RE: Home Made Mortising Machine

View this week's Woodsmith Tip online:

formatting link

The above will get you to the "guild edition" which will get you to 217 edition which will then allow you to download the construction pdf (page 30 - page 38) for a very well designed bench top mortising machine.

From my viewpoint, the above produces a far more useful piece of hardware than most of the commercial machines.

YMMV.

No vested interest, just thought it is a neat device.

BTW, there are some other neat projects included.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett
Loading thread data ...

Good one! Thanks.

Reply to
Max

I watched that video the other day and had one concern. They are using ball bearing drawer slides for all of the moving parts. Having just been introd uced to ball bearing drawer slides when I built some new kitchen drawers, I noticed the fairly thick grease that was on the slides.

In fact, I was having a problem with one of the slides and called the vendo r. While I was on the phone dealing with that issue, I asked him if there w as any maintenance that I needed to do on the slides, such as greasing them He said that unless they get loaded up with sawdust during construction, t hey should be good for a long time.

So, how long is that mortising jig going to run smoothly considering that t he exposed drawer slides are lying there just asking to be gunked up with g reasy sawdust? In fact, Don even brushes off some saw dust when he shows an example of a slide.

I wonder how often the jig will have to be disassembled to be cleaned.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

I thought the same thing! That's a cool design and I might end up building one, but I'll definitely look into sealed glides of some sort or a rod & bushing slide system.

Reply to
-MIKE-

If the drawer slide is mounted with the cabinet side facing up there should be no issues but push come to shove clean the grease out to begin with and relube with Triflon or silicone spray.

This is not the first time I have seen similar jigs that use the exact same style drawer slide for this purpose. IIRC WoodSmth the sister publication and or an earlier version of ShopNotes had plans for a similar mortiser.

Reply to
Leon

Before spending too much money on sealed slides, consider this. I have literally installed hundreds of these type slides for drawers and sawdust falls down into the tracks when I drill holes for the mounting screws. No issue what so ever. Also IIRC Laguna uses ball bearings on their panel saws and they recommend ball bearings over roller bearings as the minute contact point simply pushes the debris out of the way. Debris that is not fastened down will simply push out of the way. Grease is simply going to catch more debris but not permanently hold it in place.

Reply to
Leon

On 01/30/2015 2:42 PM, Leon wrote: ...

...

I've done similar with 'em...for the kind of load and no more movement they get for the purpose they'll last indefinitely dry, even...

Reply to
dpb

I was kinda thinking about all of this.. This project could, with limitations, do the work of a Festool Domino, or a Multi-Router.

Most of these type slides come with a life time warranty. With that in mind, My domino in the last 8 or so years has produced around 10,000 mortises. A kitchen drawer probably gets opened and closed at least 5 times a day. X 365 = 1,825, X 8 years = 14,600. I think they would last too.

Reply to
Leon

The biggest difference in stuff put together with these kinds of pieces-parts in place of "real" linear bearings, dovetail ways or the like is that the drawer glides are designed for a vertical load and, while higher quality versions such as the KV are relatively solid, they don't have the rigidity nor the lack of backlash that the Domino or even the Multi-Router has.

Generally that'll not matter that much; wood is still wood after all, and a little play in the fence position or the quill movement isn't going to cause a failure.

I build a sled for shaping window muntins using them to avoid having to push each blank manually is one case where I mentioned earlier had done the dirty...it did show a little bit more play but nothing that couldn't be taken care of...

I kept the article; it's a good idea perhaps for the barn doors of which I spoke just a few days/week ago in the other chisel mortise thread where I had turned the mortising head of the Delta around...this could be make to suit...

I still want a chain mortiser, though...at one time there was an addon for the RAS but I was cheap and never bought one to try it out and now can no longer even find one to see if it would work for the purpose...

Reply to
dpb

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.