How well does a Mortiser attachment for drillpress work?

Brian Altop

Member
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274
Location
Tacoma, WA
Just a quick question,

I've noticed in several photos of peoples shops that they have a mortising attachment for their drill press.
So my question is -

How well does the mortising attachment for a drill press work verses a dedicated machine? Is it something that is good for the occasional use but not on a constant basis or is it just as good?


Thanks!

Brian
 
I'm not a fan of them. It takes a while to put on the press, and then you have to remove it to use it as a drill press again. Additionally, the handle on most drill presses do not give you enough leverage.

They tend to wind up in the drawer after a use or two. If you want a mortising machine, buy a mortising machine. Alternately, and less expensive, use the drill press to drill out the mortise and then clean it up with a chisel.

Mike
 
I have never had a problem with my drill press mortising attachment.:thumb:
How ever there is a lot of extra parts that came with it. That take to much time to set up and than don't work all that well. :thumb::rofl::rofl:
I would say the biggest thing to having a MM is that one could/would mount it in a place that you would have plenty of bench on either side to support your work. Other than that a MM is nothing more than a drill press dedicated to making square holes.:thumb:
 
I'm pretty much with Mike on this one. You have only to use a dedicated mortiser once to realize what a difference it makes.

The drill press version will (sort of) work, but it's just about as easy to use a regular drill bit to hog out the waste, then clean up the sides and ends with a chisel.
 
If you are really thinking about a mortiser, look at the Harbor Freight model. Does what it is supposed to do, cost is very reasonable. You can almost pick it up for the cost of the attachment.
 
But if you want to save some money and experiment, I've got one I could send you for the cost of a flat rate box... :rofl:
 
I'm not a fan of them. It takes a while to put on the press, and then you have to remove it to use it as a drill press again. Additionally, the handle on most drill presses do not give you enough leverage.

They tend to wind up in the drawer after a use or two. If you want a mortising machine, buy a mortising machine. Alternately, and less expensive, use the drill press to drill out the mortise and then clean it up with a chisel.

Mike

What Mike said! :D

I spent hours and hours trying to get one to work at all. my boss at the time insisted that it would work, I eventually got it working fairly well, but when you added up all of my hours of working to get it at that point, we could have bought most of a decent mortising machine. :doh:
 
The mortising attachment takes a long time to set up and adjust. Once it's tuned in, my experience was that it works fine. Make sure you stage your work to do all of the mortising for a given project at one time. Also, your drill press is effectively out of commission while the mortising set up is on there.

I did this for a few years and came across a good used mortising machine that i use now. It's a lot easier to dial in for a given task and has more leverage (as someone else mentioned) for bigger holes and harder woods.
 
Thanks again everyone!

I think I will get just a dedicated machine. I've got a corner that is sitting bare in my shop so I guess I have to fill it with something.:D

Brian
 
Shop Fox makes a nice little mortiser and its on sale at amazon for 238.00 .

It is one of the better values in its class beating out Delta and Jet in price as well as power , 3/4 hp vs 1/2. Cannot recall what magazine article I read it in but they did a bench top mortiser comparision that included the shop fox, delta,jet,craftsman, and a few others . The Shop Fox won the editors best value.

Just something you might want to know if you are thinking about something in that class range. If I'm not mistaken , I think the Shop Fox also includes a spindle sander attachment.
 
another vote for a dedicated mortiser or a drill press and chisel setup.. but dont plan on having it in a corner always..storage fine but yur gonna find out that yu want some room on each side of it for the stock.. all wood isnt short:D:thumb:
 
At one point I asked the same question and got the same answers everywhere I asked.

If you go with a dedicated machine, incorporate the fence if you can in with your miter fence, should you have a permanent one.

The square chisels could be useful to square up your drilled mortises if you stick with a drill.
 
another vote for a dedicated mortiser or a drill press and chisel setup.. but dont plan on having it in a corner always..storage fine but yur gonna find out that yu want some room on each side of it for the stock.. all wood isnt short:D:thumb:

But I thought that was what glue was for?:dunno:
You just glue on the extensions to the piece you just mortised out, right? Or am I wrong in cutting all my wood to fit my machines and then gluing them back together into the lengths I need?:doh::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
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