I vote is buy a drill press and not the mortiser attachment.

I have had all three. The jig attchment frustrated me. It was a PITA to set
up, and I could never get the coller to lock well enough on the quil for it
to work properly. I ended up buying the delta benchtop mortiser with which I
am generally pleased.

As for the drill press, you will use it for any ad all drilling that you can
bring to the table. If you think that you can drill straight (perpendicular
to the surface) without one, you're really good, using a fussy fixture or
deluded. A DP just makes it so easy. Add to that: gobs of power (compared to
a hand drill) effortless depth stopping and probably and my peronal favorite
(it may sound silly but it;s a huge time saver) if you have multiple holes
the same distance from an edge, clamp on a fence and whip right through
them.



"Adam Diehl" wrote in message
...
Hey group,

I am looking to purchase either a drill press and mortising kit or a
dedicated mortiser to help me out with my furniture-making ambitions. I
initially thought that the drill press and mortising kit would be the
way to go because it would be more versatile. Since I have a limited
tool-buying budget (If I still hope to buy lumber anyways), I thought it
would be a nice, cost-effective compromise. However, I have heard that
the mortising kit/drill press combo isn't entirely satisfactory for
cutting mortises on a regular basis. I've heard that the dedicated
mortiser (as one might guess) is more user-friendly and does a better
job overall. That said, I have a couple questions for the group:

1) What do you use your drill presses for in your shop? My reason for
initially leaning towards the drill press/mortise kit combination is, as
I mentioned, because of the ability to also use the drill press as a
drill press. However, the only uses I can come up with are to cut plugs
and possibly for spinning sanding drums (which, I'm told, is another job
they're not ideally suited for). I don't think I'd do either on a
regular basis.

2) If you've used a mortising kit, what were your impressions of the
quality of the job it did and its usability?

3) Considering the price of a delta bench-top drill press plus mortising
kit is about equal to the delta bench-top dedicated mortiser (including
4 bits and a few other handy gewgaws), which would you go for in my
position? Keep in mind that I already have a good hand-held drill that's
worked just fine for making holes up to this point. (I can even make the
holes end up passably straight most of the time!)

I guess the main thing I'm trying to assess is the real utility of
having a drill press, and whether it outweighs the advantages of going
for the dedicated mortiser. At this point I am leaning towards the
mortiser unless I hear some great reason to have a drill press instead.
Thank you all for your help!

Regards,
Adam Diehl