Dedicated mortiser + router table or router jig?

[exigetastic]

As subject really....

I have a router (Triton) but no table. Have some gates to make for SWMBO, that really need M+Ts. Am I best off gettin a jig or mortiser + a router table?

TIA

Si

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi E

Well I was hoping someone else would have helped yopu out here first, but they haven't so I'll give you my 2p.

I would say It Depends. It depends on what sort of work you intend to do in the future. If you are planning to makes gates and bigger (architectural woodwork generally, doors, windows etc) then bite the bullet now and buy a decent mortiser. It will give you a bigger capacity than you can get with a router (although I have successfully mortised through 4" stock with a router).

But there are downsides, apart from the capital outlay. A mortiser takes up valuable floor space, and my guess is, if it's anything like mine, you won't use it that often, at least not compared to, say, a tablesaw or router table.

If these gates are the biggest thing you are likely to make in the foreseeable future, save your money and make a good mortice jig. It will take up a lot less room and give you perfect results. In fact the mortices I rout are much cleaner thn the ones I get with my mortiser. You will need mortising cutters though, I can recommend the Clico ones. They are actually intended for horizontal mortisers, have a serrated edge for chip clearance and do not like to be run as fast as a router does, so you do have to take care, especially with the 1/4" ones, but they perform superbly.

FWIW, lat year I decided to get rid of my mortiser because I never use it, but my friend and neighbour talked me out of it. So I said, "Well, if you want me to keep it, you house it, I need the space". So he did, and I'm very glad, because making dsoors and windows as I'm doing now would have been more work with a router. But this is the first time I've needed it in nearly 2 years.

So you pays your money and you takes your choice. Jig for small/medium work, mortiser for medium/large.

HTH
Steve

 

[OPJ]

If you have a pillar drill with a decent table and some kind of fence, you can cut most of your smaller mortices out with this machine as well. Although, it'll still require a lot of cleaning up with a chisel afterwards (more so than a dedicated morticer). And, if you're trying to drill your holes to close to each other, there's a chance the drill bit will slip.

If you do decide to go for a small, bench-mounted morticer, the Fox 5/8" model (with rotating head) isn't at all bad for the money. Get some decent chisels in it and it works very well. You can quite easily make some kind of jig to hold the work against the fence also.

 

[exigetastic]

Thanks for the feed back guys.

I don't have a pillar drill at the mo


By the sounds of it a router table for the tenons, and making some sort of jig for the mortices might be the way to go.

I think Steve's suggestion of Architectural is generous description of my skills, Agricultural would be better, scale is similar but precision is less so

I think it's safest to buy a router table as I guess it is going to be handy over a wider range of sizes and tasks, rather than buy a small morticer that will ultimately be limited by scale and purpose.


Si

 

[woodchip]

As subject really....

I have a router (Triton) but no table. Have some gates to make for SWMBO, that really need M+Ts. Am I best off gettin a jig or mortiser + a router table?

TIA

Si

My stationery morticer struggled to cut mortices in oak, so I gave up and used my router with a jig. It now just takes up workshop space.

 

[dickm]

My stationery morticer struggled to cut mortices in oak, so I gave up and used my router with a jig. It now just takes up workshop space.

Sounds surprising. Made some oak drive gates for our last house, and my small Multico (PM12) coped fine. What chisels were you using?

 

[wizer]

I think once you price up a morticer plus a good set of chisels, your always going to be better off going the router route.

I have been meaning to make a M&T jig myself. It's choosing the right jig out of the thousands out there. oh and building it accurately :roll: :wink:

 

[woodbloke]

I now do all my mortises by using a router and then square out the ends with a LN mortise chisel. I don't use a jig of any sort but I do have a much larger base on the router:

As you can see from the pic, I'm making a door frame and the other rail acts as a support for the base, keeping everything square and preventing the router from tipping... both rails are cramped securely to the bench. Routing out the mortises is a pretty fool-proof and quick way (once set up) of doing mortises so that they are accurate and dead square - Rob

 

[woodchip]

My stationery morticer struggled to cut mortices in oak, so I gave up and used my router with a jig. It now just takes up workshop space.

