Reply by Loren

What are you looking to mortise?

I have mortise chisels, a slot mortiser, a chain mortiser
and a hollow chisel mortiser… plus some plunge routers.

For a couple of mortises the plunge routers are the
quickest way to go. The hollow chisel machine
is quick to set up too. I have to move machines
around to pull mine out though.

If you are looking for reasonably quick setup, decent
accuracy and modest cost, get a 1/2” plunge router, fence,
and spiral upcut bits. A few simple to make jigs make
mortising with a plunge router reasonably quick
if not a barrel of fun due to the noise, dust, and mental
focus required.