Side by Side Comparison of: Jet vs Powermatic

You can do mortises in a number of ways, I found this way to be one of the most fun ways to help me build furniture made of mortise and tenon in mission style.

Exceptional machine. It is easy to operate, and turns out great work. Very satisfied.

This is the first and only mortiser that I've ever used. It seems to do everything it's supposed to do, and I've used it on a dozen projects so far. I can see how having a heavier unit with a longer handle might be helpful, and I wish there were an easy way to align the chisel portion of the bit so that it's perfectly square. However, a couple of test punches lets you see any adjustments that are needed. A bigger back fence with a clamping system would be great, but again I think that probably comes with the more expensive units.

Being new to woodworking, I've had to trust the reviews of others in trying to sort out which brand of tools to buy so I hope this helps other newbes. Having been in the construction industry for over 35 years, I had pretty much done it all with the exception of cabinet/furniture making. With that in mind, I decided to take on an ambitious remodel for home including building the cabinetry/vanities for the bathroom and a new bedroom set. After reading more reviews than I can count and taking a trip out to the local HF to look at the Central Machinery Mortiser, I decided to spend the extra money on this one. Within a half hour of receiving it, I had it set up and was drilling my first mortis joint. Assembly literally took minutes to complete since the instructions are clear, concise and easy to understand. The lightweight oil they shipped everything in was easy to wipe off with some mineral spirits and part seemed well fit and finished. The exception to this is the hold down clamp. As others have said, this is pretty much useless. I don't know what modifications the others have made but I pretty much set the clamp aside and used the quick-grip squeeze clamps on each end of the fence to hold the wood in place. These allowed me quick and easy adjustments to the wood as well as being an inexpensive, less time consuming alternative to modifying a piece of metal. The fence itself seemed fine although I can see myself extending it at sometime in the future and the chisel bits that came with the unit were extremely sharp and worked well.

first i must say this is the only mortiser i have used.the machine was easy to set up 10 minutes from box to running. i got a free jet chiesel set with purchase.the first thing i played with was popular cut sweet, next scrap cherry a cake walk(1/4 mortise made) .the only thing i see is seal the base(which is mdf) . i ordered chiesels from lee valley for the dresses project i got this for.saw final word for the average woodworker/weekend warrior a+ machineoh yes as stated before i got free chiesels, free prime delivery fast and well packaged, good price and a stellar toy.if you dont have one put on your bucket list .

It's a good thing I read all the reviews of both the Delta and Jet mortisers. To the guys who bought the Delta and wrote the reviews, thanks for jumping on that grenade. Not only is the Jet less expensive, it is hands down the better tool. Out of the box I was cutting holes in quarter sawn white oak for my version of a spindle bed, (37 spindles in the headboard alone!). It has the feel of a tool that will keep it's place on my benchtop for years to come. I got some good tips from the reviewers too; mounting to a 3\4" piece of plywood, rotating 180 deg. to work on larger pieces, etc. Thanks again guys. P.S. The $5.00 S&H didn't hurt either.

It's night and day vs. my bosch router + chisel to square. I knocked out 6 3" x 1/2" x 3x4" mortises very quickly with fantastic results. The rotating wheel clamps do allow pretty easy movement of the workpiece. I purchased the Grizzly japanese bits (only on their site, I believe).My only complaint is when doing a tall piece (3 1/4" in my case), it can at times tilt forward some unless you hold it well to the rail. Maybe I have the top lockdown too loose while drilling, I left it loose enough to slide the workpiece left & right. The front wheels are short, so they don't provide any tilt resistance.Compared to a router, this tools is much cleaner and does not generate all the fine dust a router does. It's basically an auger drill.

