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Re: Mortising unit for Ad741 / FD250 #jointerplaner

 

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I had an FD250 and liked it and learned to use it for mortising and dowel boring to make doors and windows.

I planned to make videos to share what I learned but ran out of time when liquidating the shop last summer.

I modified it in a few ways. ?I added a bracket to shift the control handle so it would not hit the clamp riser on the right hand side of the work table. ?I added a DRO for height to make double rows of dowel repeatable for window and door sash.?

I also added pneumatic clamps that I copied from the clamps that Ultimate Joe had on his Koehle mortiser. ? The pneumatic clamps made everything easier and more precise. ?

I had the rack and pinion mortising feature and it made dowel boring possible and made side to side mortising with birds beak bits easier.

I also had the index bars and I figured out how to use them to index mirror image parts for doors and windows.?

The way I indexed mirror image pieces was to use the 90 degree fence a couple of stops on the back side of the work table and a scrap of wood that could be bored all the way through when indexed to the 90 degree stop and then move the 90 degree stop to the opposite side of the worktable and reference the flip side of the scrap to the cutting bit. ?This allows you to index dowel holes to the edge or end of a workpiece exactly the same distance from the fence. ?I may have some photos if anyone is interested.

Another way to index parts is to use a wooden fence in place of the small metal one on the front edge of the worktable. ?You can set the wooden fence just below the height of the cutter and mark locations on the top edge of the fence. ?The thumbscrews that held the metal fence on my FD250 were very long and easily accommodated 6mm plywood for a fence.

I found the FD250 to provide a lot of bang for the buck. ?The alternatives that were better cost between $14k and $30k depending on options. ?The Hoffmann (HR150?) like the one Ultimate Joe Calhoon has is one option and the Stegherr FD Junior is another.?

I also had custom boring bits made that were .1mm oversize for the dowels I was using. ?I bought them from Greg at Rangate, they had nice thick carbide and worked well in side grain and end grain. ?

Joe in New Orleans



On Jan 28, 2021, at 1:00 PM, imranindiana via <imranindiana@...> wrote:

Hi David,

I have a FD250. I bought it used and it did not have the morticing option. IMHO, this option is needed to make slotting an enjoyable experience. It adds a rack & pinion (terminology may be off but I hope it gets the idea across) and a separate lever. The joy stick is okay but with this lever fwd motion is essentially fixed while you sweep horizontally. With joystick, if used regularly, one may develop sufficient muscle memory but that is not the case with me. Mortising option also adds a bell on the business end so that a hollow chisel can be used. I do not have any chisels so no experience there.

This is not a production machine. The process is slow if you are slot mortising. The physical position to do the mortising can be difficult for some as you stand in the rear and lean a bit fwd to see what is going on. In reality, with stops, in both directions, one should not have to do so, but I think it is natural response.

Where the machine is lacking is a way to easily index work. Maybe someone has figured something out and we all can benefit from it.

I will use the example of building a door with floating tenons. You can certainly, repeat the setting for stiles on multiple pieces via the stop on the rod, unless you door is too tall ?. But now there is no easy way to register the mortice on the mating rails. An indicator for center line of mortice can help and I may add that to my machine. Not sure if this issue is same for multirouter.

Multirouter is much more liked by some very experienced folks here, so I will certainly check it out. I am not sure, if FD250 has any advantage over multirouter, other than perhaps it can do deeper mortice/boring. You can bore holes with constant distance via the doweling attachment as well.

Hope this helps.

Imran
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