Chain and Chisel morticer/mortiser

[Tom MasterCraftsman]

Hi everyone, im new this is my first post, after regularly reading posts for help and advice thought its about time i joined up,

I've been setting up a workshop and could really do with a better morticer, i currently have a old cooksley cast iron morticer but could do with something bigger and quicker.

I've only ever used a fixed chisel morticer in workshops I've worked in and portable chain morticers for oak timber frames,

I have no experience with the large chain and chisel morticers and wos looking for advice on purchasing one, there seems to be a few to chose from eg wadkin, Robinson, dominion, has anyone here used any of these machines?

Thanks Tom

 

[heimlaga]

I have an old cast iron monster of a hollow chisel motiser. Mine was made by Naula AB here in Finland but most brands are pretty similar in the way they work. I don't think it will make much of a difference whether you end up with a Sagar or Robinson or Wadkin or Jonsered or whatever high end brand you might find. Any old heavily built hollow chisel mortiser of industrial quality should be just about as good. Just look for one that has a nice mechanical fit everywhere and is in good condition.

Please don't do the misstake I did and end up with a factory prototype that during the post war shortages somehow found it's way onto the market despite some rather severe manufacturing flaws. I was able to correct all the flaws and got a very good morticer in the end but it was one hell of a job. I spent at lest two weeks worth of labour scraping cast iron. Now it works the way it should and I like it a lot but I can assure you that I used plenty of dirty language when I stood there scraping and filing to sort out those 65 years old manufacturing errors.

Chain mortisers are totally unknown to me so I have nothing to add about them. Some British makers produced combined chain and chisel mortisers. I have never seen one in reality but they seem to turn up for sale in Britain now and then. Then you would have both a chain and a chisel mortiser in one compact package.

Another option would be a vertical slot mortiser. They produce a mortise with rounded end but if you can live with that an old cast iron vertical slot mortiser would be another option. They were often mounted as an extra on the back of industrial sized surface planers. I had one in the past and it did a pretty decent job but my present hollow chisel mortiser is way more efficient.

 

[Tom MasterCraftsman]

Thank for you reply, ill keep looking, the large chisel morticers do seem to be the popular choice and i do have the tooling already which would save buying new chain sets,

I have been searching the internet looking at some of the old belt driven morticers they seem to work very well but seem very rare to come up for sale in the uk, there seems to be a huge choice in the US.

 

[cerdeira]

You may also want to consider an oscillating chisel morticer. Fastest way to open squared ended mortices IMO.
MAKA (I think it's a german make) is/was a well known source for this kind of morticers.

 

[bugbear]

Thank for you reply, ill keep looking, the large chisel morticers do seem to be the popular choice and i do have the tooling already which would save buying new chain sets,

I have been searching the internet looking at some of the old belt driven morticers they seem to work very well but seem very rare to come up for sale in the uk, there seems to be a huge choice in the US.

Having googled Cookesley I'd love to know what you're doing that needs that much morticing capability!!

BugBear

 

[Tom MasterCraftsman]

My Cookesly is a bit under powered it has a three phase 1hp motor running though a phase converter of 240v, fine for most woods but tropical hardwoods like Idigbo and sapele stall the motor sw no prob, oak possible but hard work. I'm mainly using 3/4 and 16mm chisels for windows and doors.
I've used several Wadkin dm morticers and they are so much quicker, plus morticing is my least fav job.

 

[Peter Sefton]

You may also want to consider an oscillating chisel morticer. Fastest way to open squared ended mortices IMO.
MAKA (I think it's a german make) is/was a well known source for this kind of morticers.

The Maka is a great style of morticer but fairly rare in the UK, clean and quick from memory.

 

[Tom MasterCraftsman]

Thanks everyone, I think the oscillating morticers seem to be the way to go, after looking at the us forums chain morticers seem a bit messy and a little sloppy on the joints.

Tom.