Did a lot of research before I picked this unit.It came faster than expected, a day early than forecasted with snowstorms in our area at the time.It arrived in great shape via UPS.I took my time cleaned all the oil off with mineral spirits and got familiar with all the components.I stoned down all the sharp edges and working surfaces before reassembling the unit and reassembling, I do that with all my tools.I had bought some really cheap mortise chisels a long time ago from a big box store. I touched them up a little and made a mortise hole in some red oak. Did a good job, much faster than chopping by hand. I think I could do better with surface finish in my holes with a little more tuning. Setting up the mortise chisel and auger was very easy for this first time user of a mortise machine!It will take me a little bit to get this machine tweaked but that is to be expected. The only two cons are the storage unit on top for the chisels. It's a safety hazard, eventually your going to run your wrists and hands over razor sharp tools. I'm going to fabricate a separate holder for my chisels well away from the machine. The second issue is the 60 degree diamond cone for sharpening the inside of the chisel. For one it's too coarse, then its permanently fixed into the unit. There are a lot better ways to sharpen these bits.Maybe I'm obsessive but I like my tools to be surgically sharp, that means coarse, medium, fine and then a polish hone to make the cutting edges a mirror finish. I will buy after market sharpening cones to get what I want and make my own polisher.Other than that a great machine in my opinion, everything works smoothly and it's very well thought out and designed. I think they try to give you what they can while trying to be competitive. How one reviewer broke the rack is beyond my understanding, this thing is built like a tank.

Works well didn't expect anything else from Powermatic

Good product, but I'd definitely suggest getting the Powermatic bits. (Of course, they're way too expensive, but compared to the Delta bits, for example, they're way superior.)

Worked beautiful right of the box. Easy set up of chisels and depth settings and hold down works great. Love the cast steel very stable. No negative comments.

I've put substantial work on this mortiser ( with chisels from 1/4" to 1") in hardwood. This 3/4 hp machine takes it all with ease. Only with the 1" chisel I had to go a little slower, as 1" in hardwood is really pushing it. When I bought the mahine I was a little concerned because some people mentioned gear problems in their reviews. I don't know if Powermatic improved this machine, but I have no gear problems at all. Machine works fine since day one. In my opinion this is the best benchtop mortiser thats currently out there. If I had to use 1" chisels often I would probably get a large heavy duty machine, but 99% of my projects need 1/4" to 3/4" chisels so this mortizer is perfect.

The fence does not track parallel, resulting in slightly off-set mortises. That being said, I would not want to exchange it because it is a workhorse for my little shop. I have a set of great chisel/drill bits and value the work I can get done on everything from hard maple to fir.

I purchased this mortiser a few weeks ago and have made many practice mortises and a few real ones in a piece of furniture I am building. I can't speak to the durability of this product, but I can talk about everything else. It came promptly from Amazon, no parts were missing. Setup was simple. I've seen some people complain that the platform isn't parallel to the fence. This is a total non-issue. All you need are a few pieces of paper to act as shims, a t-square, and about 5 minutes... and a phillips head screw driver. I took off the platform, squared it to the fence, and added a few pieces of paper until it was square, then tightened it back down checking again to make sure it was still square. Setting the machine up took about 10 minutes total, then installing and squaring a chisel took about 5 minutes. I am giving this 4 stars because my 1/2 inch chisel just didn't work well at all. I would give 4.5 if I could recognizing that most of what I paid for was the machine and not the chisels, but I would have expected all 3 chisels to have been in top shape. The 1/2 inch kept burning my wood, I increased the auger lead and it worked a lot better but still not great. I'm going to be buying a new 1/2" chisel. The action on the rack and pinion lever was really stiff at first, I added some WD-40 and it got a lot better. Really easy to use, really smooth, I would advise facing the opening in the chisel forward instead of to the side. I am now looking at buying a Jet bandsaw just because I appreciate the quality in my mortiser.

I don't think I can say it much better than most of the other reviewers here, but that's never stopped me before.It's a very well made product, from the mortiser itself, the very sharp chisels that come with it and the chuck key. However, the hold down does leave a bit to be desired. It doesn't give me that sense of confidence at all times as far as whether or not it'll stay put...but it has so far.Personally, other than the hold down, I love this tool! If you're drilling holes and chiseling the waste wood or routing...well if you've got the dough (and in this economy, it's an understandable consideration!), give the Jet a looksee!

I've built several projects with this mortiser over the past year. It has done a great job. The stop mechanism works great, it's sturdy, and the chisels that come with it are plenty sharp. I've built about 4 tables with this machine, and I am currently building a cabinetmaker's bench, which requires me to bore mortises about 3 inches deep. Since I am using poplar for my base it didn't bog down the motor like maple would, however, the base wasn't wide enough to accomodate the large legs. No biggie: Rockler sells an extension table for this model that I am considering buying.I wish they would have included mounting hardware (like my Delta drill press), so that I could mount it without any further trips to the hardware store.

