Can anyone recommend something that fits this description? It is likely to used a lot for a project then be unused for a couple of months. Budget is not the be all and end all but neither do I want to waste money!
Good DIY morticer for infrequent use
- Thread starter jwDave
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Yojevol
Clocking on
Well as I am just exploring this I don’t really know, however it is for furniture making with 20mm oak planks primarily, does this help?
In a past life I had the task of finding ‘cheap and cheerful’ machinery for schools, and morticers were always a pain - good ones would come up now and then for a reasonable price around the £500-£750 area, but they were still relatively flimsy and the really cheap ones just weren’t worth the bother. I always wondered whether these would be ok for the odd project
https://www.axminstertools.com/mort...WcAmwtRYSoOJXO-XnfTCGEsgJJcDxMi8aAmSMEALw_wcB
What I will say is don’t skimp on chisels even if you buy a good set and sell them later - you’ll be fighting a losing battle with poor quality.
https://www.axminstertools.com/mort...WcAmwtRYSoOJXO-XnfTCGEsgJJcDxMi8aAmSMEALw_wcB
What I will say is don’t skimp on chisels even if you buy a good set and sell them later - you’ll be fighting a losing battle with poor quality.
eribaMotters
Established Member
I bought a Record 200 Morticer about 30 years ago and I cannot fault it. It will cut 3/4" mortices in softwood and 5/8" in hardwood. If I needed to cut larger I just ran through with a second parallel row.
Over the years I'd thought about upgrading to a Sedgwick and if I had been doing woodwork as a full time job I probably would. Having said that I have regularly done bespoke joinery over the 30 years of ownership, from a couple of handmade kitchens a year though built in cupboards, and general cabinet and joinery work. A newer version is this one on e-bay:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25605522...lKOuavd8oTcT7q5ZowQxgUuhgC|tkp:Bk9SR7qEiOP7YQThe morticer has I believe also been marketed as a Startrite 25. Here it is in a very recent updated version at a far higher price:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15553103...cPQG4Sj2eRBO7GJv/SO2Vq0w==|tkp:Bk9SR9Lfu-P7YQ
Colin
Over the years I'd thought about upgrading to a Sedgwick and if I had been doing woodwork as a full time job I probably would. Having said that I have regularly done bespoke joinery over the 30 years of ownership, from a couple of handmade kitchens a year though built in cupboards, and general cabinet and joinery work. A newer version is this one on e-bay:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25605522...lKOuavd8oTcT7q5ZowQxgUuhgC|tkp:Bk9SR7qEiOP7YQThe morticer has I believe also been marketed as a Startrite 25. Here it is in a very recent updated version at a far higher price:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15553103...cPQG4Sj2eRBO7GJv/SO2Vq0w==|tkp:Bk9SR9Lfu-P7YQ
Colin
If you had said you'd designed a project with dozens of 19mm (3/4") mortices 80mm deep into 200yr old oak beams it would have painted a very different picture of the machine you needed. Plenty of posts on here have been rather ambitious projects once the detail came to out!
I have a Sedgwick 571 and it is very capable/comfortable to 16mm mortices into hard oak and anything else, it will 19mm mortices in oak but it's quite hard work on man and machine. This is a floor standing machine and c. £400-800 secondhand, which you could recoup all off selling it on. They are transportable in a large car with two strong folks.
A 12mm (1/2") mortice would I expect suffice in 20mm material and could be cut with a benchtop type machine, such as an Axminster one, or similar.
The smaller bench top machines (such as linked by Yojevol) do not have a sliding table and I found the one I had was underpowered and a pain to use.
Fitz.
I have a Sedgwick 571 and it is very capable/comfortable to 16mm mortices into hard oak and anything else, it will 19mm mortices in oak but it's quite hard work on man and machine. This is a floor standing machine and c. £400-800 secondhand, which you could recoup all off selling it on. They are transportable in a large car with two strong folks.
A 12mm (1/2") mortice would I expect suffice in 20mm material and could be cut with a benchtop type machine, such as an Axminster one, or similar.
The smaller bench top machines (such as linked by Yojevol) do not have a sliding table and I found the one I had was underpowered and a pain to use.
Fitz.
My father made this table in 200-year old oak (form a barn that had blown down) using a mortising attachment in a pillar drill. So it's hard work, but possible... (he didn't make the chairs). So this might be your cheapest option if depending on how "infrequent" your use will be.
