Best buy bench mortice/tenon press...

[nickds1]

Its my birthday soon, and at this time of year I resort to retail therapy for the workshop... we're in "good amateur" rather than "professional" territory here...

Been thinking this year about a mortice press. I notice that Axminster have a converter unit for a standard pillar drill - my experience of such compromises is that they are rarely good, but they have the advantage of being an order of magnitude cheaper than the stand-alone tool.

Also, what about the mortice/tenon attachments available for 1/2" routers? (Trend Jig etc.)

I have some oak windows to make, so with the planer thicknesser, table saw, router table & a morticer, I can make any number of accurate casements & frames... I obviously need to cut both mortices and tenons...

Its either that or a fine-finger template for the Leigh Jig...

Thoughts welcome?

 

[nathandavies]

used multico morticer from the bay.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Depends what your future plans are.

If you're a tradesman making windows and doors regularly, then a solid dedicated morticer and the tooling to go with it are virtually essential. If you're a keen amateur with cash burning a hole in your wallet and who wants some kit, maybe a bit less substantial morticer and the tooling to go with it.

However, if you're a keen amateur needing to make some window frames for a particular project, but maybe not subsequently, buy a couple of heavy duty mortice chisels off Ebay or from a dealer, and do them by hand. With not much practice, you'll be knocking them out faster than you can set a machine up, and pretty much as accurately. Capital investment will be about £30, maybe £60 if you include a posh mortice guage. You couldn't buy the machine tooling for that, never mind the machine; you'll then have money to spend on better wood for the job. You also have a very minor storage problem instead of several square feet of workshop space permanently taken up.