Mortising attachment for a drill press

I recently did a posting about Poplar. I will be making 8 frame and panel doors using poplar for stiles and rails and some 1/4" panels. Each door will have 3 rails: 4" top and middle and 6" at the bottom. The stiles will be 3". Total door width 14" I made a prototype which was good for evaluation but I need to make doors that are more sturdy. In particular I want to make 1" tenons on each end of the three rails and a matching mortise in the stiles. 8 doors. 6 mortise and tenon joints per door. 48 joints.

I do not have a dedicated mortising machine. I might use a Kreg jig but the holes will be visible each time the door is opened. I might be able to use the plugs with a lot of sanding so the joining technique isn't too ugly (the doors will be painted). I could of course use my drill press and a chisel which I have done before but not on 48 mortise and tenon joints. I thought I would ask if anyone has used a mortising attachment for a drill press before I choose one of the two options mentioned above. Maybe someone has a different idea I can use for a sturdy joint.

Your advice is appreciated as always.

TIA.

Dick Snyder

Reply to
Dick Snyder
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I have a dedicated mortising machine. I would not recommend mortising with a drill press as the handle is too short. But if you have an old drill press with a long arm, then by all means do it. If you have a short 3 handle drill press don't do it.

My 2 cents.

Reply to
woodchucker

If these are cabinet doors you would be better off making stub tenons to fit in slots. Far Simpler and fine for that weight door.

You would probably be better off with a bench top mortiser, they can be had for not much more than the attachments for a DP and far simpler to set up.

Reply to
Leon

is this because you can't do the entire mortise in one fluid move

or

some other reason

i drill deep holes and find it real annoying to have to grab the next handle back

now this has me wondering if i could remove a handle and make one handle longer

not sure if there are other limitations with the drill press i.e. a longer handle might not turn free without hitting something

Reply to
Electric Comet

--------------------------------------------------------------- My personal prejudices:

1) Drill Press & Attachment May a constipated camel decorate your front lawn. IMHO, strictly a loser. 2) Plunge router & Jig. My weapon of choice.

You can knock out 40-50 mortises in a short amount of time.

I leave the ends of the mortise round and knock off the corners of the tenon with a flat bastard file.

3) Dedicated bench top mortising machine. You have enough work to justify the expense of a dedicated tool.

HTH

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

In addition to the information in the other replies, there is this. IF you have a mortising attachment for your drill press, and it is not EXACTLY fitted to the spindle, it can come lose and start spinning. That gets really interesting, extremely fast.

BTW, don't ask me how I know. ;-)

Ergo, a dedicated mortiser is the only way to go. Or you could cut them by hand, which is the way I cut most of mine.

Deb

Reply to
Dr. Deb

Comments

  1. If you kreg it, forget plugs, use filler.
  2. Routers can make mortices
  3. Half laps are strong
  4. Dowels work too. Too much precision? Glue into rails, glue rails into sloppy big holes in stiles using filled epoxy.
Reply to
dadiOH

With a drill press there is typically some disassemble involved and it is an adaptation. Then you can't use the DP until you remove the mortising attachment. I think this was a popular option decades ago when bench top mortisers were not common for home woodworkers.

Reply to
Leon

The router and jig is something I had not considered yet. Could you give me some idea what your jig is like or send me a picture?

Reply to
Dick Snyder

Dick Snyder wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Well, just to add to what everyone else has said, I think it depends on what else you expect to do in woodworking. If you intend it to be a continuing hobby, this project probably justifies buying a dedicated mortise machine, which you will likely use fairly often.

Apropos of the drill press attachment, I'd be sceptical. The weak point of mortising machines is the holddown (which stops the workpiece lifting when you retract the chisel), from what I've seen these are rudimentary or non-existant on drill press attachments. Also, as woodchucker mentioned, it takes a fair bit of force to push the chisel into the wood, and the handle on a drillpress doesn't give you much leverage for that.

So my suggestion here would be, if you'll do more mortises in future, buy a benchtop mortising machine. If not, build a dedicated jig and use the router.

John

Reply to
John McCoy

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"Dick Snyder" wrote:

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Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

If you have a router table you should get a rail and stile router bit set.

Reply to
joy2lane47

Excellent. Thanks Lew.

Reply to
Dick Snyder

Lew posted a nice reference to a jig that would work with a plunge router. If I don't go with Kreg, I will make that jig which seems pretty straightforward. Thanks.

Reply to
Dick Snyder

I started out with a DP attachment for a Delta 17-900. It worked, but I wouldn't use it for production. Lubricating the bit and honing the chisel was required for best operation. It's not difficult to add a cheater to the DP handle if necessary for additional leverage.

I then picked up a General International benchtop unit. It worked better, albeit still a bit underpowered; better holddown than the DP attachment.

I then picked up a horizontal mortiser from Laguna. The best of the bunch, especially for production.

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

Filler is always a bad choice, it shrinks, it's a pain to sand. Either too hard or too soft.

Reply to
woodchucker

No it's not because you have to grab a different arm, it's called leverage. A mortiser or really old drill press, use long arms. So they have the leverage that a mortiser needs. Plain and simple.

Reply to
woodchucker

----------------------------------------------- Epoxy fairing putty (epoxy thickened with micro-balloons) does NOT shrink and is of uniform hardness.

Can't comment on other fillers.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

must require additional force due to the chisel

and I'd think you'd want that chisel to be sharp at all times

Reply to
Electric Comet

Here's one I used for making chairs years back, well before I got a multi-router.

I made it so I could use simple shims for different size stock. Simple, no moving parts, used in a vice:

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Reply to
Swingman

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