Bench top mortiser and pillar drill

[PerranOak]

Is there such a thing as a combined bench top mortiser and pillar drill?

Oooooh, I hope so!

 

[marcros]

there are mortice bits that you can get to go in a pillar drill.

They (in general) get mixed reviews- some people seem to despise them, and others seem happy that they allow the drill to do some morticing.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/rang ... 89D4E0CE5C

first link i found. it seems to need an attachment according to the description.

 

[SPSlick]

Or you can get a chuck to fit a morticing machine

 

[PerranOak]

Cheers both.

As I don't have either at the moment is it best to get a mortiser and drill-ise it or a drill and mortiser-ise it?

 

[marcros]

is it for professional or hobby use?

I would get a 3ph pillar drill with an inverter, so that you could vary the speed. I seem to remember that a common critisism of both is that the speed is all wrong for doing the other action- ie a drioll for morticing or a morticer for drilling.

 

[RogerP]

The problem I had with trying to use a pillar drill for mortising was that the leverage possible on the chisel was insufficient with the short drill handles. Okay it's doable for the occasional job on softwood but I always felt I was over-straining the drill on hardwood.

Using a mortiser and chuck for drilling is very limited as there's only the one speed.

I really suggest two machines if you've the room and the budget.

 

[Mrwilson]

To add my tuppence worth, it would need to be a direct drive drill as the necessary leverage applied tends to stall the belt driven ones. I've got a variable speed SIP drill press and I can match the Mortiser speed on it but it won't take anything like the pressure that my Mortiser needs.

Sorry to give you more negative news, that's just my experience of the things.

Shug

 

[Monkey Mark]

Possibly a silly suggestion but, how about a hand held drill in one of those pillar drill stands as a cheap mortiser? Would expect you could put a qood bit of force through a dedent one.

 

[PerranOak]

Thanks all. I'm thinking that I want accuracy of cut for the mortices and so maybe a proper motriser is best.

I could use one of those hand-held jobs as a cheap pillar? Are they ok?

If I have to buy two I need a good deal. Any help on that please?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The better drill stands like the Bosch S7 are quite accurate and strong. They have a 43mm collar for a drill, so will take a small 43mm collared router as well.

 

[heimlaga]

I suppose you are talking about hobby use. In that case why not buy a good drill press and some oldfashioned chisels. That you can drill a line of holes and square up the mortise by hand using chisel and mallet.

In my humble oppinion a hollow chisel mortiser has to be floor standing and weigh at least 500 kilos if it is to be any good. There in an immense strain on everything when making a 18 mm mortise in hardwood. We are talking about 30 kilos of downward force on a metre long lever. You need that long lever to force the bit and hollow chisel into the wood and a very solid x-y-table to hold the workpiece firmly.
A neighbour owns one of those drill press mounted mortiser sets. He says that his fairly big drill press isn't stiff enough to do a proper job so he always uses my mortiser.

 

[RogerP]

.....................
A neighbour owns one of those drill press mounted mortiser sets. He says that his fairly big drill press isn't stiff enough to do a proper job so he always uses my mortiser.

Exactly as I found long ago. Okay of softwood (which I hardly ever use) but on oak (which I use a lot) a drill mortiser is useless.

 

[PerranOak]

Thank you. As I suspected, there are no shortcuts!