Thread: morticeing

i'm game ...so here goes
we use a medium speed on softwoods, and a higher speed for hardwoods. but the mortise bits have got to be sharp. by the way this is a very general answer.... sometimes if we are not sure, we do a test at different speeds to see what is best. different presses have different settings.
any way thats what we do
good luck with it
glen

thankyou for the reply will try it..bob

Bob - the chuck is attached directly to the motor shaft on small dedicated mortisers like my Delta, so it runs at motor speed, which is 1400rpm, if I recall correctly. That seems to be a reasonable compromise for both hard & soft woods up to 1/2" chisels - I don't find bit speed a problem on most woods. But some woods choke up the auger inside the chisel, particularly on the first plunge if you don't withdraw it & let it clear regularly. You can minimise that by polishing the auger & keeping the cutters sharp. It may be helped by altering bit speed, but since you don't have that luxury on the small machines, I suppose I'll never know.....

Anyway - that may be a good place to start.

Cheers,