Robinson chain / chisel mortiser

Hi Folks,
I've just acquired a big old heavy cast-iron Robinson chain/chisel mortiser. It's about 6 ft tall or more, and weighs around 3/4 of a ton or so, at a guess.

It's one with a direct drive 3 HP 3-phase motor on the head of each part, plus a chain & hollow chisel sharpening jig on the back.
There's an automatic switch above each motor, so as you pull the lever down, the motor switches on, and it turns off upon raising the head.

Unfortunately, it is totally devoid of any bed, or parts of a bed. It's just the cutting & electric parts, frame all the rest.

Does anyone know of a place where I may be able to scrounge a bed or something close to it? Or a manual? or photos of what the bed used to be like?

Thanks in advance!

Hi stewey,
your probably going to hate hearing from me! Have you had any luck with your morticer? Sounds to me like someones removed the bed to fit a door under for fitting mortice locks, we have a robinson morticer machine, have removed the chain morticer because they are DEADLY! I can take some pictures of it for you if you still need them, although there's some pretty fancy metalwork in the bed, heavy screw threads etc.
let me know if i can help.

Thanks for asking, and thanks for the offer!

Actually the bed was broken when an apprentice in the shop I got it from was moving it, using a forklift, and didn't have it chained down to the pallet. He stopped, and the mortiser, being top-heavy, didn;t stop & it crashed off, smashing the compound bed to smithereens.

I inherited the actual vice part, but that's all.

We got it going electrically, & made new bushes so it'll take standard hollow chisels I had, and it came with a very long 3/4" & a 1" chisel (but no augers for them).I have scrounged something close-the 3/4" chisel takes about a 7/16" or a 9/16" auger (I forget offhand)

I also welded up a sort-of stand & dynabolted that underneath, squared & shimmed up properly to the chisels, and I sit the vice loosely on that, till I get a better compound table.

I found a downloadable book which was really just an old catalogue of Robinson machinery, including an older belt-driven version of this one, which included a hub/nave mortising attachment! The pictures were not really clear though...

The chain mortiser works well, though it's easy to stall it, but a safety switch trips the power off if thast's liukely to happen, so you learn to move slowly & be patient with our aussie hardwoods!

I haven't made any jigs yet for mortising any hubs/naves, but that's on the agenda!

I located a 2nd hand machinery sales shop in South Aust. with one in perfect order, and they photographed the missing parts for me & emailed the photos to me, which was very kind of them.

Actually I like the chain mortiser-but then I'm pretty used to using a chainsaw... ;) I hope I can scrounge some wider chains & centre parts for it- it just has one that's about 5/8" wide.

It's a wonderful machine-it weighs maybe a ton.
It took a bit of work to shift it & unload it & eventually get it onto the concrete pad we poured for it in the currently earthen-floored shed extension!

Update... about 2 years later I met a worker who told me they found all the broken castings which I'd originally been told had been scrapped, and I was told I'd better get them quickly or they're going to the tip.
Oh dear... about 25 miscellaneous pieces of cast iron jigsaw. It was a mess. All the spokes has broken off all the wheels. The tapered slider ways were in more than one piece each. Nothing dovetailed - it all snapped apart in the crash. I put the bundle of pieces under the bench and there they sat. Till 2 weeks ago and a friend from overseas was visiting for a bit. He offered to 'have a look' at it. one whole pack of stainless steel welding rods, and 5 days of careful tinkering, fitting, filing, drilling and tapping, and she's all together and as good as she'll ever be!
It's only been 11 years!

If I can figure how to upload a pic from my phone to here, I'll do it.

The only problem now is we run it from a single phase to 3-phasee converter, and the chisel head motor is just fine, but the chain head won't run - it will run only from 'proper' 3 phase our of the genset.

It does not get a lot of use, but when it does, it's tremendous. :)
I would like to get another chain or two, and a couple of spare chisels, but I've only seen exhorbitantl;y proiced ones on Ebay - at about $200 a chisel from UK - genuine Robinsons.
The chain we have is 7/16" or close to 11mm.

Here she is all back together for the first time in years.


Attachment 475077

Awesome work, always wanted a chisel mortiser. Just need to find one the right size!

