Craftsman Mortising Machine $149 + ship @ Kmart

is this deal only for morticians, or can anyone get in on it? I'm thinking of starting a pet cemetery.

what's the difference if I have a press drill + mortising attachment kit

Quote from pingpingpang : what's the difference if I have a press drill + mortising attachment kit

A mortising machine is more stable and easier to set up, and has a longer arm for more downforce when plunging deep into wood.

Thanks OP, ordered 1 to tinker with... Wish i could afford the nicer series but for some reason after I spent $2500 on a sawstop the wife has cut off my tool funds.....

You need to tell her the whole reason for getting the sawstop is so that nothing gets cut off.

Quote from omextreme : sawstop the wife has cut off my tool funds.....

Quote from a0ka0k : I conquer "Craftsman"

concur ?

Quote from omextreme : Thanks OP, ordered 1 to tinker with... Wish i could afford the nicer series but for some reason after I spent $2500 on a sawstop the wife has cut off my tool funds.....

Sounds like she may have taken your berries at the same time!

Quote from tvip : is this deal only for morticians, or can anyone get in on it? I'm thinking of starting a pet cemetery.

I could swear when I first saw this thread it said moisturizing machine.

I've got a 50's monster drill press and the mortiser attachment does everything I expect of it and and with very high precision. Whoever asked about using one in a drill press I can tell you it's as good as your setup.

Quote from dkoemans : Which works pretty well for me. I paid $160 from amazon in 2006 for it. I swear my fence isn't square to the chisel but it works well enough. The fence has no adjustment I am aware of. I don't work with much in the way of fancy hardwoods and many of my pieces are painted so I don't sweat it. An earlier poster got it right, if you need a $1000 machine buy a $1k machine.

and if you need to google what a mortising machine does... you don't need one

I've been woodworking for 40 years and yet I still almost took the bait. But I haven't used my Delta mortising attachment for my Jet drill press in over 15 years. And why? Well, I've been using dowel joinery since that time and you can't beat its precision, strength, cost, and ease.

So unless you want exposed tenons for that glamorous look, I'd recommend you get a good jig [mine's the Dowelmax] and go to town!

Any Sears coupon codes to sweeten this?

Check out the many websites which address the comparison. I've been building chairs, tables, desks, bedsets, dressers for 40 years and have never have a dowel failure [and most of that was before Titebond III].

Recently finished off a 5'x10' "project table" with dowels all the way around. A week later laid 60 sheets [~ 2,600 pounds] of TallWall sheathing on it for over two months; didn't budge a fraction of an inch. That's 650 pounds of shear and more than 2,500 pounds of tension at each of the four posts [four 3/8" dowels at each].

So, I know from experience that, if you know what you're doing [proper gluing and sizing/spacing of dowels], you want to stay with dowels. And, with material costs the way they are, now the cost of "wasted" stock on tenoning [up to 15% on chair stretches] is comparable to doweling.

[The 'take' from those websites is, if you construct the joint properly, the strength is comparable. And the grain/fibers of the material will fail before the joint.]