DELTA 14-651 Christmas Discounts!
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DELTA 14-651 Christmas Discounts!.
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I've objective unpacked, assembled and tested this machine. Here's my two cents - packing was astronomical, smothered in styrofoam and unpainted parts bathed in oil. Cleaned up easily. Instructions were well written and assembly took about 45 minutes. I bought this based on a woodworking magazine review as an upgrade for my the Delta drill press mortising attachment. Since I've been doing more mission style furniture lately its worth it to have a more mammoth machine. This machine earned the friendly reviews by being well designed and constructed. The rack & pinion fence alone is worth the shrimp bit more that you will pay for this tool. The first mortises I crop were 1/2"x1-1/4"x2"long in white oak and were still sided and burn free. The 1745 rpm urge slows your feedrate but pays a tremendous dividend in a quality mortise. Don't select it unless you have enough mortises to elaborate it but if you do you will be gay with this machine. I wonder how many biscuit joiners and dedicated hollow chisel mortising machines have been sold because "Norm" introduced us to them?
Having ancient the unusual Delta mortiser for two weeks now, I am relatively gratified with the machine. The cast iron table and fence are extremely solid. The depth adjust is sound and stays locked down so you don't have to distress about cutting too deep. Bit changes are simple and your knuckles are good. The sliding dovetail procedure makes it easy to adjust the resistance in the head move to your liking. The lever locks down solid and is plenty long to come by that extra torque you need to inaugurate a mortis in those valid hard woods. The bits supplied with the machine have worked well to punch serene mortises in everything from red oak to gancalo alves and cocobolo.
My only negative comment is the loss in sturdiness of the contrivance when you install the 2" column occupy. This raises the fence off the table and you lose some of the stability in the machine. This can be fixed with some blocks under the fence, but then you must sacrifice the ease of fence adjustment. Other than that, this Delta product has lived up to it's name and has been a solid addition to my shop that I would recommend to anyone. I can't imagine cutting mortises by hand anymore.
After looking at the Jet and Grizzly mortisers, I decided on the Delta based on my experience with their portable planer (22-580) . Assembly was not difficult, although as already mentioned, the hydraulic cylinder is tricky to put. There are a couple of areas that I contemplate need improvement:
1. The fence fill down knobs are plastic and strip easily. Although the bear down adjuster is metal, it too stripped the first time I attempted to utilize it. Now it is difficult to find locked down.
2. When you employ the riser block (a injure to achieve in the first set), you loose the ability to lock down the fence to the table. These lock downs have to be removed completely, which allows the fence/hold down to recede up and down. I need to mortise a 5" beam, so I had to employ the riser block. If you are only mortising thinner material (I would guess about 4" and less), then you don't need to riser block and you don't encounter this dilemma.
3. When inserting the chisel bit, there is not an index so you can location the chisel parallel to the fence. This is annoying as it takes some trial and error to secure it station nice and parallel.
4. The depth finish is veteran and flexs a lot. I don't have large confidence in the depth end and will replace it with something else soon (don't know what yet, probably a collar and rod) .
The machine is worthy, and built heavy. The harmful is heavy duty cast iron, as are the rest of the back structure. It does crop decently in Red Oak. I reflect that the chisels that are supplied with the machine are marginal (the 1/2" bit I have is very noisy, probably not straight, but the 3/8" is serene) . I will acquire a better quality bit for resplendent furniture. So, overall it cuts square holes, but in my fair concept, it is the first share of machinery from Delta that I have purchased that I am not thrilled about. I would survey elsewhere if I had to do it again (although the other brands may have similar issues) . The planer on the other hand is awesome!