Sounds surprising. Made some oak drive gates for our last house, and my small Multico (PM12) coped fine. What chisels were you using?

The mortiser is an Axminster one, vitually unused with a half inch chisel that came with it. The clamp didn't seem to want to hold the timber down, so raising the chisel was difficult, and the downward pressure required made me think I needed to get down to the gym!

 

[Harbo]

I use my router with a spiral up cutter in a Woodrat for mortising - though a jig such as Rob's would work fine and be much cheaper!

On an oak bench I made, with dozens of M&T's, I cheated by rounding off the tenons with a Japanese saw rasp instead of squaring out the mortices - much quicker.

Rod

 

[gidon]

Woodchip - try getting one of those Japanese mortising chisels Axminster sell (or a Clico one if you're feeling really flush). It will make the world of difference.
Si - it's hard to answer this one. I bought a morticer when I made my oak front door and it was really useful for this. I don't reguarly use it but when I do it's very useful. I have it on the floor of my workshop and lift it up on my workbench when I need it so it doesn't really take up any space.
If you only have a few to do you could try doing them by hand - if you're not going for piston fit M&T's it's not so difficult.
A router table is a great way to cut tenons and useful for millions of other things - so I would strongly advise making / getting one.
Finewoodworking.com is littered with mortising and tenon jigs - may be worth trying a month's sub if you haven't got it already to see what's there.
And finally if you do want a morticer and aren't sure how much you'll use it you could always try this one from Axminster for £55!
http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-Perf ... -21725.htm
Great bench by the way Harbo - interesting way you've attached ther seat to the base - is that a design feature or does it adjust?
Cheers
Gidon

 

[Harbo]

Gideon - it's from a plan I downloaded from Popular Mechanics - it is called a Porch Bench Glider (or something like it?)
It hangs on 4 S/S Ball Bearing straps you can get from Rockler so it rocks gently.
The arms are quite wide and ideal for supporting a glass of beer or wine and the movement is so gentle it does not spill!! Very soporific especially after a glass or two
It is quite big (being an American design) and is supposed to made of teak - I used locally sourced oak.

Rod

 

[Digit]

I was in the fortunate position of having a mortiser and a morticing jig.
I dumped the mortiser!
I make tenons on my table saw, using another jig, so that all are the same size and I found that a router jig gave me great accuracy, no tapering at the bottom of the mortice, and once set up, cuts that were made much more quickly.
I have made my own extension cutter holders when needed and simply Loc-Tited the cutter into them, worked fine.

Roy.

 

[OPJ]

I totally agree with Gidon, with regards to Japanese chisels. The 3/8" chisel 7 bit supplied with my Fox morticer does struggle a little on oak but, I couldn't say the same happened when I came to fit one of Axminster's Jap. chisel in the machine!

With a morticer, you should NEVER try to cut to the full depth in one go. It's much better, and a heck of a lot easier, to work your way up and down the length of a mortice, cutting no more than 1/4" deep at a time.

A similar principal applies to routing a mortice.

 

[exigetastic]

Now have a Router table!!

Went for the Triton one, and it works a treat. I only bought the table, and no legs so have had to make a frame to support it over the gap I have in my work bench.

So far made some garden gates with halving joints, and the accuracy and speed I knocked them up made me a very happy camper! (Especially going to Wickes today and seeing how much I'd saved by not buying ready made gates 8) )

Even made a quick decorative capping for it just by running through a bit of scrap with an ogee bit on two sides

Will get round to trying the M+T joints soon, but I can see how the table is going to make lots of jobs easier, not just this M+T's

So thanks to all the people that gave me feedback.

Will post up some pics of my practice attempts!

Si

 

[ike]

Si,

A router table setup is ideal for smaller tenons, e.g. the usual size stuff for frame and panel, and I would use it for a batch of rails etc, but I have found, certainly for larger tenons or a small number of them, one of the following methods:-

(i) hand cut.
(ii) crosscut on mitre saw
(iii) bandsaw

is by far the quickest and easiest way. For the perfect tenon I aim for a tight fit leaving as much of the the sawn finish as possible. The rough cheeks promote a much stronger glue joint. Always cutting the mortices first of course.

cheers,

Ike