Homemade Slot Mortising Machine

Jun 3, 2017 - Explore Jay Johnson's board 'Workshop - Pantorouters & Horizontal Mortising Machines', followed by 268 people on Pinterest. See more ideas about Mortising machine, Woodworking, Mortising. A mortise machine is a woodworking machine used to punch both rectangular and square holes on pieces of timber called mortises.Compared to use of hands, it is faster and less tiresome. It is also quieter than a router. These advantages coupled with its ability to form perfect square and rectangular holes that pair well with tenons makes a mortise and tenon machine the preferred tool for many. The Mortiser has been an essential machine in my shop since I bought one of the original Stanfield machines 27 years ago. The beauty of this design is that all your adjustments or settings are quick and easy since they are right in front of you and the wood stays put while the router moves in all three axes.

Author:

Matthias Wandel

Keywords:

woodworking,mortising,tenon,joinery,wood

Used Mortising Machines For Sale

Subtitles:

Hi. This is a shortvideo about mynew homemade slotmortising machine.I shot thatvideo 4 years agoand I've gottenmuch better atmaking videossince so I thoughtI'd make anothervideo on thisslot mortiser.The machine has thisX/Y sliding actionand the sliding forthis is actuallyusing modified drawer slides.This one is acenter drawer slide.For this oneI used keyboarddrawer slidesbut really anynon-telescoping typeof slide can be used.That is a slide that's2 parts. The telescoping varietylike this one tendsto have too muchplay in them, sothey're not reallysuitable. You can'treally see the slidesin the machine because Iadded these rails everywhereto really cover it up to keepthem away from the dust.For vertical adjustment Ihave a 5/8th inch polishedsteel rod and bronze bushings.And I've got athreaded rod here for crankingthe router up and down.To keep this crank from movingfrom vibrations, I added adetente mechanism in hereusing just a hex nut andthis piece of steel that pushesagainst it. And also to counthow many times I've turnedthis crank if I'm makingmultiple cuts, I added a wheelthat counts the number of turns.The wheel gets advancedby a pin that sticks outthe bottom of the crankand every time that goes pastthe wheel it grabs 1 notchand moves it. So aslong as the crank isnot against the wheel, Ican take that wheel andchange where myzero position is.That sort of thingcomes in very handyif I need to make amultiple mortise jointand I've got thescale marked onhere. I've got 32teeth on the wheel16 threads per inch on thethreaded rods so 2 full turnsof this wheel is 2inches of verticaladjustment in the router.I've also got stopsthat can be adjusted, whichlimit how far the routercan move side to side.And I just move thatagainst where I want it to beand just tighten this knoband that acts as a stop.I've also got a depthstop along the side herelimiting how far thiscan plunge into the wood.And I added a backstop aswell because sometimesI want to usethis as a horizontalrouter tableso just by moving thestops against each otherI can lock the router in place.For attaching stock to thetable, probably the quickestis to just put theclamp in the slotin the table like this.But I've also got thisfunny sort of clampThis is a adjustable C-clampthat I got on clearanceand it fits in hereand the cool thing is itsort of locks onto the tableSo this clamp staysput in place.Another option is to justput a bolt in the tableand then use this drill pressclamp and that holds thisstock very firmly in place.But it doesn't have a hugeopening so another optionwould be to use somethinglike my homemade clampthat I made for Pantorouter,which has quite a lot of reach.And I have blocksfor raising it andlowering it to give quitea lot of adjustment.But this machine can do morethan just cut mortises soI'll demonstrate bycutting a finger jointinto the end of thatpiece of 2 by 4.So, thanks to thisstationary tablethere's no limit tohow large a pieceof stock I can cutwith this machine.The thing that thismachine doesn't do is put roundedges on the tenon, which iswhy I made myPantorouter machine.But my favorite type of jointwith this machine has to becutting lots and lots ofmortises, side by side.So that type of joint justmakes for loads and loads ofjoint area, which makes forsuper strong joints.A few years after I builtthis machine, I invented myPantorouter machine. Now thismachine can do everythingthat this can do, and thensome, using templates.So, with this machinewith the rightkind of template, Ican do mortisingor finger joints, or dovetailjoints or tenonseven plantation shutters.So, some have askedif the Pantorouter makes mySlot Mortiser obsolete becausewith these templates youcan do a lot of joints.But the advantagewith this machineis, it doesn'tneed templates.So, for any sort of jointthat this machine can doit's much quicker to set it up.