Simply put - this is a good machine for the cost. I'm not the world's most skilled craftsman, but I found the set up and use of the Jet mortiser easy and accurate. I was able to unpack it, set it up, and drill a few test mortises within an hour.Some reviewers have commented that when you are buying a bench-top mortiser you are buying a machine with somewhat limited use. I'm not sure what kind of work that they do, but I find the capacity more than sufficient for any project that I am planning.I also found it easy to align. Right off the bad I made sure that I got a good square alignment and then drilled out a few mortises for each size bit. Whenever I set up the unit, I simply check the alignment against my pre-aligned jig.

I've been using the JBM-5 for about three months now. It's a good machine and does what it is supposed to do (cut square holes). I did a fair amount of research before buying and the JET seemed to get better reviews than the Delta and I would recommend it as well.The only problem I've had is that the unit did have a damaged fan cover out of the box. The dented cover prevented the fan from rotating and thus the motor from turning. I called JET and they were extremely pleasant on the phone and sent the replacement parts right out (standard delivery). Overall I was pleased with their customer service.

I've coveted this mortiser for a long time. It's definitely top of the home workshop end. I've used the Delta, which is a good bit cheaper, and is built a good bit cheaper. Having now examined both, I can say you get the additional value in the Powermatic for the money you spend. Things like the depth stop, the tracked fence, the capacitor motor, the reversible mount, accomodating a variety of chisel/bit sets, and the WEIGHT. This sucker is solid.I have not cut any mortises yet so will comment on a couple items of concern so far. First is: The box arrived destroyed. I think UPS kicked it down ten flights of stairs. The only thing holding the box together was the one remaining strap, none of the tape survived. If that second strap had gone, everything would have spilled out on the UPS distro center floor. Viewing this carnage, I unboxed the mortiser with fear and trembling. I know UPS *SUCKS* at taking responsibility so I really didn't want to deal with that. I pulled aside the cardboard and looked in. The mortiser is packaged in a fully molded styrofoam container, clamshell style, with mating top and bottom halves. The styrofoam was also significantly damaged and you could tell that it had crushed in several directions on its way down, and when it landed at the bottom of, the stairs. But I think it did its job like a bicycle helmet, it sacrificed itself for its cargo. So far the mortiser seems to be undamaged. Be advised: if you are one who is going to be bothered by having your item delivered in a basket, maybe you should shop locally.The other comment for now is: Powermatic really smeared this thing with grease. The only sliding surfaces, the gib, are lightly oiled, but the rack that the lowering gear engages is covered in thick grease. It's as if they think it is protected from sawdust or something. I would much rather have it arrive non-goopy and be instructed to use a dry silicone spray. As it is, after about three mortises, it's going to be a big grease-sawdust muck back there that I'll have to scoop out with a screwdriver. I'll probably wipe down the gib also, and give it the same treatment.I have a set of Shop Fox chisels and was glad to see the 701 will accomodate long or short shank drills, and chisels of either 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter. The Shop Fox fit once I swapped in the 3/4" chisel holder and installed the chuck extender for the short shanks.I'll edit this once I get a chance to use it, which I'm looking forward to!

There is at least one thing I would change. The hold-down fork does not release - it seems to bind on the staff, so I am constantly having to pry it up with a screwdriver.

Fantastic machine,packaged well, assembly was very quick and easy and instructions are precise and easy to understand. The table is perfectly flat and the fence is perfectly square to the table. No tools required to make adjustments such as setting the depth stop, positioning hold downs or moving fence in and out. One word of caution, when loosening the gib screws which are tightened for shipping purposes the gib plate will slide out completely its a bit difficult getting it back in.

This is a very nice mortiser and works well. However, there is a triangular metal piece that acts both as a spacer and holds the head steady as it goes up and down the shaft. It fits at about the location of the long pull handle in the picture. This falls out frequently. The first time this happened, we didn't notice it was gone and the piece fell behind the stand and out of sight. After expending some effort to determine why the head was not aligning and was quite loose, we called customer support who quickly determined the problem. He was even quite patient while we searched (and found) the errant piece. It reinserts generally well and easily, but requires regular attention. This item could, and should be redesigned. We have a few powermatic tools which we find pricy but sound.

powermatic 3/4 horsepower bench mortiser works fine. I find it to spin free too long after the after power is turned off'.

