Yorkcraft Mortiser from Wilke-Up and Running

[Allen Bookout]

More that a gloat this is just a short rundown on what I think might be a good tool for the money. I ordered it about noon on Monday and it was shipped out by 4:30 that afternoon and arrived here Friday with no damage. It is the Yorkcraft YC-10FMT mortiser. I delt with Curt at Wilke and he was more than helpful and very plesant.

I uncrated the base first and my heart sunk. I thought that if this is the indication of the quality of this tool I have been had. As you can see from the first photo below the striping on the base was so crooked that I could not believe it. Slave labor I suppose. Well, I already owned it so off came the stripping and I felt better. The bottom of the base was not flat which would not have been a problem with the enclosed leveling feet but I needed it on rollers so some shimming was in order.

I uncrated the mortiser and things started looking up. Mounted it on the base and started removing all of the grease. Lots of grease but nothing new there from some of the Chinese outfits. For the tables to move freely on the dovetail ways you will have to get all of the thick grease off that you can and relube with something better. I used white lithinum and it worked well. Very smooth now.

Put in a 5/8" chisel and bit and drilled a three inch long three inches deep mortise and man did it work slick. The setup is fast and the mortising even faster. I will not dread doing mortises again. I know that it was only construction grade lumber but I was still impressed. Drilled as fast as I could and could not slow down the motor. The somewhat unorthordox holddowns worked great. So did all of the stops.

The reason that I wanted to get this in now is that Wilke is saying the sales price of $599 is good to the end of last month or until current supplies are exhausted. They are still showing it available at that price. I think that it is normally $800. I also bought a set of eight bits and chisels for $79.95 (Curt at Wilke said that he uses them). I know that they are not industrial quality but they appear to be a good value and I used the 5/8" right out of the box and it cut fine. Will have to sharpen them more often but it will give me all of the sizes that I need and can replace them with better ones as time goes by. One 5/8" bit and chisel comes with the unit, with lots of grease on it of course.

I personally think that for just a small amount more dollarwise you get a whole lot more machine than with the tabletops.

Here is a link to Wilke: http://www.wilkemachinery.com/defaul...kudatarq=21546

Here is a link to the only owner report that I could find: http://www.gatago.com/rec/woodworking/28186674.html

I hope that this report helps someone.

Allen

[Jim Becker]

That's quite the machine, Allen! Very nice. I'm looking forward to your comments after you have a few jobs "under its belt", especially about how the XY table works out.

[Allen Bookout]

Thanks Jim,

I, of course, do not know how the machine is going to hold up but I can tell you one thing. The XY table is the key to quick accurate set up and quick and accurate drilling. Drill and turn the handle, drill and turn the handle ,drill and turn the handle. Your done.

Allen

[Mike Cutler]

Nice machine Allen. That's a heckuva deal at $600.00 for a floor standing mortiser.
I think it will hold up just fine.

Nice Gloat all around.

[Ted Miller]

Allen, Thank you for this post, perfect timing, I had a few demos on floor 1 hp mortisers and had my eye on the 10FMT from Wilke and I am now very close to making a decision, the hold downs were a major concern.

This will be my first purchase from Wilke and I am loking at a few items from them, I have Laguna, Jet, Grizzly, Makita, and Delts for most of my bigger tools, so its nice to see your post on Wilkes mortise...

[Allen Bookout]

Ted,

Glad this report helped someone. The holddowns seem to work just fine. I have to remove the one on the right side when mortising near the end of a workpiece with a short bit and chisel. The other vertical one on the other end with the aid of the one that holds the wookpeice to the fence is enough even when using the 5/8" chisel and bit.

All of the bits in the set that I bought from Wilke had to be shortened but it was an easy job to cut the shanks off with a hacksaw and file them smooth. They work good. I do not know about longivity. I bought one from Lee Valley but it will be a while before I can compare them to the ones in the set. The Lee Valley one also needs to be shortened. This is apparently a common thing with some mortisers as there was a note in the Lee Valley one about it.

The only other thing that I can think of is that the placard on the front of the motor says 1HP. There is a placard on the side that has a stick on that says 3.6amps which would be less than 1/4HP. I peeled it off and underneath it says 9.6amps which would approx. 3/4HP at 110 volts. So I guess that the answer is that no one really knows how much power it really has. My answer would be that I could not seem to bog it down (in soft wood anyway) using the 5/8" bit and chisel so it must have plenty of HP whatever it is.

It has a door both on the left and right side to get to the chuck. The rubber doors are a small pain to open so I just took them off. I could not see any reason to have them there other than looks. I probably should not admit that here as I may have a lawsuit filed against me for some Federal safety violation. Oh well, can't win them all.

If you decide to get this unit it would be real interesting to me to hear your evaluation. I would appreciate it.

