Just a bit of gloat, re: Woodcraft....

[markwlewis]

...I happened into Woodcraft to cherry-pick some specials from the web. Now, my local store usually tries to match the web specials, despite occasionally being unable due to lack of stock or, on rare occasion, the special offered is below the wholesale price paid for the product, and even then, they usually come across. This time, I had a good list as the clearance items were marked half of the clearance price! Anyhow.....

The good info here is that my box arrived (I placed the order at the store and the box was delivered.) One thing that I spotted in the list was a Jessum mortise device. The web listed the large version for a normal price of $250, marked down to 119 dollars. Half of that was $56 dollars. I looked closely at the info and the component parts of the mortiser seemed like they, alone, would be worth the 50 bucks! Then they showed me that there was a junior model as well, marked down to $21. Okay, I'll take that one too!

So I got 'em. Guys, they are STOUT, built like tanks. The smaller one is, I think, designed for smaller wood stock. Anyhow, I am happy with the score. Here are some photos============

I don't think the half-price deal is still active, but your mileage will undoubtably vary. The device is designed to cut a mortise slot using a special bit and a hand drill. The docs are specific that, used as conceived, it SHOULD NOT be used with a router. It is designed to be used with the lower speed of the drill, in that the bearings are not designed for the whiz-whiz of a router. I haven't figured out how to approach this, but I may re-engineer it to work with a flex shaft tool that I have sitting around. I will, of course, replace the low-speed parts with some that are sufficient for use with whichever tool I replace the drill-driver. Hey, maybe I'll try it as delivered first. Maybe another tool isn't needed? I'll have to try it. Good luck, everybody!

[JR]

That's a pretty slick tool! I've never seen one before now.

JR

[tommyt654]

I had one of those a while back and while it appears to be built like a tank,mine wore out rather quickly, I never abused it and the tenons were always loose. I,m not knockin your purchase just giving you my impressions of it. I,ll tell you now you should go ahead and purchase several extra bits as well as they wear out quickly as well. If your making loose tenon joints it,ll work fine for a while but as I said mine became loose at the joints after about a yr and from there on out was producing sloppier joints. I eventually discarded it in favor of using my router and chisel.

[jon_ramp]

I bought the same jigs at the same price (it was deliverd on Friday). I also got the CMT Grand Rabet set for around $43 that is supposed to be shipped from mfgr. It has not yet arrived. Hope I get better mileage out of the loose tenon jigs than tommyt654. I was on the fence whether to buy those or just get the Dowelmax (never, ever seen it on sale).

[tommyt654]

Video of it in action, maybe you,ll understand why it wears out , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VtVGnxlBrc

[AlanWS]

Is it the bushing or the pivot points that wear out? It seems that pushing it side to side while drilling would be hard on both. If it's the bushing it could be replaced, but if the pivot points, it would be much trickier to fix.

But it should put a lot less stress on the machine if used slightly differently. What if you plunged the drill to full depth at each end of the stroke, then in the middle, then at the 1/4 and 3/4 positions? Now sweeping back and forth while plunging would clean everything up without putting too much strain on the mechanism. I don't know if this would slow the mortising process down enough to make it less appealing, but it should lengthen the useful life significantly.

[tommyt654]

I got wear everywhere, tried to fix but still failed and evetually gave up and tossed it in the corner. Its somewhat difficult to use the drill like you suggest as you take small cuts in short strokes. I tried several combinations over about a yr to see if there was any improvement but pretty much like the video was best maybe thats why it was getting clearance out.

[vaking]

Adding to the gloat - during the clearance I pulled the trigger on the Orion mortising attachement.
http://www.woodcraft.com/Catalog/Pro...3-243969d68ae5
At this moment it is listed at $84, during the original clearance it was $42. Somehow it is still called clearance now but the price doubled.
I must say the product looks well made, heavy cast iron everywhere.
I had my drill press table installed on a press for a long time. When I started working with attachement I initially removed the drill press table. I then quickly realised that the table does not interfere with the new purchase - all I need to remove is a fence from the table. The mortising attachement comes with its own fence which clamps to the column.

[Bill Anderson]

I had one of those a while back and while it appears to be built like a tank,mine wore out rather quickly, I never abused it and the tenons were always loose. I,m not knockin your purchase just giving you my impressions of it. I,ll tell you now you should go ahead and purchase several extra bits as well as they wear out quickly as well. If your making loose tenon joints it,ll work fine for a while but as I said mine became loose at the joints after about a yr and from there on out was producing sloppier joints. I eventually discarded it in favor of using my router and chisel.

Tommy, How many mortises did you cut with your Zip Slot before it showed signs of wear?

Bill

[tommyt654]

Hey Bill, I,m tryin to get a total in my head,We used that to build about 50 bookcases for a school here and then I used it again for maybe 10 projects, So I,m gonna say roughly maybe round 350-400 somewhere in that area for the bookcases and maybe another 70+ for some other projects as well. So an overall would prolly be around 500 give or take, but we made our own tenons,that really saved a bunch of money there as they are too expensive to buy IMO. We thought it was the perfect tool for that project and toward the end they really started to get loose, Might be OK for the average homeowner but would never hold up in an production environment, but Ida thought it would have lasted longer than it did as we paid a premium price as I recall for it($200+). They might even last longer if used on softer wood(bookcase,s were oak). But we did not force the tool as there was no rush on the school stuff, took about 3 months and used it sparingly over the course of the next 1 1/2 yrs before going back to the router and chisel method.Maybe I was a little harsh in my criticism of this tool for the current value but I,d rather stay with the router and chisel from here on out. Also fwiw they offered a replacement at a discount after a year but I passed on it as I felt it was not that worthy of a tool. Perhaps they made some improvements but none I can see from the pics.

[Bill Anderson]

Thanks Tommy, I doubt that I will ever cut 500 mortises with it, so I would say that it will hold up fine for my needs. Also, there is a replacement bearing and bushing (mounts to the tool, which guides the drill/cutter bit) and should get the machine back to like new condition and cut tight mortises again.

I am trying to envision how to use this on a bookcase/shelf project though. That would seem at the very least awkward. How did you mount the sides to the Zip Slot? You got me on that one.

Definitely a savings on the tenons, by making your own.

Thanks again, Bill

[tommyt654]

They were an adaptation of a mission style that we formulated, The tenons were primarily used for the rails, The shelves were not tenoned in place and we used a router and chisel for the tops and bottoms I,m lookin to see if I can find a few pics,They actually came out rather nice lookin. Thanks for the info on the bushings ,Where did you find those ? from Jessum ?

[Bill Anderson]

I would like to see pics. Sounds like a nice project. I ordered the spare bushing/bearing along with extra drill bit from Woodcraft, they were on sale also. They are also available from Jessem website as well. Jessem is also having a sale right now too, and I think the 3/8" set is ~$25. I think this should get your machine back to correct working order. I can see how cutting 500 mortises would wear that bearing out, as it takes the brunt of the side-to-side racking force.

Thanks again for the info, and help. Bill