I've had this mortiser just over two weeks now. Amazon listed it as "used" for $398. I decided to buy it versus a new one because it was sold directly by Amazon, not an affiliate, and I've had great customer service from them in the past when there were issues. This also saved me about $80.It arrived in the factory shipping box sandwiched in its styrofoam casing and plastic. It looked like it was factory packed. I don't know if it was a floor/demo model or not but everything was packed tightly and secured and for all intents and purposes, was brand new. I ordered this with Powermatic's set of four chisels which were shipped separately.I had debated between the Powermatic and the Delta and decided on the Powermatic because of the more powerful motor (3/4 hp vs. 1/2 hp) and I like the roller guide feature. I also like the ability to switch the motor wiring to 220 volts and that it was a heavier machine. I haven't converted to 220 volts yet but plan to in the future after I get a 200 V plug and longer power cord. I will call customer service to confirm the wiring configuration first as mentioned by a previous reviewer.I cut more than 30 1/2" mortises in Hawaiian koa and walnut without any issues. What I didn't care for is release for the hold down mechanism. After cutting the mortises, you have to wiggle the hold down clamp off your stock. What I decided to do was to buy a spring from my local hardware store with a larger i.d. than the width of the threaded rod on the hold down mechanism. I wound up buying a 7/8" o.d. spring and cut it to size. The smaller springs that were left over can be used on smaller stock without having to turn the hold down fingers upside down. The spring helps lift the hold down clamp easier than without it most of the time but you may still have times when you'll need to wiggle the clamp a little to loosen it. When trying to wiggle the hold down clamp off the stock, I nicked myself a few times on the chisel. They are very sharp so be careful or buy stock in Neosporin and band-aids.The other thing I plan to do is get some green felt adhesive, cut it to size, and stick it under the hold down fingers to protect the wood when clamping.Another plus is that the Powermatic uses a capacitor motor. I don't know if it's a capacitor "start" or "run" but the benefits are supposed to be added torque.What was very helpful to me was watching the YouTube video on the PM701. [...] You can go to YouTube and search "Powermatic PM701 Benchtop Mortising Machine". There are a few Powematic mortising videos for you to view.Wood magazine (Feb.'12) also rated the Powermatic tied for first with a General brand mortiser. [...] If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.I had no problems setting up the chisels and squaring them. The procedure is pretty straight forward.Overall I'm happy with the Powermatic and would recommend it if you can spring for the extra cost or buy a good used one off Craigslist. Remember that the Delta comes with four chisels. The Powermatic doesn't so that will be an added expense.

Rattles excessively, but it works okay after you fiddle around with it.

Very limited height, table is too small. Otherwise, it is okay. Not a lot to brag about on this one. I'd do an internet search and find a better model.

When I received the mortiser, there were no obvious signs of damage. However, when I opened the box I found the top fan cover was dented in so as to impede the movement of the cooling fan. It was easy to pound back out and there is no paint or structural damage but it should never have left the factory that way. Also,the post that the hold down clamp secures to has a set screw to hold it tight and that was loose from the factory. There is no wrench included to tighten it and it took a while to find one in my collection that was close enough tighten it. Just a pain in the neck. Once I got going, it performed as I would have expected although I will probably get a better set of bits than the ones included.

The tool works well! I am happy with its' ease of use and set up. For a low end mortiser it works very well for the occasional user. The first one I received had a caved in top due to improper packaging. I let Amazon know, and in two days I received a new replacement, at no charge. The staff at Amazon were great - it was very easy to get a new one sent quickly and have UPS pick up the one that was damaged. Thanks, Amazon for your wonderful customer support.

I am a fairly new woodworker and needed this to make some mortises. Upon delivery the plastic button was popped out and would not go back into its socket do to the location of the wires. I eventually got it half in...Also, I could not get the handle to sit anywhere but awkward. Probably could be adjusted in some way, but I could not figure it out.Besides the button, build quality is good. Also, probably from me not reading the description thoroughly, but this does not come with any bits like shown in the picture as I had thought.All in all, for the money I feel I could have gotten a better product.

This bench mortiser is again a Powermatic success. Top quality, ease of use .Only question is how due you keep the Aluminium Squib from falling out???????

