Popular Woodworking 2004-04 № 140, страница 46

• Hollow-chisel mortisers:

These machines are nothing new, but the benchtop ones are now cheaper, more powerful and more accurate than ever. For about $240, you'll get a good machine.

Essentially, a mortiser is a marriage between a drill press and an arbor press that's designed for met-alworking. The drill press part has a spinning chuck that holds an auger bit that chews up the waste wood. The auger bit is encased in a hollow four-sided chisel that cleans up the walls of your mortise, making the auger's round hole a square one.

The arbor press part of the machine is the gear-and-lever system that pushes the tooling into your wood. This mechanism gives you an enormous mechanical advantage compared to outfitting your drill press with a mortising attachment - an accessory I don't recommend for all but the most occasional mortising jobs.

Shopping for the proper mortiser is tough. I don't consider all the machines equal. Some are weak and stall in difficult woods such as oak, ash and maple. Many have problems holding your work down against the machine's table. In a review of the machines on

A shoulder plane tweaks tenons to fit perfectly.Avoid the modern Stanley shoulder planes (not shown). Spending a few dollars more will get you a much better tool.

the market in our August 2001 issue, we preferred the fast machines (3,450 rpm) instead of the 1,750-rpm slow machines (back issues are available by calling 800258-0929 or going online at pop-wood.com). The fast machines were almost impossible to stall. However, the marketplace seems to prefer the slow machines. While none of the machines is perfect, I prefer the fast-speed Bridgewood and Shop Fox and the slow-speed Jet and Fisch machines (see "Tool Test" on page 32 for a review of the Fisch and a new Bridgewood floor-model mortiser).

• Dado stack: A good dado stack will serve you in many ways, but I use mine mostly for cutting tenons and rabbets. When it comes to choosing one, buy a set with 8" blades instead of 6" blades, unless you own a benchtop table saw.

Stay away from the bargain sets that cost $50 or less - I haven't found them to be very sharp and the teeth aren't well-ground. The expensive sets ($200 and more) are nice, but they're probably more than you need unless you are making your living at woodworking. My favorite mid-priced set is the Freud SD208. It's about $80 and does a fine job.

Hollow-chisel mortisers excel at boring square holes. Here you can see the holddown (which is usually inadequate with other machines), the table (which must be squared to the chisel before use) and the lever (which makes the machine plow through almost any job).

• Shoulder plane: No matter how accurately you set up your machines to cut mortises and tenons, some will need a little tuning up before assembly. And nothing trims a tenon as well as a shoulder plane. These hand tools really are secret weapons when it comes to joints that fit

together firmly and are airtight.

Why is that? Well, shoulder planes are designed to take a controlled shaving that can be as thin as .001". I can tweak a tenon to a perfect fit with just a few passes. Trying to tweak a tenon with a chisel or sandpaper is more difficult. You are more likely to gouge or round over the surface of your tenon and compromise its mechanical strength.

Buying a shoulder plane gets easier every year because there are now many quality tools on the market. Unless you build only small projects, you are going to want a plane that is at least 1" wide. Most casework tenons are 1" long, so a 1"-wide plane is perfect for trimming up the face cheeks and shoulders of the tenon.

My advice is to stay away from the newly made Stanley shoulder planes. I've had some sloppily made Stanleys go though my hands (vintage Stanley shoulder planes can be good, however).

44 Popular Woodworking April 2004