Mortising - need thoughts on General 75-050(t)

[John McBride]

I placed mine on a stand that makes the tables co planer with my workbench. Makes a great support for longer pieces.

Paul, thanks! Good advice. Very much appreciated.

[John McBride]

I have a little Jet benchtop mortiser. I like it better than making mortises with a plunge router. If I was looking for a machine now, I would look very seriously at the Domino. I would then have to decide 500 or 700. If you need to do entry doors or similar things (I've made internal but not entry doors so far) the 700 is indicated. For smaller stuff, cabinets and the like, the 500 would be better. Space and speed are the reasons I might drink the green cool aid. I might even though I have the little Jet.

Burning and sticking on the first hole are the things I do not care for with the Jet. I need to build a stand for it. It has one but I don't care for it. Any sort of machine, even a benchtop, will take up a lot more space than a Domino.

Agreed on the space saving with the Domino. We have the 700 in the shop, and its nice and all, but for that kind of $$$ I would be looking at the Grizzly or PM floor models I think.

No, I am much more inclined towards a benchtop mortiser. Thanks though.

[John McBride]

I have tried just about every mortising option available over 30 yrs of butchering wood. My choice? Domino. Fast, easy, strong.

Michelle, thanks for the reply. However, the Domino just is not in my financial cards right now.

[mreza Salav]

I have the GI, works fine but I don't see myself using it very often. A domino or a slot mortising machine (which I wish I had) would be a better choice.
I have the small domino and would likely get its bigger bro instead.

[Warren Lake]

Used a Gereral drill press for years before getting a mortiser. It worked well only thing I put more length on the handles for more leverage for woods like birdseye maple and think its hard on the drill press so finally got a dedicated machine. If you werent doing alot I dont think its a bad idea but not really sure.

[roger wiegand]

I've had the 75-075 for a decade or so now and wouldn't want to be without it. The sliding table makes it well worth the additional cost, IMO. Once you set the stops for a given project you can crank out lots of parts without fussy marking and measuring. For me anyway, every measurement is a golden opportunity to screw up. The chisels that came with it needed a *lot* of work to become even passable.

[scott vroom]

I've had the 75-075 for a decade or so now and wouldn't want to be without it. The sliding table makes it well worth the additional cost, IMO. Once you set the stops for a given project you can crank out lots of parts without fussy marking and measuring. For me anyway, every measurement is a golden opportunity to screw up. The chisels that came with it needed a *lot* of work to become even passable.

Roger, what's the biggest (widest) mortise you've cut with the 075?

[Michelle Rich]

I understand that..totally..$$$$ is always an issue. If I had it to do over, I would use a forstner & a chisel, while I saved my $$$ for a domino. I adore the little bugger that much. :-)

[roger wiegand]

Roger, what's the biggest (widest) mortise you've cut with the 075?

About 6" X 1-3/8" for a bed frame. That was done with a 5/8" chisel though, taking multiple cuts. I don't use a chisel bigger than 5/8", the 3/4" one takes too much pressure, it feels like I'm going to bend the arm when I've tried to use it in hard wood. Might well be fine for timber framing in softer woods.

[Steve Jenkins]

Fine Woodworking recently did a review of bench top mortisers. You might check their website.

[Bradley Hedges]

Thanks Rod,......

I suppose this may be for another post in another section, but does anyone know of an X-Y capable, shop made horizontal machine? I'll look some more here, then do some googling, but I wonder if anyone knows of a link that they could point me to?

Matthias Wandell's woodgears.ca website is a treasure trove for homemade tools. Here's the link to his X-Y slot mortiser: http://woodgears.ca/slot_mortiser/plans/index.html

I have built his tilting router lift, and will build his box joint jig once I finish up a few other projects first.

Highly recommend.
Brad