Replies

1. 
   gpssam | Jul 05, 2011 01:18pm | #1

   yes very good investment

   I purchased the Wood-Tec moritser 6 or 8 years ago. If I recall corectly FWW did a tool review on mortisers and based on that review I got the Wood-Tec.

   Your statement  "as soon as we buy a tool we've waited a long time to purchase we end up using it a lot and wondering why we ever waited so long to buy it." is spot on for me with this tool.  I use this machine a lot. It makes it so simple to chop mortises. I already had a nice heavy tennoning jig for my table saw, the combination of the two is great, fast and very precise. They are relatively quick to set up, so it's easy to use it even if I just have a couple of mortises to make.

   I have only used the Wood-Tec model, so I can not speak to the different makes of machines.  Hopefully others will chime in with that info for you.

2. 
   BruceS | Jul 05, 2011 03:40pm | #2

   Over the top

   A more usefull tool,  but also 2.5X the cost ,  would be a festool Domino.    If you are into many butt joints or gluing up panels the Domino will be an often used tool.   The accuracy far exceeds any biscuit jointer.

3. 
   hammer1 | Jul 05, 2011 04:16pm | #3

   I've owned the Delta as well as an industrial Powermatic floor standing, foot activated with moving carriage. I don't particularly care for either. You are limited to the size chisels they make, better ones are expensive and require special sharpening tools. The hold downs on the bench models aren't very strong, the chisel may stick and lift your work, you also have to reposition for each cut. I find a simple shop made jig with a plunge router more versatile, quicker and more precise. Of course there are many types of M&T joints and one method doesn't work for all.

   I take it these are cabinet size doors. What will be the rest of the construction? Will there be panels and how will you fit those in the frame. Most cabinet doors, today, use stub tenons. The cope and rail router bit sets are pretty nice. If you only want square edges, a slotting router bit can cut the panel groove along with the stub tenon mortice in one shot. A good fit and a couple small wood pins make for a long lasting construction.

   One minor draw back to a router bit mortice is round ends. You can pare the corners of a square tenon with a chisel or use loose tenons shaped to fit, although it isn't really necessary for the tenon to fit end to end in the mortice. A morticer does one thing but a plunge router has many uses.

   I have a picture of a simple jig I made for cabinet door mortices, something similar could be made in any size you need. Mine mounts in my quick release bench vice, it has an adjustable fence for different thicknesses, centered or offset, I can put a plug in the template guide slot to limit mortice length, clamp a stop to position the mortice. The pics were for a glass muntin door, rabbeted after assembling the frame.

   
4. 
   PSeverin | Jul 05, 2011 06:57pm | #4

   $10 per mortise

   I've asked myself the same question.  I think in part it depends on predicting the future and how many more times you will need it.   If you are a cabinet shop and or young, then the answer is probably yes.  If your work is recreational, and thinking about retirement , each mortise could get to be kind of expensive.  So I've read the answers of others above with interest.  

   I've opted so far for a variation of your old method but with a mortise chisel and mallet.   It has been interesting learning to use them and when I set them down they don't take much space or represent much of an investment.   Still the big machines have their allure. 

   What I really long for is a place where I could use some of these tools, but not own or store them.  

   Peter

5. 
   xmike | Jul 06, 2011 10:18pm | #5

   I vote with Hammer on this one. 

   You already have a great production mortising tool - the router.  I use a different jig than Hammer, but the method is fast, neat, repeatable and cheap.

   I have a nearly new bench top mortising tool that I never use.  Had to have one.  It was not cheap.  Sorry I wasted resources on it.  It's my son's.  He won't use it either.

   Before the following, you must know that when you open the box on your new mortising machine it will NOT be ready to use.  It will be a machine that was probably well designed at the beginning, but has been so "value engineered", both in content and in manufacturing process, that it is essentially not useable out of the box.  So get out your machinist squares, rules, files, and wet/dry sandpaper and clean it up.  wow, you'll say, look at all the tolerance stack, slack, and "stuff".  Then you are ready to use it, only not yet.

   1st it's a pain to set up. 2nd it dosen't hold it's setup (Value Engineered into sloppy flimsiness).  3rd it's hold downs are not robust enough or handy enough (see VE, above).  4th the chisels are like any mass produced tool - sharp enough to cut your finger but not sharp enough to use with accuracy or reasonable pressure on the handle, so each must be painsakingly honed before being put to use - requiring another set of specialized tools that are mostly useless for other tasks.  And they are cheap "stuff" so you'll soon find yourself honing them again.  Plus the supplied bits are just clearly Chinese crap that are rough, dull, and "sort of" fit the mating chisel.

   So my $300 tool sits rusting on the concrete floor in the corner in the dark and good riddance.

   But then, I don't feel strongly about it.

   Back to the positive stuff!  Search FWW and other sources and settle on a shopmade router mortising jig you can understand, build, and will use.  Buy a good spiral upcut bit of the appropriate size and practice with it.  Make mortises quickly, neatly, repeatably in the places that you want and need them.

   I gotta try Mike H's jig - looks faster than mine.

   Mike D

6. 
   zolton | Jul 07, 2011 07:21am | #6

   Bench top mortisers

   Like another poster, I too had to have a Delta benchtop mortiser. I used it a few times and found it adequate. But not great.

   Then I bought a Festool Domino and haven't even looked at the benchtop mortiser since. It was a stretch to justify the expense of the Domino. But the results and speed and accuracy with which I am now able to make mortise and tenon joints makes it worthwhil; a real quantum leap. It makes every other method seem antiquated.

   As to router jigs, I never was able to create accurate mortises with a router. The holes would always wind up slightly wider at the top than they were at the bottom. Consequently, fitting loose tenon stock into them was tedious. This was likely operator error, to be sure. But checking to see if it works for you is simple and inexpensive enough to look into.

   Zolton

7. 
   tbw | Jul 24, 2011 11:33pm | #7

   Bench top Mortice machine

   I have the Jet Bench top. I only use it once in a while. I like using the Mortice Pal router jig. It's well made and simple to use. Check it out at morticepal.com.

8. 
   jeffs | Jul 29, 2011 02:24pm | #8

   mortises

   Many years ago I built a simple jig from Taig Frid- it is really only a simple U shaped "box" (three sides) that gets held in my bench face vice. With a plunge router, a edge guide and stop blocks I have used this jig to make hundreds of mortices- used with either loose tenons or tradditional tenons.  I hold the work in the jig with simple opposing wedges or a F-style clamp. 

   I prefer to make the mortices (hence the tenons) "standard" sizes- based on whatever router bit I choose- 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 etc... and common lengths--  so if using loose tenons I can make large runs of the stock that can be cut to the appropriate length when needed.

   Jeff