I picked up a barely used Jet JBM-5 mortising machine for 200 bucks! Not the best score I've ever achieved, but it's a pretty good deal. I've been wanting one for a while because I'm doing more and more projects with mortise and tenon joints, so I'm looking forward to working with it.
Maybe if I get to doing a lot of M&T projects, this will whet my appetite for a Domino machine. I'm pretty sure I can sell this Jet for at least what I paid for it.
In the mean time I'll have some fun with it.
There is nothing like mortise and tennon joinery. It is a big step towards quality construction. I bought a similar bench top Delta mortiser about 15 years ago. I can count on one hand how many times I used it. A very cool machine but it and the chisels must be in tip top condition to give you good results and to enjoy using the machine. Mortises less than 3/8" can be tricky and you should proceed with caution to avoid clogging and breaking the inner bit.
Cool!
If you have not used one much you are going to want to be sure the chisels have a polished mirror finish. There is a lot of friction as they cut the wood and like your bench chisels, a mirror finish is desired. There is also a cone shaped stone for your drill to work the end of the chisel end.
Leon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
Ease the friction by drilling out the mortise first with a normal drill and then use the mortise machine.
I believe the bit on/inside the chisel of the mortiser is suppose to achieve that step.
Congrats on the score, -MIKE-. Not really a "You Suck" but you can at least claim to have licked it a bit! ;)
As others have commented, key to using these is sharp tools and patience. Take your time and let the mortiser do the work.
Other than sharpness, set up is critical. The old advice of spacing the inner bit a nickel's thickness was a good generalization but subject to how fast you're feeding and the hardness of the wood.
Trial and error still seems to be king.
I did find this recently which may or may not work for a specific application:
"A gap the thickness of a nickel?roughly 0.072? thick?results in operating temperatures roughly 40 or 50 degrees higher than if you increase that gap to 0.117? (the gap provided by the built-in spacer, on the Powermatic PM701 mortiser, used in their testing"). So I now use a
0.125" gauge block to set the gap. The importance of sharpening and polishing the chisels and bits can't be overstated!
The manual has a chart for the gap corresponding to hard/soft woods and chisel size.
That's what I was thinking. If you have to drill first, the chisels are probably dull.
I've done quite a few pieces with M&T and really like it, but it's always been a slower-than-need-be process and I usually end up winging it. I look forward to discovering if this speeds up the process or not.
I'm entirely open to the idea that I may not get much use out of it, which would probably mean I had since moved on to a Domino. :-)
The 3 chisels that came with it are super-duper sharp. Replacements aren't that much, but I'll look into that stone.
The special bits can be a problem. They are designed to carry the wood up and out the chisel. The tip of the bit needs to be set just right for the chisel, not too far extended and not rubbing the chisel. Like Leon said keep the chisels sharp.
I have seen the chisels flex so that the mortise looks like it was cut at an angle even after making everything squared up.
My current preference is a mortise and tenon jig, everything set up properly stays squared up, or a primo tool like Leon uses, the newest domino maker.
Who knows where this will take me or where it'll be months/years from now. The guy I bought it from said he does them faster by hand.
If you were hand cutting with chisels, it will be faster.
Something to consider. When I bought my Domino, when they were initially introduced, I hoped that I would use it much more often than the mortiser. That was about 10 years ago.
Now, If you want to get more into building nice furniture with strong joints and no pocket hole screws... ;~) Think about your first 5~10 mortises that you are not just playing around with but on a real project. Now consider that I am on my 3rd box of 1,800 replacement 5mm Dominoes plus the initial 600 that came with the kit. And I am well into a case of 6mm Dominoes too. Double all those Dominos and you have both mating mortises. Each mortise with the Domino takes about 3 seconds..... If you have ever used a plate joiner/biscuit cutter, it is exactly that fast, but dead on accurate. MY Domino has paid for itself countless times in time saved.
They do need to have a mirror finish on the 4 outside sides, just like the back side of a chisel. It will make a world of difference in the effort you put into plunging the chisel.and bit.
Yes.
On 12/9/2017 5:32 PM, -MIKE- wrote: Snip
LOL.... Not laughing at you Mike, laughing with you. The bench top mortiser is NOT a production tool. I remember the mortiser in shop class when I was in school. It was a dedicated full sized DP with a foot pedal to assist in plunging the chisel....
********** **************
I'm confused?
I was scratching my head on that one too butttttt..... Might be one not available here..... I just learned that there are 3 versions of Kapex saws. The 120, 88, and 60 IIRC. The YouTube demos of the 60 come with a British accent. ;~o
Only the 120 is available in the US.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard your infomercial so many times, I can probably recite it verbatim. :-p Who knows? A year from now, maybe I'll be singing the same song.
Just FYI, Festool sells "reconditioned" demo tools on the web. I noticed a DF500 Set for sale today for something like 25% off ($750, IIRC). Everything goes fast but you can sign up for email alerts, if you're interested.
Appreciate it. I'll look that up because I'm in the market for their contractors version of the track saw.
Have I said that before? ;~)
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.