# Drill press mortising attachments



## distrbd (Sep 14, 2011)

This woodworker thinks these attachments are totally useless,do you agree with him?watch:


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## HillbillyShooter (Feb 15, 2012)

Couldn't agree more. Tried a mortising attachment back in the mid 90s and never used it again-just easier to cut mortises by hand.


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

I had one that seemed to work okay. The main issue was the bit hanging up in the wood when withdrawing the chisel. But that happens on dedicated mortisers, too. The kit didn't fit my drill's quill, so I had to ream out the casting. A bit crude, but it worked. There is one advantage to using a DP for this: you can vary the drill speed, which is impossible on benchtop mortisers.

I retired it when I came across a Delta benchtop mortiser for a decent price.


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## RonInOhio (Jul 23, 2010)

Along the same lines, this was partially the reason I purchased an oscillating spindle sander instead of using a drill press spindle sander attachment.

After giving it some thought, I decided to go with a dedicated sander. I figure that a lot of sanding
on the drill press cannot be good for the quill assembly with the lateral pressure applied during
sanding.


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## realcowtown_eric (Feb 4, 2013)

Me too! I've never been happy with the drill press mortticing attachments

They need fine tuning at first, and constant attentiveness. Set up is always a bit of kliudge too auger bit sharpness is never great off the shelf, clearances have to be perfect.

Maybe for the once in a blue moon use it might be OK, but the steel in the imported stuff that I have encountered has very low strength. tap one of em into a a block of maple with a dead blow mallet and you'll see the 4 points splay out. Tap em a few times and you might see the head mushroom. and once he tips mushroom out, withdrawal is not a real pleasant experience.

Now I use a dedicated morticer for the once in a while application, and the router for more production oriented projects. where mortices are required.

Eric in Cowtown


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## LepelstatCrafts (Jan 16, 2011)

I have a bench top mortiser and I love it. I got the one made by Grizzly. I've used it on several projects and I really don't have anything bad to say about it other than the thing is freaking heavy. I just moved and the movers were floored by how heavy it was. I personally didn't mind the weight. If you do get a dp model, keep in mind that you need to set it up and break it down every time you want to switch back and forth.


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## crank49 (Apr 7, 2010)

I would love to have a bench top mortiser but have not run upon a deal I could swing, yet.
I did happen upon a Delta mortising attachment for a drill press, NIB at Lowes for $44.
And, I did happen to have a spare, unused drill press to put it on. And I did. And it works well.

I would still like to have a real mortising machine, but now I will wait till I find a big, nice, old floor model cause what I have works fine for light duty work.

I think the key is having an unused drill press so you can modify it and adapt it any way you need to to make it work. I would not use one of these if I had to take it off to use the drill press.


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## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

Wanna buy my DP mortise? "Nuff said?
Bill


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## realcowtown_eric (Feb 4, 2013)

There is another use for drill press morticing attachments…..they are square chisels and you can still use them as chisels in a pinch.,

For me, faced with cutting 1/2" square holes on a sloped staircase to fit a balustrade, no manner of juryrigging of a mortice tool would work, so I drilled 1/2 pilot holes, made an angle gauge, took some 1/2" drill press mortice chisels, aligned them with the gauge and WHACKED EM WITH A HAMMER!

Yep-back to basics. Worked well for the most part, but the tips did splay, so I hand to use a coarse wetstone to hone them back to flat. And used the LV diamond honing cone to get a sharp inside edge. Drive em in, pull em out, do it again, and when they get a tad hard to pull out, you know the tips are splayed out, and that's when you got hone them flat agin.

You'd be surprised at how unhardened the steel in these is. The top end mushroomed to the extent that they will never fit in any attachment ever again. No loss eh?

back to basics eh?

Take a supposedly relatively sophisticated specialty tool and whack it with a hammer….gotta love it.

Eric in Calgary


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## stevepeterson (Dec 17, 2009)

I have one and have used it a couple of times. It works OK for small jobs. I like it better than giving up the counter space that a dedicated morticing machine would take. If I had to do them every day, then I would find the space for a dedicated machine.


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## usmcshooter (Jul 27, 2013)

I have some info on a mortising jig for loose tenons that is also GREAT for edge gluing too.


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