Drill press mortising Jig

I'm considering buying a DP mortising jig.

formatting link
anyone have experience using one. The price at Canadian Tire is $50 reg $80. I own a good Dewalt 621 plunge router and a freud table top and fence. Would I be better of using my router with a good mortising bit.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Regards Mark

Reply to
marksrob
Loading thread data ...

You will get mixed opinions on mortising machines / mortising attachments vs. routers or good old chisels. I started my woodworking hobby with a mortising attachment for a craftsman drill press. It worked ok, but in my opinion, the drill press quill had too much slop to make straight, reliable mortises. (Perhaps a higher quality drill press would not have this porblem.) Also, hollow chisel mortisers require a tremendous amount of force to push into the wood. In my opionion, the gearing ratio on a drill press is a little too high for this operation and you need to crank down on the drill press handle pretty hard, with the bigger bits. A dedicated mortiser ussually has more mechanical advantage, and a LONG handle.

I eventually sold the attachment on ebay and bought a dedicated mortiser. I love this thing! It makes great cuts, is very quick to setup and is alway sitting there ready to go. It cost about $180 or something though (I can't remember.) I have the Delta version, and I made a few mods to it to improve the work holding. See here for details:

formatting link
table make very nice mportises too, but the mortise ends are rounded (Which you can quickly fix with a chisel) and in my opinion, they take a little longer to set up.

My $0.02

Reply to
Joe Wilding

Mark,

If you are going to purchase check out Amazon. They have a pretty good price on the Delta 14-651 with a $25 coupon as well. Free shipping.

Just got one.

Larry C

formatting link
> Does anyone have experience using one. The price at Canadian Tire is

Reply to
Larry C

I bought a Delta kit a few years ago and discovered it didn't fit my 25 year old Craftsman drill press. Subsequently , a nephew bought the Delta kit for his Delta. It will get the job done but it is a compromise in almost every respect. It takes time to install, adjust and remove it. You have your drill press tied up while the kit is installed. In use, you are literally forcing the mortise bit into the wood while the center bit is clearing the way - the plunge handles on most drill presses are too short for needed leverage. When you consider the cost of some lower end mortisers it makes more sense to buy the dedicated machine if you plan much use.

A confession: A few days after I returned my Delta Kit my wife mentioned that Harbor Freight had a mortiser on sale for $99. My initial response was "don't need THAT one!" A week or so later we drove by the store, I went in and looked at one and decided "oh-well. Only $100. I'll give it a try." The machine came with three bits that looked much like the delta, has a fairly long plunge handle, has decent power and it makes square holes. Granted the hold down hardware sucks but that can be improved. I have used the machine quite a bit and it continues to make square holes. I doubt if it will be my life-long mortiser but the complete machine cost about $30 more than the compromise kit.

Ron

formatting link
Does anyone have experience using one. The price at Canadian Tire is

Reply to
RonB

"RonB" wrote snippage

Read your post and got to thinking about slapping an x-y table on one, and went to the HF site to poke around. They have one one with an integral x-y table for $189. Hadn't seen that there before and wondered if anyone here had one and could comment on it. Am I better off chopping them out myself?

mw

Reply to
M Wingett

snipped-for-privacy@sympatico.ca wrote in :

I bought the Delta DP attachment and then found out to mount it on my DP I would lose the depth stop. I returned it and got the Delta dedicated mortiser and have had no regrets. I imagine you won't have the same problem as me (old Craftsman DP), but having to set up on DP and break down is a pain. I like the dedicated aspect. Whether it's worth $200 to you is a question only you can answer. I'd probably use the router and chisel and put it on wish list for SWMBO :)

Jerry

Reply to
Jerry McCaffrey

The key here is the following:

  1. Are you planning to use your DP attachment rarely?
  2. Do you have a good DP?

If your answered yes to both questions, it may be worth it but if you're planning on using it often, then you're better off with a mortiser. On the other hand, using a router which is probably the best way, you'll need to build a very precise jig or better, buy one... They aren't cheap.... 650$ and +

Hope this helps,

Wally

Reply to
Wally

My first mortise was with a handheld drill and a bench chisel to clean up the hole. It worked fine. I now have a Powermatic dedicated mortiser. It works great for most mortises. I passed up using the drill press. In fact, I gave away the mortising attachment before I used it. Not enough leverage, too much slop, the drill press can only be used for mortising while the equipment is attached, and setup takes too long.

Recently, I made some stools. I looked to the book, "Chaimaking and Design", by Jeff Miller for ideas on making compound angled mortise and tenons. I copied the router jigs he used for chair joinery . I was astonished and pleased with the ease and accuracy in making straight and compound angled mortise and tenons using a router and a couple of easy to build jigs. There are still good uses for my Powermatic mortiser, but I will now use the router whenever I can.

Preston

formatting link
Does anyone have experience using one. The price at Canadian Tire is

Reply to
Preston Andreas

expound on your mods? I have a spare drill press vice, but yours looks attached in such a manner as to be freely adjustable in x/y as well as being able to set it at an angle?

If you've already said this all before, kindly point to a link if you can. Thanks.

Reply to
Swingman

That I was wondering about myself, as I was in HF and saw it. Whch HF store were you in? I was in the one in Lomita, near Torrance CA on PCH.

Alex

Reply to
AArDvarK

I purchased mine in the Wichita, Kansas store about 2-3 years ago.

Reply to
RonB

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.