Gents (and ladies, too) I have had the terribly brilliant and incredibly
original idea of laying a router on its side in a table to cut mortices.
This was brought on by a lack of a dedicated mortising machine, the fact
that Woodcraft will not let me borrow theirs (no one else I know owns one)
and a healthy respect for a dollar that will not let me buy top-end
equipment for isolated or even single uses.

I found a couple sets of plans already and have made the adjustments to
match the available stock and even cut the wood. I'm good to go on that
score.

What I need now is the opinion of others as to the sizes and styles and
manufacturers of bits for mortising with a horizontal router. The router
in question is a single speed HF 2.5hp - 1/2" collet machine that I
bought too quickly (I was ticked at Woodcraft for advertising the PC 7518
on sale but not having even one I could hold to get a sense of it. Dummy
me, I wasn't sceptical enough. I just assumed that any router with that
much hp would have some way of varying the speed. [Note to self:
Bill, READ the steenkin' box!] Nope. Not this one.) clocking in at a
claimed 23,000 rpm. WAAAY too fast for the raised panel bits I had in mind
for it. WAAAY too fast.

(C=pi x D)x 23,000 x 60 / 5,280 = suicide

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=37793

So ... it is going to become my official mortise & tenon router. But I am
in desperate need of a clue.

What I THINK I need is a straight cut up-spiral bit (to pull the wood
toward the router fence) that comes on a 1/2" shank in a few sizes (1/4,
5/16, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2) with the greatest depth of cut I can buy through
normal channels. Probably carbide inserts or brazed carbide faced.

But then, I THOUGHT I needed that HF router, too.

Sign me:

Clueless in Detroit.