Mortiser Advice

[Fitzroy]

Hi all, I’m dithering and so looking for thoughts/advice.

Hobby woodworker, I have a 3x6m workshop, primarily I like to make furniture. I have some outdoor oak chairs on the list for next spring, 7 pieces with M&T joinery for legs so 56 mortises to cut.

I’ve made a few pieces with M&Ts and I find the mortises take me the most time.

There is a Sedgwick mortiser for sale locally (within an hour). It’s the early version with a single piece frame. It comes with four chisels. Three phase. Selling for £500.

I’m tempted by it but dithering as:
- It’s a bit more than I want to pay, although not tried haggling yet.
-it’s three phase so will need to buy a converter, I’ve done two machines before so not probs but more cost.
- could I cut the mortises with a router and jigs for this one project?
- I can’t find any manual or online resource showing it being taken apart. It need to go in the back of my car, so will need dismantling and I’ve not clue how hard or possible that is.

Any thoughts?

Fitz.

 

[Cabinetman]

Hi Fitz, if I was to replace mine that is exactly the one I would buy and that I think is a pretty good price, the last one I saw a few years ago was £750 but it had been reconditioned – not that they need much reconditioning they last forever. Never used a router for that but I’m sure lots of people on here will let you know.
You definitely will need to dismantle it, fairly sure it’s just big nuts and bolts. They are heavy. Ian

 

[Trevanion]

I'm quite well versed in the Sedgwick Morticers, having used pretty much every generation of them

My personal machine is an early one with the triangular cast iron base (It's due a restoration at some point), which makes it ridiculously heavy and it's a 3-man lift to shift it in one piece. It can be broken down fairly easily though, take the wiring plate off the top of the motor and take a photo of inside with your phone, undo the wires coming into the motor and pull out the wire, undo the nut inside the cast iron part that holds the motor to the column and you can slide the motor off the top, then undo the adjustable gib on the table casting and you could be able to pull the table off, then undo the four bolts at each corner of the base casting and you can separate the column and the base into two pieces. That's about as far as I would break it down as if you go any further you'll need a bucket to keep all the little pieces in and you won't reduce the weight much more.

I paid £350 for my single phase Sedgwick about 5 years ago now, I personally wouldn't pay much more than £250-300 for an old three-phase version because you're going to sink a bit into converting it to run on single phase. Here's mine:

Morticers pop up often enough for not too much money, there's little to go wrong with the design so they pretty much last forever so there's an abundance of them kicking around this little island. Just keep an eye out and the right one will turn up before long!

 

[Fitzroy]

Thanks Travanion, that’s the same as the one near me except it’s blue. My market is more limited due to location, the far north, so less common they pop up. Great advice on the dismantling, sounds doable. I’ll do a bit of haggling on the price and see if it gets temping enough.

F.

 

[AJB Temple]

If your justification for £500 spend plus travel is 56 mortices, then at £8.92 per hole they better be damn fine chairs :-0

There is no rational justification to buy this unless you plan to do a lot more M&Ts. But we buy tools for want not need (I am the same). Having just made a quite complex chair (reproducing an antique that was fire damaged - all in laburnum) I used my favoured method of drill and chisel. I would say it takes me 5 to 8 minutes each to chop out an accurate mortice by hand for furniture work. Say 10 if also drinking tea, which I usually am.

For outdoor furniture I would probably use dominos. Do you have such a machine?

 

[Fitzroy]

If your justification for £500 spend plus travel is 56 mortices, then at £8.92 per hole they better be damn fine chairs :-0

There is no rational justification to buy this unless you plan to do a lot more M&Ts. But we buy tools for want not need (I am the same). Having just made a quite complex chair (reproducing an antique that was fire damaged - all in laburnum) I used my favoured method of drill and chisel. I would say it takes me 5 to 8 minutes each to chop out an accurate mortice by hand for furniture work. Say 10 if also drinking tea, which I usually am.

For outdoor furniture I would probably use dominos. Do you have such a machine?

No domino machine, for some reason mortices take me a good 20mins a pop. Aye just for this project it would be overkill, more thinking that if it’s one of those machines that once mastered is used all the time, then, well you get my drift.

Although £500 would make a big divot in the cost of a domino’er.

F.

 

[Peter Sefton]

I have a single phase Sedgwick which is great but if I was downsizing workshops I would be selling the morticer and keeping my Domino. I love M&Ts but the size, speed and convenience of the Domino is hard to beat.

 

[Trevanion]

Aye just for this project it would be overkill, more thinking that if it’s one of those machines that once mastered is used all the time, then, well you get my drift.

It's one of those machines that even if you use it just for one project, provided you haven't paid too much for it, you'll get your money back when you sell it on.

That can also be said for the Domino though, they pretty much almost cost the same secondhand as they do new!

 

[Ollie78]

I think a morticer is a worthwile machine but if I were you I would wait for a single phase one. They do come up. Just not worth the hassle of converting it or phse converters etc.

Ollie

 

[guineafowl21]

Try to get it a bit cheaper - I bought a Multico K 3ph for £150 and had it palleted here for about £70.

I dug out the star point as you have done before and fitted a cheapo VFD (Amazon Prime £70!). Then spent a few enjoyable hours fettling, taking out play and backlash. Also built a rolling stand for it, with a drawer for associated bits and pieces.

You’ll wonder how you ever got on without it. Every mortice comes out in a fraction of the time and dead square. Knots are no problem. The older heavy machines have that ‘set up and forget’ feel that you trust, in contrast to the modern, cheaper items with their plastic bits and flexi fences.

Oddly, it’s the narrow mortices where you feel the most difference. Trying to cut 1/4” ones in chewy larch was so frustrating I gave up on the job and went looking on ebay for a mortiser...