Mortising: drill press jig or dedicated benchtop mortiser?

[scott vroom]

My first woodworking project will be Shaker style kitchen cabinets, followed by Mission sytyle bedroom furniture. I'm debating whether to buy a drill press mortising jig, or lay out a few more dollars and get a benchtop mortising machine (Grizzly or Shop Fox?). I've heard it's a PITA to set up the DP jig, and difficult to get repeatable mortising. Does anyone agree with this? I plan to continue woodworking for many years and want to get a good setup now rather than having to upgrade later. The dedicated benchtop appeals to me but is it overkill for the projects I have planned? If I go the benchtop route, are Grizzly or Shop Fox good quality machines? I looked at a Powermatic but it's $449 which is more than I want to spend (unless of course the Griz and Shop Fox are garbage).

Thanks very much for your help!

[Mike Heidrick]

Have you checked out the Steel City benchtop mortiser? If not a PM or General - the Steel City would be my third choice in benchtop mortisers.

If you are going to make bedroom furniture invest in a mortiser. In fact I would be trying to find a used floor mortiser maybe with the X/Y table.

[jim sauterer]

i had the steel city and was very happy with it.i got in on the jet floor model last year.i sold the steel city to a creeker.but i was satisfied with the steel city.just my 2 cents.

[scott vroom]

Mike, I would love to find a good used mortiser but none are available in my area and I'm already building kit cab carcasses. Do you know anything about the Griz or Shop Fox bench mortisers? They're much less expensive than the PM and appear to be well built.

[Paul Ryan]

Scott,

I went through that same delema last winter. The jet floor standing machine came up for sale at $350. But I was in need of a drill press as well. The mortiser was the way to go. A deticated mortiser almost makes it a pleasure to cut mortises. I have used that machine for all sorts of projects since. I would go that rount again in a second. I have always gotten by with out a drill press. Now that I have one, well you know my feelings of the machine I have.

[Rick Dennington]

I 've had a Delta benchtop mortiser for years. I've also got the mortiser for the d.p. The d.p.m. ties up your drill press, is a pain to set up and tear down if/ when you need the d.p. Buy the b.t.m. leave the d.p. open for other operations.

[Ryan Baker]

The drill press jig is definitely a major PITA. And it happens every time that as soon as you get it set up you need to drill something. Get the dedicated mortiser. You'll never look back.

[Michael O'Sullivan]

The drill press jig is definitely a major PITA. And it happens every time that as soon as you get it set up you need to drill something. Get the dedicated mortiser. You'll never look back.

On top of that, mine (a Grizzly) really never worked. I was more likely to pull the chuck out of the press trying to extract the morticer from the wood than I was to cut a decent mortice.

I got the SC benchtop morticer, and it works much better.

[Alan Schwabacher]

You say you are starting out, so I will respond to that. You do know that you can make good mortises by lots of other methods, right? An efficient power tool-only method is to use a handheld router, preferably with two edge guides or a template. Mortises cut this way are cleaner than those cut with a hollow-chisel mortiser, but have rounded edges and more limited depth. A drill press works well for removing most of the waste if you then clean up the mortise with a regular chisel. Both these methods are very effective, and use tools with many other uses. That's the feature I consider most important for starting out, though you may not.

If you are getting a mortiser now because you don't want to upgrade, I don't think it's a good idea to get one designed for a drill press. That is a compromise tool that can work, but will always involve tying up your drillpress when you want to mortise, take time to switch back and forth between applications, and a drillpress is not really designed for the force needed. A good stand-alone mortiser would make more sense. Make sure it has a good stock hold-down, as shifting stock can cause big problems, including destruction of your hollow chisel.

[Neal Clayton]

the powermatic bench top is more simply because of the name. i would also argue that any mortiser without a front clamp is inherently very limited, especially with longer/heavier boards.

the sliding table you can do without, but most benchtop models also suffer from poor clamps.

before i bought a new small one, i'd check around ebay and craigslist for an old larger one. PM719s are pretty cheap when they come up, since they lack a sliding table, but are otherwise very rigid and perfectly capable of anything you might do.

[John Morrison60]

Scott

I would think about how much mortising you intend to do and then buy accordingly.

I bought the Steel City kit for the drill press, and it worked fine for me. I was building
my first chair and it called for mortise/tenon.

Using the drill press does tie it up for other tasks. That was not a problem.
If you are going to do a lot of mortises, you might want a dedicated mortiser, or you
might want to investigate the Leigh mortise/tenon jig. The Leigh jig works great,
I just saw a demo on it, and it was easy to set up, and the routed mortises were very nice.

Take care
John

[Frank Martin]

I think loose tenon joinery is a lot simpler than traditional M&T jointery. You can use a router and either a home made jig or Mortise Pal to rout the mortises and make your own tenon stock. Alternatively, you can get a Festool Domino, but that costs more than your stated budget.

I would say, at least think about this other method before you commit your money to a mortiser....

[Keith Christopher]

I have the delta benchtop mortiser, it works great certainly can't complain about having a dedicated direct drive machine. One of the things I think would be a drawback to have a DP mortiser. Sometimes the need for the direct drive torque is important.

[Chip Lindley]

I've heard it's a PITA to set up the DP jig, and difficult to get repeatable mortising.

Scott, its NOT that hard to set up. There is NO problem with repeatabilty with proper hold-downs. It IS hard to do without your DP until all mortising is finished. I have a very old Craftsman DP with mortising attachment which works fine. The chuck has a threaded collar in addition to the #33 Jacobs taper to keep it ON the spindle. No pulling off the chuck while mortising.

1/2" mortises are pretty hefty in dense hard wood! A sharp chisel and auger bit are essential for success. A dedicated mortise machine (even an economy benchtop model) should have a heftier rack/pinion with more leverage than a DP! The average DP is just not designed to *force* a square chisel bit down into hardwood! They are designed to feed a drill bit gradually into wood or metal. IF you have much mortising to do in your future, a dedicated machine would serve you well instead of tying up your DP!

[rob mclaughlin]

I have to chime in in favor of the PM benchtop mortiser. I too am fairly new to this (expensive) hobby but had prior experience with the DP option. I swore that if i ever did another project calling for M/T joinery i would buy the right tool. Well, my next project called for 14 such joints, so I went shopping. I compared the Jet, PM, shopfox, and grizzly. I was most impressed with the motor size and overall heft of the PM. It also had the largest table and best hold down. I have been very happy with my choice.