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Very cool. Never used a horizontal mortiser.
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(04-06-2017, 09:58 AM)dvanvleet Wrote: Very cool. Never used a horizontal mortiser.
Once you do you'll never use a chisel mortiser.
John
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I finished John's mortiser recently. I already had the router to dedicate to it, and I think the rest of the components was south of $100.
I'm a hobbyist and it works great.
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OP, why are you upgrading your benchtop mortiser? To cut faster or stronger mortises? To cut wider or thicker mortises? I have three mortise machines, a benchtop chisel, a horizontal router, and a Domino XL. I use them all, but I haven't ever found the need for a larger chisel mortiser. The fastest mortise is made the Domino, the most versatile mortise machine is my horizontal (a Laguna that uses the Robland table and a PC router), and I only use the chisel mortiser for small jobs. Not trying to talk you out of a large floorstanding chisel mortiser, they are really nice. But if you haven't used a horizontal, please look into it. Making these doors (below) using traditional mortise and tenon joints would have been very difficult. They are much simpler to make using floating tenons. 1 1/8 Sapelle door with floating tenons in all the joints, even the curved ones.
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BCW,
So, the reason for the upgrade is for a couple of reasons. One, on a couple occasions I've needed more capacity, in terms of table to bit clearance. I have another project coming up where this is going to be an issue again as well. Second, the ability to clamp a piece still and move it in the vice instead of moving the piece is appealing (very much so). I know I can add an x-y vice, but that doesn't help with clearance.
I do a lot of mortise and tenon joints, some on angles, so these combinations I like.
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For far less than the cost of a Domino, you could buy Johns Mortiser, and with stop blocks easily do the same as a Domino, and so much more. For a one shot pony, they are so overpriced it's not funny, Domino that is.
Worst thing they can do is cook ya and eat ya
GW