Morticing machine advice

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murphs14

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Hi everybody I need to buy a morticer for making furniture. i dont want to spend a fortune about £4-£500 max and I think I want one with asliding table. i intend to be using oak quite a bit and I think about 3/4" max chisle size would be ok. Cananybody out there give me some good advise so I dont waste my money.
Thanks guys
peter
 
3/4" in oak is big for a morticer and would need a powerful machine - but you can get it with 2 passes of a smaller chisel if this would do.
In nearly all furniture and architectural joinery 1/2" is largest size M&T you'd expect to find. You'd go to 5/8" for staircases, workbenches, heavy doors. 3/4" is for heavy structures, timber frame building, large gates etc. Is that what you need to do?
Yes a sliding table, also adjustable to and fro, is absolutely essential.
You need to consider the size of workpieces - frinstance if you were doing trad doors you might need to mortice into 12" wide rails.
 
Hi Jacob,
thanks for your advice. Can you recommend a machine with a 1/2" to 5/8" capacity in my budget please as I am really in the dark here.
thanks,
peter
 
Dunno, I think mine's obsolete so there's no point in mentioning it. Is a far-eastern heavy number from Poolewood Equipment (no longer exists?) but with no other brand on it and the only other one I've seen the same is Houtslager's (occasionally posting on here).
But it's a good one - I'll post a photo later and perhaps someone can identify it.
 
Hi Peter,

If you can wait, and keep a keen eye on eBay there are often Sedgwick 571 Morticer up for sale within the your bracket. The green ones are the oldest, the dark blue and light blue newer, and blue and white are the newest. Sedgwick launch an upgrade of their Morticer this year which adds a few stops for repeat work. I have a blue and blue model which can handle up to 7/8" into seasoned English Oak. The recommended limit is 3/4", however, nothing like pushing the limits.

The machines are built like brick out houses and will last I am sure a life time.

The other options are either a Wadkin or Sagar machine. These again often pop up. If you avoid the vibrating chisel option Wadkins again, both should fit into your budget.

There is a mortiser that has a tilting bed for angled mortises. I think its a Robinson machine, but the memory is a little fallible these days. Anyway I have seen these also pop up from time to time. If I had more space I would have bought one just for the occasional times I need to do an angled mortise. These are vintage machines, but built to last.

A Morticer is a very simple bit of kit, the key to repeatability is having a very rigid frame when you are moving up the wood hardness / size of mortice chisel. If the machine is not rigid enough of there is any play in the sideways, the mortice head will move fractionally causing the chisel to become jammed in the mortice hole. Equally you will not end up with accurate Mortices. I would recommend looking for a machine with a cast column that also incorporates the mounts for the slipping table. Pressed steel will simply not have the rigidity your need for the sizes you are looking for unless as already suggested you do the Mortices in sections.
 
Ok thanks for your advice re ebay. I was hoping to buy a new machine maybe something from Axminster or the like. I see a machine from Draper on the web quite often for about £500. Has anyone any experience with these?
regards,
peter
 
Heres a pic of my morticer. I'm posting it because it's a goodun and if you see one like it buy it! Also somebody might know where to get one the same. It says "Poolewood Equip" and "type ms-12"

morticer2.jpg


morticer1.jpg


What's good about it is:
Heavy, lots of cast iron, so can have big timber on, unbalanced, without falling over. I can just move it on a sack trolley but would have a job to get it off the floor if it fell over. 2cwts perhaps.
Sliding table moves both ways and tilts
Big depth of cut if required
The hold in clamp on the table also tilts downwards - this is quite important as it helps hold pieces down as well as in, such as door stiles sticking right out, which could lift.
Simple old fashioned engineering will last forever
Easy to operate.
It'll do up to 3/4" - probably more but might then be quicker to do 2 passes at 1/2"
 
Jacobs machine look to be very suitable for your needs.

I would also look for a used cast iron machine. Ive had two Sedgwick 571's over the years with no problems and a good second hand one not depreciate, Multico, Evenwood, Ridgeway, Smiths are also good heavy duty machines for joinery and furniture.
Wadkin, Robinson, Dominion, Sagar are more of an industrial machine
 
If you want a machine with that capacity without having to spend 3 or 4 times your budget I think a secondhand hollow chisel mortiser is the key. Mine is from a maker that never sold outside Finland and closed down in the early 1950-ies so there is no use mentioning it but there seems to be fairly much old machines on the British market for reasonable prizes.

I would look for an industrial machine as they usually are the same prize as machines intended for hobby use yet much better made. More machine for the same money.
 
We've got a little multico one ( cant find model number ) and it does 3/4 mortices just fine.
eherygan.jpg

Bought a few years ago and it was under your budget £325 second hand

Sent from my GT-I9300
 
I picked a used single phase sedgwick for £350, it's one of my best purchases. I wouldn't bother with anything new from the far east. Budget for some chisels as well.
 
I don't have a morticer and have never used one, but I have read some interesting bits about mortice chisels. You can get them for about £8 to £12 from Machine Mart, or you could buy one made by Clico (or similar) for about £50. I suspect the price difference exactly matches the difference in quality, and that a heavy duty morticer with a cheap chisel will be a disappointment. No surprises there!!

So as a previous member wrote, budget for chisels as well - but perhaps not budget chisels. It may be worth your while starting a new thread on mortice chisels to get some opinions on brands to go for / avoid. That is one of the really good things about this forum.

K
 
Sound advice to go for a h/d used machine.
I bought an Axi AW19FM a number of years ago. Then a "trade" model, now "hobby" ( http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-ho ... rod886341/ ). It;s Ok for what I do and not heavily used but certainly not capable of single pass motices in very hard wood. Not cheap now either at £405!
I confess however not to have spent a lot on chisels :oops:

Bob
 
This is mine, another second hand buy. It is a Record Ridgeway and is a solid bit of kit. This will also handle up to 3/4" chisels although I have only used it up to 1/2" myself.
 
Hi,
I am selling one of these. I put a search in online and it came up with this post. If you're still interested, you can get in touch here I guess!
If not, I'll be putting it on Ebay.
Aargh file size is too big and PC just crashed. I'll check on here in a couple of days.
I can email if needed.
Cheers
Jim
 
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