February 25, 201214 yr Last year I was looking into mortisers as I wanted to make a lot of A&C style frames for our home. Another woodworker had a Harbor Freight one that he did not use and gave it to me for free which was very kind of him and much appreciated. I used it for making some mortises for my A&C bathroom vanity doors and it worked ok but it is not up to doing anything more than a few here and there and it is rather flimsy. So now that I am starting to wrap up some things and will finally get to making some frames and I have a couple of other projects on the drawing board that will require mortises it is time to get a real mortiser that I can use long term.While I would love to get a free standing one, the $1,200-$1,800 price tag puts it out of range. I can swing up to $500 which puts all the major bench top brands in reach. I have done some online research and found good reviews on the Delta (the old stand by), Jet, and Powermatic as well as Shop Fox and Steel City. When I was at the big Las Vegas AWFS show last July I played around with the Steel City one and was impressed with it. But I later found out after talking to a person who does tool reviews that there may be some issues with the manufacturer of Steel City tools and whether they will be able to service or provide parts down the road due to corporate stuff overseas.So I want to get the best of the bunch here and wanted to get any input you might have. I have chewed on the router jig direction, but for what I will be doing the mortiser is the best option for me.Thanks.Allen WorshamCorona, CAallenworsham@earthlink.nethttp://www.awcreationsandwoodcrafts.com'Graze in every man's field, but always give your own milk' J. Vernon McGee
February 25, 201214 yr I have a JET bench top mortiser that I haven't used as much as I thought I would but I can tell you that it's easy to set up and very solidly built. I've always been a little skeptical of Harbor freight, Shop Fox & Steel City. I hope this helps and good luck in your shopping. Try WWW.WOODWORKINGTALK.COM. There are a lot of tool discussions on there.Â
February 25, 201214 yr I only use Loose Tenons. I built a Milling Machine / Slot mortiser with tilting head  using a Triton big dog plunge router as the quill and an X-Y table retrofitted with levers instead of rotary crank handles. I put adjustable hard stops on it using all-thread.  Works great.Cost:$190 for the router but it dies double duty also in the router table$95 for the X-Y table$20 for extra heavy angle ironsome plywood and time
February 25, 201214 yr Allen, I can't remember if I told you or not, but I had a Shop Fox and was not impressed with it one bit. The quill had some serious run out straight out of the box, the cutter kept banging up against the chisel and the fit and finish was less then desirable. I cannot give you any positive feedback on any others because I have not replaced the SF since I got rid of it 3 years ago. But my experience with Shop Fox is that it was a dog.John MorrisThe Patriot WoodworkerProud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops
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