Dedicated Mortise Machine

[Bruce Cohen]

I'm thinking of getting a dedicated mortiser, read a review in Fine Woodworking where they found the General to be the best.

I wonder if anyone has experience with it, or baring that, can suggest something else.

Many thanks for your help,

Bruce

[Uncle Cracker]

I have never needed more than the HF ($69 on sale and with coupon). After I upgraded the cheesy fence and hold-downs, it's done just fine for me, although I don't use it a ton.

[SARGE..g-47]

The General is well made and has nice little front clamp, Bruce. If you do a lot of angled tenons.. probably the best way to go without a floor mortiser. The Pm is also well made but is over-priced for what it can deliver IMO. And with that said.. if angles are not your norm as with most of us, you could save a few $ for something else as the Steel City.. Delta (the top of line one).. or Shopfox. They are also well made.

The Shopfox is well made with the draw-back of running at 3450 rpm as opposed to 1750 as the others. You have to learn to plunge and with-draw to keep from burning. I had one for yeas and it has about the deepest plunge of all them regardless or price.

And as Uncle Crack mentioned... if you only do tenons occassionally the HF seems to be well thought of. BTW... all, repeat all of the benchie's have no front clamp except the General. Even it is not enough to totally secure the stock to fence as I see it. So.... welcome to benchies as all will come up a few features short of a floor model. But I have found all will also get it done as I have used most with the exception of the HF.

Good luck...

[JimD]

I like my Jet mortiser. I'm sure there are better but I see no reason to change. If I need to do something the Jet won't do, I can always rig up something for my plunge router.

Jim

[Popeye]

I've looked at them all and played with a few but IMO none of the benchtops is worth spit without and X/Y clamp. I wasn't happy with my HF till I bought a xy clamp. Now I have no reason to upgrade to anything else. Pat

[Pappy]

I just bought the Steel City. Still in the box so all I can report is what the dealer told me. He has had no complaints on the several he has sold, or any other Steel City tool. He quit selling the Delta for quality issues.

Thru the end of the month there is a $40 factory rebate which brings the price to $239.

[ryan.s]

I picked up the craftsman bench top model made by orion on sale for $160 plus tax a couple of months ago. It's still in the box so I can't comment on how it actually works but I believe it's on sale again for about $175 or so. When I was looking for a bench top mortiser the reviews I came across as well as the information I found on the various forums basically told me most bench top models are very similar in terms of performance. Some may have fancier hold down methods but that seemed to be the only difference. I'm sure there are other differences but that's the main thing that stuck in my head. A lot of what I read basically said get an xy vise to hold the work piece which would help the performance dramatically. I didn't expect to get a lot of use out of the mortiser so I used price as the major decision making factor. I couldn't pass up the craftsman for $160.

[radhak]

Mortise Pal?

I got the latest woodsmith issue yesterday and they have reviewed this tool called Mortise Pal that I had not heard of, but looks pretty neat.




At almost $200, dunno how much better it'd be than a regular mortiser; maybe more handy for large workpieces, and more precise...?

Anybody use it?

[Pappy]

At $200 there are a lot of different shop made jigs that are much more attractive!