Introduction: Horizontal Slot Mortiser

Tech in wood joinery meets handcrafted design + build. The top part is a mortising unit, below is a micro-adjust created using traditional methods. The story follows. I purchased this Jessem Mortise Mill unit a few years back and although I managed to produce some loose tenon slots successfully, it was not easy to set up. I can’t recall the issues exactly, but it was frustrating at times. So recently found the unit buried under a secondary workbench and decided I would make an effort at getting it to work successfully.

I had always wanted a horizontal slot mortiser setup and thought why not set this up to create slots in the horizontal plane instead of the vertical plane. The unit was marketed to be installed vertically with board placement underneath. Notice the etchings on the Mortise Mill are upside down. I’m not sure if having boards hanging below the unit contributed to the issues I had at the time, but nonetheless I wanted to mount it so loose tenon slots were created horizontally. Today, I use this slot mortise extensively in my furniture studio at Pirollo Design. Woodworking courses, woodworking plans and classes also available through WoodSkills

Step 1: A Suitable Platform

These images show the unit assembled to a rolling cart before building the micro-adjust unit. It was critical to find a suitable platform, i.e. workbench surface to be able to mount it. A rolling cart in my workshop was ideal since I could wheel the unit away when not in use and the footprint of the Mortise Mill was not large. The rolling cart has large locking casters which do a good job of keeping the cart immobile. I installed it so the surface of the base plate was even with the surface of the cart, this took some time. Large enough 1/4-20 bolts were used to maintain rigidity and keep it from shifting.

Tested it afterwards and I was pleased with the results. The later addition of a L-shaped wood bracket to support stiles while they were being mortised worked well. The ends of rails to be mortised were easily supported by the wood surface of the rolling cart. Further testing with clamping of boards provided me with a repeatable setup. I liked the fact that I could permanently leave the Mortise Mill bolted to the rolling cart and continue to use the complete top surface of the rolling cart as before.

Step 2: Micro-Adjust

An issue that soon came up was the vertical adjustment of the mortise slots on a horizontally-oriented board. Since the Mortise Mill was installed horizontally with horizontal board placement instead of vertical, the slot location adjustment was not as smooth as I would like due to the weight of the sliding component of the unit. I decided to build a micro-adjust setup to alleviate the problem. This was performed using some scrap walnut and maple. As can be seen in the pic, it is all wood construction with a 1/2 inch lead screw and wood handle. The end of the lead screw has a custom cradle contoured to fit the bottom edge of the sliding part of the Mortise Mill. Now I could precisely dial-in slot placements!

Diy Slot Mortising Machine

Step 3: Horizontal Slot Mortiser

Since the micro-adjust is cantilevered off the vertical posts of the rolling cart, I beefed up the supports. It is probably over-engineered now. Things to watch are the exact placement of the tip of the lead screw over the center of the edge of the Mortise Mill for smooth operation. A large paddle switch for the built-in Mortise Mill dust collection was installed for convenient access. The end result is a functional horizontal slot mortiser that provides precise adjustment of the slots. The rolling cart top serves as an excellent support for boards as can be seen in the images. The other images demonstrate how accurate the slots are for loosed tenon installation.

I don't have a plan for this at this time as you would need to acquire the Jessem Mortise Mill for this particular setup. Other plans, woodworking courses and classes are available at: WoodSkills

1 Person Made This Project!

woodskills made it!

Recommendations

14 987

32 3.0K

11 989

Design and 3D Print Your Own Phone Case (in Fusion 360) in 3D Printing

Plywood Challenge
Plastic Contest
Battery Powered Contest