Thread: in defence of the drill press mortiser

I know there has been a lot of negative things said about the drill press mortising attachments, but I'd like to show my setup to show that it is a viable option.

I do use Rockers router motising jig for more accurate mortises but I just can't get 60mm deep mortises which you often need for tables. I would also love a dedicated chisel mortiser but can't justify it for the amount of times i need it.

I reckon the answer is to throw away the support fences which come with the sets and get a 3 way vise. Once the vise is set up square and on a solid base and the chisel set up perpendicular and square, I think it does a good job. I leave the vise bolted to the platform I made permanently and as you can see it supports a fairly heavy piece of wood easily.

You need to keep the chisel sharp, the drill part set far enough below the chisel to allow chip clearance and don't force the chisel otherwise the wood just clags up between the drill and chisel and burns. I always drill each time with some wood in between holes (see pic 3) which stops the chisel being forced sideways, then plunge the excess bits afterwards.

Pictures below show how I set it up.


Garry