Good Luck!

Allen

[David J Wood]

Allen,
I see that Grizzly is now selling the once Yorkcraft Mortising Machine now as the Stellex ST1005. At $479 with shipping it SOUNDS like a great deal. But I'm curious as to your feelings of this tool now that you've had it a while. Of particular interest are the following...
1.) Any quality issues?
2.) Does the XY control maintain it's alignment relative to the chisel>
3.) How does the horizontal clamp in front of the workpeice move front-to-back? Is there a threaded rod that you turn or does the "Dog bone" on the right side simply hold the crome rod with friction alone?

Thank you very much for your reply and feedback.

[Allen Bookout]

Hi David,

I have not been able to use the mortiser to the extent that I wanted to as I have not been able to do any woodworking for the last 14 months so I am not able to give a long term evaluation. I used it quite a bit before I kind of shut down for a while and was very happy with it. I would buy it again at $600 plus shipping and for sure at $479. I went on line to Grizzly and show the model number for them as T20836 which is different than the number that you show. Maybe the other number is the catalog number as I did not look at my catalog.

In answer to your questions:

1.) Any quality issues? No
2.) Does the XY control maintain it's alignment relative to the chisel> So far.
3.) How does the horizontal clamp in front of the workpiece move front-to-back? Is there a threaded rod that you turn or does the "Dog bone" on the right side simply hold the crome rod with friction alone? Friction alone. It is fast to use and has worked good for me. I don't know what will happen as the machine wares.

If you decide to get this machine would you please give us a report. It would be helpful to me if you would reply here so I do not miss it. Good luck! Allen

[David J Wood]

Allen,
I am anxiously awaiting the delivery of my "Steelex" ST1005 Mortiser from Grizzly tomorrow. In preperation for it's arrrival I'm planning to put the thing on wheels. I think I can recognize the the red wheels of a Woodcraft caster under the base. Did you use the 3/8" bolt version of the Casters fro Woodcract (see link below)?
http://www.woodcraft.com/product.asp...&FamilyID=1989
And if so, what has been your experience moving the mortiser around?
Have the wheels withstood the wheel?
Have they flattened from sittings in the same position for long periods?
Is the swivel or lock impeded by the skirt of the base?
Thank you Again. I'll report back with the experience once it arrives.

DJW

[Allen Bookout]

I bought my casters from Rockler but they appear to be different from the ones that they have now. I am sure that the Woodcraft ones are just fine but boy has the price gone up. I have not had any problems with the wheels except that it would have been better to have build a base a little larger than the base of the unit as it would have increased stability and the locks would have been easier to operate but it has not been enough of a problem that I ever corrected it. One time I bought some casters that have the one bolt to attach them like the one shown in your link to Yorkcraft and they had so much slop that I replaced them with the ones that have the four bold holes and was much happier with the performance. It could be that the ones that I bought were not high enough quality but I never trusted trying them again.

The unit is very easy to move around as it is not that heavy.

I cannot wait to hear what you have to say about the mortiser when you get your hands on it.

[John Thompson]

David.. I purchased the last Bridge-wood Industrial floor mortiser from Curt Wilke for $800 before he quit importing. It is idenical to the Grizzly Industrial at $2195 except it is on phase and has a 1 HP in lieu of the Grizzly 3 HP not necessary to drill a hole.

My point is it weighs around 650 pounds and I have it on a welded base that Curt Wilke threw in. I roll it up from my rear shop to front shop often as this Saturday I did 40 mortises. No problems what-so-ever. Yours is lighter and should not require a custom welded base.

I have my Steel City 18" BS on a heavy duty Jet base which cost around $80-$90. It weighs around 450 lbs which is probably heavier than the Steelex mortise machine which I was going to get BTW.. until Curt called to offer me the Green monster industrial.

I don't think you would have a problem with any standard heavy duty base and I reccomend the Jet as I have about 3 heavy machines around 400 lbs. give or take on them. I do prefer heavy welded custom bases on my machines that weight over 500 lbs. as my mortiser.. 20" planer.. etc.

Good luck with your Steelex as I think you will see a major improvement over a bench-top. It isn't the quality of the Power-matic floor at over $1000 but it is sufficient.. very sufficient at the price point.

Sarge..

[David J Wood]

Allen, et al;
Sorry for the delay in getting back with my review of the Steelex ST1005 I purchased from Grizzly, work has been busy...

First off, this machine is every bit the same as the Yorkcraft YC-10FMT mortiser Allen photographed above, except with the "Steelex ST1005" labels. At $503 including liftgate delivery to my garage this was easily a great value compared to other floor mortisers and the inconvenience of lifting and storing a "Bench top" machine. If nothing else, the ability to move the workpeice in both X and Y directions using the adjustment handwheels makes this superior to any bench top machine.