They are a great machine, we had ours for 40 years, sold it and wished I didn’t really, but it wasn’t getting used, and now, of course, I could use it every day. Well done on the resurrection :2tsup:

Great ending to what was a horrible broken machine story Stewey .
Those Precious parts found !!
So many of these get broken that way ! Just a few weeks ago a Wadkin slipped off a tailgate in the UK in front of the owner. Once they start shifting the wrong way nothing is going to stop them going over if they are not handled correctly .

I have and use the Wadkin version and run the chain and chisel when its right for the job . With chisels, the old ones are good and come in better lengths than the new stuff. I have old English ones that came with my machine.
The new stuff Ive had from Carbatec does work in the old machines though. I suspect they don't last as long . Ive busted new chisels , the drill bit specifically, continuously over the years. Never seen an old English pattern one break yet. Though me using new chisels more heavily was on a smaller newer chisel only machine where the whole work load was taken on with the one chisel .
A chain takes a big load off the chisel of coarse, hogs out the waste and leaves the chisel for the ends and clean side work .

With the chain set ups . I haven't had to buy any yet and am still running the old ones and doing my best to treat them well . like keeping them in an oil bath before use. I have bookmarked these Indian ones on Ebay for the day I need new Chain Bar and Sprocket sets . I think they will be good . Ive not heard a bad thing about them anywhere yet . The price is very cheap compared to other options.
WUDMAX MORTISER CHAIN SET & SPROCKET WIDTH 3/4" (19mm), LENGTH 1.3/4, 36 LINKS | eBay


Rob

Thanks for the reply, Rob.
Yes, it's nice to see it all useable and my jigs and base I used as a 10 year temporary fix will slowly get morphed into something else I guess!
I di have a set of japanese chisels I bought 20 years ago for the dril press, but the quill diameters never matched, and it was a disister. I made up brass thimbles so I can use each of them in the Robinson, and they work OK, but at times, longer ones would be mice.
I note the angle of hole in the Jap ones is quite different from the conical sharpener on this machine - attached to the chain head.
I did find a genuine Robinson long 5/8" chisel at a swap meet for about $40 but it was missing the auger. It has about 8" of mortise depth capacity though. I think I found an old stanley brace-and-bit drill bit that I cut the square top off and it was a fair fit.

With the chains, I assume every chain needs its own bar?
It came with only the single 7/16" chain and that was all. I've had to scrounge chisels - but I did get a nice 1" chisel from somewhere about 8 years ago.
.(Thanks for that link. At the moment I need my $ more than I need a new chain!)

I may have welded an end onto the Japanese drill for the chisel . I forget now .

And yes the chains when different sizes need their own bars as well as the right sprocket to drive it.

Ive never liked the steel cone shaped sharpeners. Steel on Steel doesn't seem so good . Is that what your conical sharpener is ? Have you had success with them ? Or is it a conical stone ?
Ive only ever touched up chisels with small die grinder type rotary stones. Never had real good ones they don't last long but they work.

Thanks for the reply. Our Robinson has a conical stone sharpener, beside the chain sharpener mounted at the left back corner.
Our of ignorance, I've sharpened them by lying the flat of the square chisel on a new emery stone, or 500 grit wet-or-dry, and just going back and forth a bit. But they've largely kept their edges or sharp corners very well. You have to remember to make sure there's a chunk of cork tile to catch the chisels when you remove them if they drop faster than you expected! The corners prick!

I find it interesting how the Jap chisel augers differ totally in type, from the old Robinson augers.

There was a time I cut an auger shorter for some reason - then it was too short.
I've welded extensions on bits too, but my welding isn't first class, and sometimes these fixes work well, and sometimes they're a tad out of kilter or eventually part company.
The longest extension I did was add 80cm of 12mm rod onto a 9/16" bit, for our son to use to drill broken head bolts our of the bottom of the block of his Fiat crawler engine.
I had to similarly weld an extension on a centrepunch, too, so he could start in the right place! It took him about a year to psych himself up to dela with that problem. They're all ouit now, and awaiting a new burst of motivation to put it back together, but life, and work seems to have got in the way. (He's a chippie, and in fair demand these days)