LV premium hollow mortising chisels + bits?

Take it from me, a DP mortising attachment is a huge pain. By the time you buy the attachment, quality chisels and bits, hone and sharpen them, you could have made the mortis with a forstner bit and a sharp chisel.

OTOH, if you plan on doing allot of mortising in the future, buy a good, dedicated mortising machine and a set of high quality chisels. The ones from LV look nice but the low price scares me a little. I paid close to $75 for each chisel/bit combination (Forrest City) and damn glad I did. They made a huge difference in the machines performance.

However, I still make a number of mortises with the plunge router.

SFWIW, a drill press mortising attachment gets a lot of bad press around here.

So much so that I used a good forstner bit in a drill press followed by a 4 flute bottom end mill to do the chisel work.

Very acceptable for my work; however, next time around probably use the plunge router with an up spiral bit.

In any event it won't be a drill press mounted mortising attachment.

Lew

For what it's worth I took the plunge a couple of years ago and bought the Delta Bechtop Mortiser,the newer model with the big heavy cast iron base ,and I love it. I probably don't use it nearly enough to justify having it, but it sure makes mortises a breeze. And as has been noted above by the time you buy the attachment and some good chisels you are most of the way to the price of that delta benchtop. I haven't looked lately but it was about $200 the last time I looked. Hope that helps. bc

A good mortising chisel can make a 5" deep mortise; what is the plunge (spindle feed) range of your drill press? Mine is only 2.375 inches.

Make that two of us.

Well.... we could put the prices up ..... :)

Actually - the prices on those DO go up 8-10% on Friday......

OK, if anyone's still watching this thread, you've almost convinced me to go with a plunge router mortising jig rather than a hollow mortise dp attachment (don't worry Rob - LV will still be receiving a good portion of my woodworking budget...). What kind of jig have you found to be most useful/convenient/effective? A link would be wonderful, or a book title would be great also. Trying to decide whether to get a

I built the Jeff Miller jig shown in his book about chair making. It works great! I can do a picture in a.b.p.w if you want to see it. I have a 3/8 spiral upcut (Whitehead) bit with a 1/2" shank. It works in my DW610 and DW620.

For spiral bits, look at some place that sells machine shop supplies. 2 flute, solid carbide end mills work great and are less expensive. You will need a 3/8 collet for the 3/8 end mill though. I use them for anything that I need a strait bit for.

Check Highland Hardware for a description of the Frid Jig. You can build it in less than an hour, and that's if you're really slow.