Thread: luna w59 slot mortiser

I had one of these. Using the chuck on its own and installing a router cutter didn't work, not fast enough.

I had a large brass hood that went over the chuck and allowed a square mortice chisel to be fitted, but you need a short chisel which can be difficult to find.

The final attempt was using a serrated cutter bit that could cut more slowly. It sort of worked but wasn't that neat or quick.

The whole table setup is very solid and you really feel it should work well, but for me it was never a success.

thanks mate. I wonder what speeds dedicated slot mortisers run at.

Hi Jake,
I tried out my slot mortiser when I built my bench out of oregon. I used router bits and it was adequate in the soft wood, but I haven't used it since and have taken the table off to make jointing easier. Maybe the toothed bits might be better and I suppose if you get it setup and working well it might be even better for production runs than a bench top mortiser. I think it is worth buying the bit to try, but see if you can get a toothed one. You can of course make the tenons on it too. Here's a photo of making the tail part of a sliding dovetail I did for my bench on it.

Cheers
Michael

Other point to check, I had the combination machine with the saw spindle. The main selector switch had an option to run the planer in reverse to allow a traditional right handed cutter to be used.

Check the rotation before you buy.

Felder sell a mortise bit, in standard steel, HSS and in carbide but you'd need to be boring a lot of chipboard to warrant that.They have an unusual flute 8mm HSS is part no. 06.1.008 and is in the order of $60 - I was looking at them about a week ago.
A set of 5 standard bits 6,8,10,12 and 14mm is in the same ball park figure- ok for occasional use and soft timbers. Set part no is 06.3.101. They also have left hand bits (counter rotate)
Hope this is useful

thanks for all the help. will follow all up. and the photo Mick. thanks.

I like the strength of the table assembly too. I'll give it a go as is.

But has me thinking maybe the best idea would be to detach the table so like said you've got more room on the jointer. (I've already kneed myself into the bottom of the handle twice already)

And use the table on a completely seperate shop made stand just for horizontal mortising.

To do that maybe just mount a heavy rounter on its side on the stand and attach the luna table to the legs, that way there'll be high speed and definetly righthand rotation. make the stand very heavy. Weld something out of steel.

But what sort of speeds do dedicated horizontal mortisers that perform well spin at ? Maybe can't spin a long 8mm chipbreaking mortiser bit at router speed ?

I like the idea of using it on a shop-made stand I would like to see it if you do that, but atm wouldn't have the room anyway

Cheers
Michael

This thread makes me realise how much i miss having my Luna combi. I sold it when I emigrated here last year.

It was my first real bit of kit starting up. Even when i had an Altendorf and similar kit pro kit worth 20x more, the combi still had a place in the workshop. Each function was a proper bit of machinery and worked superbly in its own right.

If i could find another out here i would be very happy indeed.

They come up occasionally on here: Used & New Heavy Industrial Machines, Machinery & Equipment for sale at Australia's No.1 Online Machinery Market
There's a Luna Jointer/thicknesser/ slot mortiser there now.
We should start a fan club.

Cheers
Michael

Originally Posted by mic-d

I like the idea of using it on a shop-made stand I would like to see it if you do that, but atm wouldn't have the room anyway

Cheers
Michael

good point. my sheds reaching that point too. never big enough are they.

On the off chance anyones got a spare jointer fence for the w59 they want to flog please let me know. Mine didn't come with one and I have to use a makeshift one....shot in the dark. Parts must be rare but never know.

Originally Posted by cadas

If i could find another out here i would be very happy indeed.

They also come up on ebay occationally too. One came up in Lismore a few months back. Maybe could stick that in your favourites tab, and search every so often. Thats what I do anyway. Comes up eventually.

I know, the lismore one went for about $300... Kicked the cat for about 3 days after that one.

WRT mortising speed, my Felder has a chuck off the planer cutterblock @5000rpm, there is an option for variable speed of 1500-6000rpm.

Originally Posted by Anodyne

WRT mortising speed, my Felder has a chuck off the planer cutterblock @5000rpm, there is an option for variable speed of 1500-6000rpm.

How well does it cut ?