On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 19:34:44 -0500, Adam Diehl
wrote:

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.

What are you mortising?

For most work, I mortise with a router and/or router table and spiral
bits. Stop blocks and a fence are set up to quickly zip out the
mortise. I either chop the rounded ends square with a good mortise
chisel, or trim the tenon corners with bench chisels to fit them,
depending on if the mortise goes all the way through.

I find the router and some good, sharp chisels to be a great combo.
Setting up the router table doesn't take much longer than setting up a
mortise machine. Trimming the tenon corners is extremely fast during
dry fit, taking maybe ten seconds a joint.

Making lots of mission stuff with lots and lots of mortises? I'd buy
a dedicated machine.

Barry