# Shop Made Slot Mortiser 10/15/2012



## steve6678 (Oct 4, 2012)

Hi,
This is my first posting to this site. I thought I'd show (off) my slot mortiser.
If ya wanna know details let me know. I have no drawings, I work from my thoughts and Never write anything down, but I could explain if needed.


----------



## UncleStumpy (Jan 26, 2012)

Steve, this looks great to me, but if you want to show it off and get more comments, post it to the projects gallery. This forum is mostly for discussing topics and asking questions. Hope this helps! Welcome to LJ!


----------



## woodworker59 (May 16, 2012)

What he said… and Welcome to LJ'S…


----------



## HalDougherty (Jul 15, 2009)

Looks like a great tool! I would also like to see more photos of your mortiser on the projects page. I bet it works better than one of the drill/chisel mortisers.


----------



## renners (Apr 9, 2010)

Looks good and something I'm considering doing - can I just ask 
Are you using loose tenons? 
If you are, how easy is it to take out end grain material - and do you nibble it out 1/8 at a time" 
What's the biggest cutter you could use in that?


----------



## steve6678 (Oct 4, 2012)

@renners…Yes loose tenons mostly, but it will do stand. tenon just have to square-up mortise. I make my own tenon stock, the bit I use most is a 3/8" spiral up-cut with a 3/8" shaft and a 3/8" to 1/2"collet reducer, so I have more length if needed without changing the size of the mortise. I have no issues with end grain or species of wood, (doing a boat-load of Hrd Maple now). I use a DeWalt 618 2 1/4hp VSpeed, and Whiteside bits only, it makes a big difference using sufficent power and the same size collet as the bit. I take a 1/4" at a time slotting. My largest spiral I've used is 1/2", as it's the largest bullnose bit I have to make the tenon stock. Hit me up if ya need any more info pal, ok. no prob.


----------



## HorizontalMike (Jun 3, 2010)

I almost built mine like your "one-armed" slot machine style mortiser. I look forward to your test run results. Does that actuator arm go all of the way through and advance the sled from both sides?


----------



## steve6678 (Oct 4, 2012)

@horizontalmike, ha good name, and "one armed slot machine" I never thought of it like that, thanks thats cool, The arm does forward/back - in/out. The lever in front bottom does side to side, and I have rack n pinion movement from an old sears craftsman table saw fence raising and lowering the plate/router. it all works extremely smooth and right on point, I was able to place measurement tape on the movements because they remained so precise…I was surprised myself. I put stops for side to side (X I believe) and a knob stop for Y (in/out), and z is from the tape measure sticker. Thanks for your interest Mike, I ran it a lot recently and everything is copistedic, ha, stay cool


----------



## steve6678 (Oct 4, 2012)

.


----------



## steve6678 (Oct 4, 2012)

I forgot I was not supposed to post pics of projects here, sorry


----------



## steve6678 (Oct 4, 2012)

Made a shop made Air Handler today, still have to wire it up and hang it. It's a $60 Attic fan, 2 furnace filters and a 3M fitret 1 micron for exiting air. I'll post it on my "Projects page" once I figure out where and how to do that.

Someone told me this category was for questions and not posting pics of projects, so I'll try to figure that out. Thanks


----------



## HorizontalMike (Jun 3, 2010)

Steve,
Actually you can post pictures on forum topics, even if it is a project. You could even do that from a "blog" as well.

Anyway, I was wondering about Y-axis "racking" and if you have noted any at all with your setup?

Here is what I ended up building. 
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/56897









I started out with a Greg Paolini basic design, then designed and added the following upgrades:

A Y-axis lifting mechanism
Serious Dust Control w/4" attachment
Added side mounted adjustable dust baffles
Used 1/4in Lexan for router mount for see-though ability-Used this functio to later add a Ridgid 2hp router with self-lighting. Lights shine right thru the plastic and onto work piece

NOTE: I originally had a minor issue with the parallelism of my left right movement. At one end of the 16in capacity I would start out at set elevation and by the end of the movement to the other maximum, I was off by as much as 0.050" in elevation. I basically had to scrap the channels in the MDF until I got my errors down to ~0.005" to 0.010" of error. This then made making long dados (with several 16" spans) possible and easily repeatable. I used a simple digital caliper to measure the size and location of the dado using a 1/4" bit.


----------



## steve6678 (Oct 4, 2012)

Hey,
Nope, I get no racking, I have hold downs under the table made of maple, and the table friction points are dry lubed and waxed periodically, slides nice.
Oh, btw, yours is awesome, I want to make modifications as it is my first attempt, I like the table. and the TWO hold down method, I did get a little lifting of stock problem with just 1 knob lockdown.


----------



## HorizontalMike (Jun 3, 2010)

Very cool. I am glad that worked out so well. Had I known this at the time, I probably would have followed a design very similar to yours. Thanks for sharing… And many happy floating tenons and *horizontal* mortises!

*;-)*


----------



## steve6678 (Oct 4, 2012)

I like the style of your tables, they look nice and heavy, I want to beef mine up, I have some long 12/4 maple stock to do and I want to be able to have more control, very nice Jig, bravo! Later on bro


----------



## HorizontalMike (Jun 3, 2010)

Steve,
All of my tables on the machine are laminated MDF. Very stable, with no tendency to warp. I just paste wax it all for a water resistant coating, and that also serves as a lubricant for the T-track channels.


----------