As was the case with the Grizzly G0490 8" jointer I purchased from Grizzly, the crate was damaged significantly, but the machine inside was unharmed. Phew! After using Mineral spirits to remove all of the waxy oil on all unpainted metal surfaces I mounted the machine onto the provided metal base. Since I work out of a standard 2-car garage I have to be able to reconfigure the shop for each phase of a project. So using the provided leveler feet wouldn't work. Instead, I used the dual locking caster mentioned previously from Woodcraft. This made moving the mortising machine effortless with a small trade off of stability if not placed on a level floor, but well worth the trade off.

The Fence was just about dead-on square, not enough to even tweak. I noticed that the left-to-right (Y) movement table and up/down movement of the required significant effort but eventually determined that the "Table Left/Right Lock screw" and the "Head Lock screw" had been tightened for shipment. After to quick counterclockwise turn of these screws both movements were easily performed. Though moving the head (Chisel/motor) still requires some effort I like the fact that the Head won't fall down or spring upwards when you let go of the handle, as I've ready about other machines. Using the 5/8" Chisel provided with the tool (bonus!) I has able to cut several mortises into Rock/Hard Maple with little effort. I wonder if using one of those $100 chisels would make much improvement in the cutting effort, but at 7 time the cost it would have to be a huge improvement to justify its cost.

With the forward/backwards (X) adjustment of the table/fence aligning the chisel parallel with the fence was a breeze. Something I've struggled doing with a my Drill press mortising attachment previously. I'd image this would provide similar difficulty with a bench top mortiser.

Using the machine for two projects this weekend demonstrated that the tool is without a doubt a useful addition to my shop. I'm certain I'll be more inclined to use mortise and tenon joinery in future projects due to its ease of use.

I have only two complaints about the tool.
1.) The "Vise" style clamp provided to press the workpeice against the fence is a bit difficult to work with. It does not use a threaded handwheel as most competitive offerings do. Instead it appears to use sometime of cam lock mechanism to mechanically clamp down of the chrome rod of the vise. To operate the vise you have to press the Vise clamp forward so it presses against the workpeice, then rotate the lever about 90 degrees. As you push this lever forward it presses the vise further into the workpeice holding it firmly. Though a few times, when I forgot to use one of the provided Table clamps the workpeice jammed as the chisel was retracted from the workpeice. No big deal. What I don't like about this design is it can be a little difficult to back the Vise clamp away from the workpeice once the lock lever has been released. Also, the cam action of the lock lever puts a nice dent into the chrome rod of the vise clamp. I suppose over time these dents could reduce its clamping effectiveness?? Only time will tell.
2.) The depth stop method is not reliable. First of all, the depth stop handles have to lock down on a chrome plated rod to prevent the chisel/head from drilling too deep. This chrome plated rod is too smooth to prevent the operator (who is cranking down on a big handle) to notice when they've hit the stop. Since the stop does not have a good grip on the chrome rod I tended to force the stop downward, causing future holes to be drilled deeper than intended. To resolve the issue I had to watch the stop plate as it approached the Stop Handle so I didn't go too far. This meant my eyes were not on the chisel and workpeice which I was more concerned about. If this chrome rod was replaced with a threaded rod and couple threaded nuts (one used as a jamb nut) this would not be a problem.

In summary, if you're looking for a powerful mortiser at a value price this is a serious contender. Instead of buying a Benchtop mortiser which you have to store on the floor or on a shelf, this floor standing mortiser is more convenient and provides greater adjustment flexibility and at a reasonable price (competitive Benchtop mortisers: $250 - $500, Competitive Floorstanding mortisers: $500 - $1500++).

David

[Vic Damone]

David, Thanks for the in depth review. I've been interested in this mortiser but haven't found any worth while comments until this thread.

I stumbled onto what looks like the same build with Laguna branding on it. Check out this address and play the video.

http://www.lagunatools.com/mortiser.platinumhcws.aspx

[Allen Bookout]

Very good report David. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Vic, I was trying to see the video on the Laguna site and was unable. I tried using Mandriva and Vista with both Firefox and Internet Explorer with no luck. I do get audio but no video with Mandriva and Firefox. Any ideas?

[Vic Damone]

Very good report David. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Vic, I was trying to see the video on the Laguna site and was unable. I tried using Mandriva and Vista with both Firefox and Internet Explorer with no luck. I do get audio but no video with Mandriva and Firefox. Any ideas?

I'm not sure what to suggest. Did you try NOT using the link and getting to the Laguna site using your browser?

There isn't really to much to the video but after watching again I wanted to ask some questions.

Does the Grizzly/Woodstock Int. unit have the ratcheting lever and gas shock? Everything else looks very similar except the price.