robland x31 and horizontal mortising ques

[gautham.vanya]

Hallo,

Just a lurker delurking.

Looking at the Robland x31on the net and had a few queries. Could some of the x31 gurus help me out?

The mortising spindle seems to be mounted onto the same spindle as the TS blade. That would mean a speed of about 5000RPM (max 6000?). Is this enough to mortise cleanly? What sort of mortising bits would one use to get a clean cut at this speed? (Especially since your typical router goes at at least 15000RPM)

Also, looking at pics on the net (of both robland and the inca), the mortising bit seems to be held by a drill chuck. Is this true or is it some sort of a collet? Can chucks take the rigors of mortising (in particular the sideways pressure as the workpiece is moved)?

TIA

G

[charlie b]

snip

Does making the Pilgrimage to the factory in Brugge, Belgium, qualify me as a guru?

Actually it's mounted to the end of the jointer/joiner- planer cutter head.

It's 5000 rpms.

Spin it with a German TEFC true 3 hp reversible motor and it does. Clean has more to do with with the bit you use.

Laguna has long spiral bits with notches/teeth along the spiral edges. They're "left handed" (cuts when turned CCW when viewed from the end) but the cutter head motor is reversible so you can use the more common "right hand" spiral bits or end mills.

Actually, it's a "V" chuck. There is a collet option available. The V chuck works fine if you don't abuse it - 1/2" deep passes aren't a good idea.

There's a yahoo group for the Robland X31 you might want to check out

A member came up with a great jig that improves the mortising XYZ table and adds stock tilting - handy for chair mortises.

You can e-mail me if you have more questions.

No problem

charlie b

[gautham.vanya]

Yup, as also your webpage.

Good to know - I figured it must be but... wasnt sure if I was missing something.

Thanks - found it on their webpage.

This is useful to know. The reason for the question is that I think I can get hold of an xyz table, and can possibly mount it to a surface planer (jointer?) and was wondering if I could push the idea to a horizontal mortiser. And the reason to have a setup for horizontal mortising is that it seems more stable and less noisy that using a router.

Thanks for clearing things up - G