallel slots, so the fence is a bit of a PITA to setup. Also, drill presses are not designed to exert the pressure needed to cut into hard wood.

But it does work, even though it does require some manual clean-up with a chisel, and is certainly cheaper that a $275 dedicated mortiser.

Greg G.

Reply to
Greg G.

I like how it worked with the 1/4" chisel in red oak, but like you said I may be in for a surprise when I put in a 1/2" chisel and try to plunge through some maple.

(snip)> My drill press has diagonal hold-down slots instead of parallel slots,

Mine has the diagonal slots also, HUGE pain in the arse! I'm not sure why they use diagonal slots. I think the Delta engineers were puffing on something silly when they designed the diagonal slots.

I guess (hope) it will work for my needs for now until I can afford a dedicated mortiser.

Oh and Happy New Year. (yeah, thats right I'm not out partying, I'm a nerd)

Reply to
stoutman

It gets considerably tougher! Keeping the chisels really sharp and tuned helps a lot.

Metal working DPs usually have diagonal slots, a coolant trough and drain around the tray. The larger Delta woodworking presses have parallel slots, however.

That's why I have it as well. But I'm presently leaning towards routed mortices and floating tenons.

Happy New Year to you and everyone. I'm not out either. SWMBO is at her folks in California, and I'm stuck here at home in the shop. :-)

Greg G.

Reply to
Greg G.

I've got one and think it's next to worthless. Try doing large, deep mortises in maple and get back to us. :)

dave

stoutman wrote:

Reply to
Bay Area Dave

Most of the stock I use is 3/4" which lets me get a way with using 1/4" tenons for most projects. I will be making 1/4" mortises most of the time. Like I posted earlier, in red oak the 1/4" 'er went in and out of the red oak like bud da. :) I would rather use this attachment than the router table which I have been using thus far. I found the tool easy to take on and off (with the exception of the fence). My attitude toward this purchase could change when I try to mortise through a harder wood, but cant you just take smaller nibbles?? I'm guessing that if you are experiencing a lot of resistance with a bigger chisel or harder wood that you could just use only a portion of the chisel with each plunge. Granted, this will take longer. I don't know though, I have not tried that, nor have I tried it on anything but red oak.

I wouldn't go as far as to call it worthless.

:)

Reply to
stoutman

So is your review of four stars based on a single mortise using the smallest chisel?

Brian.

Reply to
Brian

It ain't about how it looks, it's about how it fits. I'm not sure what "square enough" is in your book, but if it's not pretty close the walls of the mortise won't be flat. Carpenters glue is not gap filling.

Reply to
Scott Post

I wouldn't call it useless IF you are doing 1/4" tenons in oak, either.

However, since a tool should (IMHO) work under a variety of conditions, having a limitation as to the wood species that it will work with makes it worthy of the "NEXT to worthless" appellation I ascribed to it. If my TS couldn't cut maple well, I'd be calling it "next to worthless" also! :)

dave

stoutman wrote:

Reply to
Bay Area Dave

i have a stand-alone bench-top Delta mortiser. i was just using it this week to cut some 1/4" mortises in walnut. it worked like cutting butter. previously i had used it to cut some 1/2" wide mortises in oak for a cabinet i built. it was a BIG PAIN IN THE ARSE! i came to the conclusion that anything short of a 1000+ lb. mortising machine is not very practical unless you are only making a few small mortises. i am sure your drill press attachment will work fine for smaller projects and an occasional large one, but if you plan on making 1/2" mortises with any regularity, you will not be happy. when i need to make large mortises anymore, i just grab the chisels.

don't take this as a negative reply, as the drill press attachment works just as it was designed. it is not meant for high volume or regular use.

andy b.

Reply to
hamrdog

I had one, but I passed that critter on as quick as I could and went to a REAL mortiser! ;>)

... well, one a little beefier than a DP, anyhow.

Happy New Year ... & happy mortising.

Reply to
Swingman

And thanks again!

For what I have in it, it works fine.

Same to You!

Greg G.

Reply to
Greg G.

Umm, 2 or 3 mortises. What's the required number of uses before posting a review so I know next time?

Reply to
stoutman

"square enough" in my book is "pretty close". :)

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Reply to
stoutman

I'm not sure what version I have, but it only came with 3/8" chisel. I think for the price, and depending on how many mortices you're making, I could possibly rate it 3 stars. In harder woods, I found that I had to consciously look at the depth stop, because I was bearing down so hard on the press that I pushed it right through the stop I set up, thus going down too far. Maybe a mark on the chisel would have helped.

I haven't done anything with really hard woods, however. And I could definitely see how it could be difficult with the effort I had to exert on Mahogany.

Anything that requires a nice clean through mortice, however, will still be made with the router.

Reply to
Larry Bud

Damn, the idiots back. You've never used the thing to cut 1/2" mortises in maple, so just shut the f*ck up!

Reply to
Rich

I've done "considerable" mortising of white oak and the Delta attachment works fine. I even did some thru holes (1/2") for thru tenons and they ARE rectangles with smooth sides. The white oak stock was nearly 2" thick. I did the first 1 1/2" or so from the "blind" side, then turned the lumber over and did the final 1/2" from the visible side so that there would be no tearout on either side.

The tool ain't perfect, but for the price... ;-)

Jim Stuyck

Reply to
Jim Stuyck

It would at least be nice to know that a review is based on the use of all the capabilities of the device under test. In this case all the chisels.

Brian.

Reply to
Brian

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