Chisel mortiser

[richard.selwyn]

I want to buy a hollow chisel mortiser for making large external doors etc.  I am trying to get more work locally and barn doors and timber framed buildings are common here.  I normally only do interior installations and the only mortices I use are made with the Domino.  I may need a portable chain mortiser for the timber frame work, but have seen people using heavy duty floor mounted mortiser to do it.

Any advice or suggestions please?

 

[Notorious T.O.D.]

The General and Powermatic mortisers are nice but new they are $3-4 grand and I am not sure how deep the mortise will go with a 1/2 to  1 inch bit.
I made 45 interior doors for my dad's house back in the late 80s out of cherry and I used a router with a 3 inch plunge and a couple homemade jogs to router 3 inch deep mortises for loose tenons which I made out of cherry. These made very strong joints and they have had no problems in 20 + years.  Festool's big 2200 router would work for this method.  Laguna also makes a nice new slot mortiser for about a grand that might work also.  As for chain mortisers that is outside my knowledge and experience.

Best,
Todd

 

[Mike_Chrest]

Richard,
How about these guys? ;D They're cordless!

[attachimg=#]

I checked the timber frame forum and the say chain mills are nice but you still need to clean up the mortices with a chisel.

Check it out

http://www.tfguild.org/  &  http://tfguild.org/forums/ubbthreads.php

Mike

 

[Notorious T.O.D.]

...and after a day of using those babies you can probably skip the stop at the gym on the way home...

...do they do 32mm system with those too....?

Best,
Todd

 

[Mike_Chrest]

...do they do 32mm system with those too....?

Sure, but the guide rail is kind of large ;D.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Mike,

Not only are they cordless, they are portable, too!!  Yikes, what beasts those old machines are.  Thanks for sharing.  I did not know such machines existed, and have never seen timber framing construction while in progress.

Dave R.