Which Morticer?...

[thomaskennedy]

I am looking for a good quality morticing machine..

I want it to clamp the wood in and have table movement...i was looking at this one

which looks alright for the price but not sure about how clean the cut is, anyone got any experience of it? (Fox Floor Standing mortiser)

I'm not bothered whether its floor standing or not...but a square and clean cut is imperative...and also (as i said before) a sliding table and wood should be clamped down....

Any advice on my new purchase would be great

Ta, Tom

 

[Midnight]

<whispering...

mortice chisel, bit & brace, little bit of sweat and some patience...

wayyyyyyy easier on the pocket..

go onnnnnnnnnnn ya know ya wannaaaaaa

 

[DaveL]

Hey Mike have you greased that slope yet :wink: :shock: :wink:

 

[thomaskennedy]

:lol: LOL :lol: i wish i had the patience but i want it done NOW....

I am also thinking of the SIP one BTW :wink:

Ta, Tom

 

[Midnight]

Hey Mike have you greased that slope yet

shhhhhhhhhhhhhh......

:wink:

teflon's wonderful stuff.... :twisted:

 

[Midnight]

i wish i had the patience but i want it done NOW....

Ahhhh.... therein lays the prob young Grasshopper....

the key to enlightenment isn't found through the pursuit of speed... but through the execution of accuracy.... do it once, do it right... do it by hand...

unless you NEED the excuse that the machine wasn't set up right...

Ahem....
:wink:

 

[Philly]

Thom,
I haven't got one of those machinesbut have been, um, checking them out quietly.....
There seems to be a lot of the same machine badged up (surprise, surprise!) SIP, Fox, even the Sheppach looks frighteningly similar.
At the end of the day, a top quality chisel makes or breaks a mortiser, so if the Fox price is right, get one AND a good chisel!
hope this helps
Philly

 

[Anonymous]

Tom

Not used one of these but my cheap Charnwood one works really well and I don't think you'll go wrong with the one you're looking at.

I think GWW just tested a load of morticers

 

[thomaskennedy]

Thanks Tony ill have to grab copy...

A good chisel is the thing really.....Who are good suppliers of good chisels then? :?

Midnight-I like that saying...but takes too long :wink: :lol: plus all the hand tools are just as expensive as a tailed devil ......

Ta, Tom

 

[Noel]

Grasshopper Tom,

Don't forget the Delta models, keyed way as opposed to a pole and spring.

Noel

 

[Adam]

I bought mine (note singular) from Clico (or Clifton they are basically one and the same company).

They range from £55 - £100+ - so really aren't cheap!

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp? ... 23&recno=4

Adam

 

[Taffy Turner]

Tom,

Have a look at this link for teh Fox 5/8" model

http://sawdustalley.co.uk/tools/reviews.php?id=23

It may be helpful.

Regards

Gary

 

[Chris Knight]

Tom,

Save your money! Use a router if you want clean, easy power cut mortices. Otherwise , enhance your hand skills - seriously.

(I have a nice Multico mortiser and the above advice is not intended to be flippant).

 

[Anonymous]

A good chisel is the thing really.....Who are good suppliers of good chisels then? :?

Ta, Tom

Tom my experience has been that the cheap chisels that arrive with the morticer have worked brilliantly for the 2 years or so that I have owned the Charnwood morticer. I haven't even had to sharpen them yet although I have only used them about 20-30 times (on Ash, Pine and Mahogany)

Don't spend your money until you find that the supplied chisels are definitely not good enough

 

[Alf]

Who are good suppliers of good chisels then? :?

Lie Nielsen...

I'm sorry, but I did manage to resist for over 7 hours.

Cheers, Alf

Who probably has some oval bolstered mortise chisels in the "spares" pile, if anyone's interested...

 

[Midnight]

Alf.... one of these days that hubcap's gonna slip and end up as a collar..

;P~~~

I hear Tom's developing a set of mortice chisels. You heard anything.??

 

[Midnight]

Midnight-I like that saying...but takes too long plus all the hand tools are just as expensive as a tailed devil ......

OK Tom... I hear what you're saying, and believe me I can understand the desire... but hear me out; there was a serious side to my suggestion...

Leaving aside the significant capital outlay involved in any power tool, you'll find that the freedom of design you have will be limited by the capacity of the machines unless you have an alternative way of doing the job. Trust me, I'm talking from experience here...
Having the skill to use manual tools to execute a task opens up a host of design possibilities, mainly limited by your imagination. Case in point..
This bed I'm (still) making... the head and foot boards are secured to the rails with through wedged tusk tenons, the mortices for the wedges needed to be 165mm deep, tapered at 7 deg with their outer face rounded to a 6mm radius... I looked at all sorts of machines to do the job for me... couldn't find one that fitted either my budget or my shop space. In the end, I removed the bulk of the waste with a power drill and a couple of jigs... the rest of the shaping done with a combination of fairly inexpensive hand tools... I honestly doubt I coulda done it any other way...
Ignoring cost... if I'd used a mortiser, I would've been limited to a square sided hole, not to mention having to swallow one hellova bill (I think I found one that could handle angled mortices, giving very little change from £500). Tooling for these cost me less than £60 given that I already had the power drill and one of the jigs... the other took an hour to build from offcuts in the scrap box.

mortisers only really come into their own when you need repeatability; if you're only dealing with a half dozen or so, a good mortice chisel will give a mortiser a run for its money.

N.B. I'm not trying to put you off the idea... simply pointing out that handraulic tools are a viable option.

 

[Alf]

I hear Tom's developing a set of mortice chisels. You heard anything.??

He had some at the show. They're... well I wasn't much grabbed by them to be honest. I'm sure they're great but mortising is up there with scrub planes for me - not something I want to spend L-N kind of money on. There's been quite a bit about them over on WoodCentral if you want the latest.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Midnight]

Are they still based on the Stanley 750??

 

[SimonA]

I have to say I sold my morticer for the very reasons that Midnight has been talking about. I just never used it because every job I did was easier another way. I know cut all small and difficult ones by hand and large precise ones with my router. I much prefer it and its just as quick.

SimonA