mortiser or mortising attachment

I'd like to get myself a mortising machine but I'm having decision problems. I'm also in need of a new drill press. Buying both is out of budget for right now. I've seen some mortising attachments that fit on your drill press and I could possibly swing the DP & the attachment.

Realizing that a dedicated machine would be better, has anyone used an add on attachment with any degree of success?

Thanx,

Vic

Reply to
Vic Baron
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I have the Delta 12" DP and mortising attachment. It works like a charm for me but I've never used a stand alone mortiser so I don't have anything to compare it to.

Reply to
musials

Vic, I decided to buy a drill press which came with the mortising attachment at the time. I figured if the attachment was the complete POS everyone around here said it was, then I would buy a dedicated machine. I have not bought the dedicated machine and while I still want one, it has dropped to the bottom of the list. Also, I would like to say... for cutting just a few.. drilling them out with a forstner bit and then using a sharp chisel to clean them up is pretty quick to do.

Reply to
KS

Hi Vic,

I would suggest that you get the drill press to start - it is much more versitile in that besides drilling, you can mortise and sand with it with some inexpensive attachments. That's what I did about 15 years ago.

That said, I recently added a Delta dedicated mortiser and their BOSS (sander) to the shop. Just because I tired of changing out the drill press for every little operation. It is just more convenient - not necessarily better.

By all means, get the drill press - it will earn it's keep many times over - get the other stuff when you are looking for a new tool to buy, but don't know what you need .

Lou

Reply to
loutent

"Vic Baron" wrote in news:WVTde.12398$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com:

I bought both, some time back. But the mortiser, the -651? Delta, was out of stock for maybe 6 weeks, so I cut the 32 mortises for the project at hand using the adult ed's machine, and trimmed everything up by hand.

When the -651 came in, it sat unopened for several months, and then was sold to another member of our woodworker's club, and I bought a set of LN chisels. I haven't missed that -651 a bit.

The forstner + chisel suggestion works for me, as long as there is an adequate drill press in the shop. If I were to start making chairs regularly, I might have a different opinion. YMMV.

Patriarch

Reply to
Patriarch

I like using a router and loose M&T better than putting all the mortising paraphernalia on my DP. :)

Dave

Vic Bar> I'd like to get myself a mortising machine but I'm having decision problems.

Reply to
David

I have both. The drill press attachment works fine. The only draw backs are the pain of setting the attachment up (loosing the use of the drill press while attached) and the drill press handle doesn't provide the leverage a dedicated mortiser has.

Reply to
no(SPAM)vasys

All the suggestions make sense. I already have an adequate drill press for my needs but it won't take an attachment for mortising. Actually, like you, I already finished my project . Made a set of redwood patio chairs ( not Adirondack) and did the forstner/chisel bit with 96 mortises. Probably will never do another again BUT............

BTW, the first mortise took me about 1/2 hour - by the time I was getting to the end I was cutting them in about 7 minutes.

Maybe I'll just upgrade my DP for now

Thanx to all for the suggestions -

Vic

Reply to
Vic Baron

On a related note, I am changing out the motor on an old (50's) Buffalo drill press that was occupying too much floor space in a machine shop

-- "here take it and get it out of here -- free". Originally it had

3/4HP 3-phase; I don't have 3-phase power. Being cheap (w/ four kids) I am thinking of putting on a 1/3" HP single phase motor I have laying around rather than buying new. Since that motor came off my old junker drill press I know it will pull the bits I typically use. Question is, since I am thinking about adding a mortising attachment and a sliding cross vice, do drill bits running inside a mortising chisel pull significantly harder than similar sized bare bits?

Any thoughts?

hex

-30-

Reply to
hex

There are a couple of down-sides to the mortising-attachment-on-a-drill-press approach: 1) the comparatively short lever arms on the drill-press can make it difficult to do larger mortises in hard woods. 2) the attachment is a royal PITA to adjust, which is required _every_time_ you put it on the press.

Dedicated mortisers also tend to be somewhat more rigid in their construction; mortiser-attachment-on-a-drill-press can have flexing issues.

If you're willing to put up with the 'hassle' factor, work _slowly_, and not try big mortises in hard stock, the drill-press attachment can work adequately.

Most of what I do is mahogany, with the occasional bit of pine for stuff where I don't care about appearance. A mortiser attachment on my Delta 12" benchtop drill-press -- with outriggers to support larger pieces -- has done everything _I've_ needed, no problems.

Reply to
Robert Bonomi

I started with a bench top drill press and mortising attachment. For a stop-gap until you can afford the dedicated machine, the mortising attachment works fine. It's difficult to set up straight and square though. The bigger the drill press, the better. It takes a lot of force to drive the chisel in, which is why the dedicated machines have a longer handle with different leverage. You may need an extention bar on the DP. If you're using a bench top model, be sure to bolt it down. I nearly knocked my over once with the attachment.

brian

Reply to
brianlanning

I have a Ryobi 12" Benchtop drill press and the Delta mortising attachment that will fit on it. I love the ability to avoid all that chiseling. The only downside is that the delta attachment connects to the drill press table through the slots, and they are the only way to adjust the distance between the bit and the fence. On a delta drill press, the slots run lengthwise and the attachment can slide back and forth. On my ryobi, the slots are radial, giving a limited adjustment capability. Additionally, I have unscrewed one of the handle rods and added a footlong piece of shaft threaded at one end to give more leverage to pull the chisel. On the plus side, the fence part of the attachment works as a great fence for regular drilling, and the special t-nuts and ratcheting bolts that are used to attach the fence to the table can be used for securing all kinds of shopmade jigs.

Reply to
woodworker88

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