Official Luthiers Forum!

I would like to very much drill some square holes in stuff, with my drill press. I would be working in fiberboard, is there any way to use a mortise bit in a drill press? I dont know nuthin bout them. OR, how would you cut out some 2"x3" rectangles square and neat in fiberboard?

_________________
Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

well yeah .. thats what the mortice attachment kits for drill presses are for .... Delta, Busy Bee (Canada), I would think Grizzly, and LV all sell them. Its a square chisel with a custom drill bit inside that .. exactly the same as a hollow morticer, but not deidcated. you will need some kind fo fence/hold down to keep the piece oriented

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

You could always drill out the waste wood where your mortise will be and square of the edges with chisels. Or just use chisels alone to cut the mortises. Thats how its been done for centuries. Now for cutting it in fiberboard i don't think a drillpress mortiser will cut a neat hole in fiberboard. There meant for solid wood. I think your best bet is to use a router and square up the corners with files and chisels.

Hmm, ok files it be I guess...thanks all!

_________________
Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

I bought a mortising attachment for my drill press with the intention of using it for doing slotted peg heads; I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed with the results, as there was some tearing and pullout, particularly at the square end of the slot. I still use it for that procedure, but I stop short of the square end and proceed with adhesive backed sandpaper ( 80 thru 220 grit) attached to sticks just under the size of the slot.
regards,
jack

Yeah they don't cut as neat as we thought they would. I got rid of mine on ebay. In the end i think a router does a much better job. Now only if they could come up with a bit that could square the corners.

Total junk in anything but the softest woods. I bought a delta years ago when I was only doing furniture. When I need to use it now, I made a handle in which to pop the square chisels and do it by hand.

_________________
http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Andy, in fairness I think it's closer to say total junk unless properly sharpened and set up well. I just finished a display cabinet in sipo (Mahog subspecies... pretty tough) with over thirty 1/4" M&T joints all done with this rig. (One thing is that it does get darn hot!) But it does need sharpening or it won't cut squat!
I would say that you'll never get a "display" type quality, from this or the dedicated mortisers (which BTW if you want to see how these things should cut, watch a few "New Yankee Workshops")

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

Can't you say that about all things that are cheap replicas of the real thing?

In all fairness to "set it up well" required machining one of the bores (the quill adapter I believe) to get the thing close to straight and that piece is not easy to chuck up at all. Only then was I able to mortise and even then the setup kept popping the chuck off of the taper.

_________________
http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Agreed folks .. in all fairness, I have one, and had plans to use it for a job, but never did. Watching Normie on NYW makes it look like it should be fine, but he always has the right tool, and its usually very sharp and setup well.

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Know what you mean Tony (......"I'll just fire up my resaw bandsaw with the 3" blade!"....)
Andy, guess I had better success. What can I say?

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

I always loved the fact that the shop wasnt actually Norm's .. it belongs to the producer, Russel Morash. Even Norm wishes he had a shop like that !!!!

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

You could say that I'm an idiot who doesn't know how to set up a mortising attachment but that would be mean and would hurt my feelings (why is there no cry emoticon?)

_________________
http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I've only ever built pine cabinets with mortise and tenon joinery where I used a drill press mortise attachment. It worked extremely well in that application. You have to be very careful with the clearance adjustment between bit and chisel at the tip or it will get very hot very fast. With clearance set slightly larger than recommended (1/16" oe 3/32" if I recall) there was very little heat buildup. I haven't tried it on hardwood yet. Mine is made by General International.

This comes down to using the right tool for the right job. There is nothing inherently wrong with my after-market mortising attachment which I use on my drill press. I have used it in hardwoods, and it is most definitely NOT total junk. It works very well in soft woods, too. Having said all that, I'll say that I have never used it on an instrument project. The purpose of this note is to encourage all correspondents to avoid blanket indictments against tools or methods of work. There are always many ways to do a task. I am sure our friend will settle on a method that works better for his methods of work. The mortising attachment hasn't worked for him. It obviously hasn't worked for some of our other correspondents, either. That doesn't mean it won't work for someone else. Just my two cents.

Patrick

Mine is a Delta. Works fine on furniture and I've used it a lot, including on some exposed joints. Keep it sharp and set it up right. That said, I have no desire to use it on a guitar.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I was spoilt in my stairmaking days. The company I worked for had a dedicated Wadkin chain morticer which had a great selection of bore chisel used to prep newel post ready to go out on site. In a large mortice you would hog out the worst in seconds with the chain and then clean to the line with the bore chisel, for smaller a mortice, just straight into it with the bore chisel, clean and crisp every time. It was a beautiful old school machine, the chisels were quite simply superb and would easily cut all day in any hardwood. I suspect finding that quality of new tooling would be impossible these days but also that the sheer mass of that machine and it's ability to clamp the work piece 'rock solid' are strong reasons why it worked 'so' well, and today's light weight drill press adaptations do not in comparison.

Cheers

Kim