| Review by Al Navas | posted 677 days ago | 1295 views | 1 time favorited | 5 comments |  |
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- Delta 14-461 Deluxe Mortiser
- Brand: Delta | Category: Hollow-Chisel Mortisers
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The bottom line: This machine works, but you must watch out for several things, common to all mortisers of this type, as I already have pointed out on my recent blog posts.
The weak link: The fence. It recently gave me many headaches, as the inside edges of the fence halves did not align properly – in the photo, Edge #1 and Edge #2. This resulted in misalignment of stiles to rails, something that should NOT happen. I probably did something to cause this, or maybe just sitting by a window in cold weather caused the cast iron to change dimensionally. I don’t really know. This is solved VERY easily by attaching a sub-fence; use screws to secure a wood fence to the cast iron one using the holes provided for this purpose; this is my guess, as I am not really sure why these holes even exist on the ends of the fence :) .
With proper care, and making sure the chisels are sharp and square to the table top, anyone can make mortises using this machine. I would buy it again. But today there are other options, such as Festool’s Domino, at about 3X the cost. I don’t own a Domino, but that might be THE way to go if I must cut many, many more mortises than I do today.
-- Al Navas, St Joseph, MO, http://sandal-woodsblog.com
5 comments so far
dalec
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580 posts in 787 days
posted 677 days ago
Thanks for the review Al. Will check out your blog.
Dalec
GaryK
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9539 posts in 887 days
posted 677 days ago
I have the same machine and didn’t have that problem you describe. I have used mine with no problems.
Thanks for your review.
-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.
cajunpen
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5968 posts in 964 days
posted 667 days ago
I’ve been thinking about getting a bench top mortiser – Good review – Gary, do you think this is as good as I would want, or should I spend the extra $$$ and get the Powermatic 701? I doubt that I would use either of them that much.
-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/
DRdeveloper
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23 posts in 364 days
posted 361 days ago
I purchased the same machine from Rockler and am very happy with it – it’s very easy to make mortises. My two complaints about it are really a wish list: (1) There should be some way to easily square up the chisel – it’s a pain in the posterior to have to square it up every time you chock up a bit (2) the chisel/bit combo jams up a lot with wood chips when drilling into hard wood (like mahogany) – this causes the motor to stop and you have to remove the chisel/bit combo, clean it out and put it back in again (see wish #1) – if there were chip holes on BOTH sides of the chisel, this might be less of a problem.
-- Mark, Dominican Republic
woodymays
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23 posts in 171 days
posted 66 days ago
I have been wanting a mortiser and after looking at several, I liked the Festool domino jointing system. This tool is somewhat similar to a biscuit jointer but does a lot more. This tool cuts the mortise via a drill bit that turns and oscillates at the same time making a rectangular shape hole. This mortiser will cut different size mortises depending on which cutter you have installed. The dominos fit exactly to size into the mortise. I toke a look at one of these tools and some day will own. I will say that this mortiser costs quite a bit but well worth the money. take a look at this web site: www.festooljunkie.com. review and watch the video clips on what this tool can do.
-- Mark, Ohio, www.swig@nktelco.net