My PM 701 arrived on Monday of Thanksgiving week. The machine is heavy and solid, but I was astonished to find that mine was missing a significant number of parts (almost a dozen). How could something this obvious be overlooked in final assembly and packaging? What a disappointment; I wanted to use it the day it arrived, but could not. I called customer service and they promptly shipped out the missing parts. However, it was Thanksgiving week, so the needed parts did not arrive until after the holidays.The cast metal parts are big heavy and well built, but I was a little surprised at the use plastic in some places. The motor makes a loud "clink" sound when the it spins down - I am used to it now.If I worked at Powermatic and I were in charge of this machine I would completely redesign the work piece hold down mechanism. It is difficult to use - somebody MUST have a better design than this. Also, I'd fire a few people in quality control.To be fair, this machine makes decent mortises, but given my experience with this Powermatic product (condition on arrival, useability), I bought my new drill press from another manufacturer - same with my new band saw.

I bought a 701 mortiser and immediately re-rewired it for 230-V operation exactly per the schematic on the back of the manual. I am an Electrical Engineer and have done it on my Model 66 and my Model 89 Jointer. When I plugged it in and ran it, the motor and controls smoked. Upon investigation, there is a small decal on the back of the inside of the control head cover, and the diagram on the decal is different from the schematic on the manual!! I have called Amazon.com and they are replacing the unit, but if you're going to re-wire for 230V, call PM for confirmation from them that the decal on the unit is correct, because obviously the schematic in the manual is wrong!

The first unit delivered had a large dent in the motor cap. Waiting for replacement.

This is not typical Jet equipment, I have a Jet table saw, lathe and band saw, they are impressive tools. I should have read the small print with the mortiser. the throat is just enough to mortise a 2X4, in hard wood the motor jams because of wood chips, the chuck is too small 5/8ths would have been a better choice and hard to access. I did keep the machine and added a spacer for wider stock. It does work better than my drill press but not much.Rich

I bought the JBM-5 and expected to not have to work at mortises again. Not true. Every new piece of wood means tinkering with the fence (which isn't necessarily square to the bit), the chisel (which will cut your fingers and won't stay in it's chuck) and the depth stop. The fence is too short and chips inevitably fall down between the wood and the fence, forcing the piece out of square. Adding an auxillary fence to won't work because the hold-down reaches over it so it can never be higher than the workpiece. The machine is also under powered and it takes quite a lot of practice to match the insertion speed to prevent binding and burning but still progress through the cut. Also, the cylinder provided to "assist in raising the head" is worthless and pops off if you pull too hard in either direction. Then bed is way too short and the racket it makes after your first cut (bit rubbing or chisel maybe) is devastating. All the adjustable pieces are held together with set screws that work loose constantly. This won't save me nearly as much time as I thought, but at least doesn't tie up the drill press with mortising attachments. You should also invest is a larger chisel. The "free" 1/2" is fine for small jobs, but any good sized project tends to need larger ones and the adjustments to make larger mortises with the 1/2" chisel is not worth it.

I purchased a Delta mortiser first. It's fence was all crooked. So I returned it and bought the jet. The Jet's motor sounded like the bearings were going out and the frame was considerablely flimsier than the Delta. When I attempted to make 3/8" mortise in maple, the head of the Jet mortiser flexed about 1/8". I'm returning the Jet, and I'm going to order the Powermatic.

This feels like a very solid machine for the price, and I'm sure it would work great for 1/2" mortises. Unfortunately, it is not capable of 3/4" mortises in hardwood, despite the claims of the spec sheet and tech support reps. Teeth repeatedly broke off the cast iron pinion gear and the aluminum rack deformed after just a few plunges with a 3/4" chisel in walnut, maple, or ash. I used a new, high quality Japanese 3/4" chisel from Lee Valley and followed the directions carefully. With the first plunge, it was obvious the machine was being pushed to its limits. It felt spongey under the load required to advance the chisel into the wood. The first pinon gear broke after about a dozen 1" deep plunges into walnut and maple. I was able to rotate the pinion to engage fresh teeth and try again, and it broke again. Then one more rotation, and the remaining teeth broke. The aluminum rack was also severely deformed. Powermatic assured me that the machine was capable of these mortises, and sent me a new pinion gear and rack. The new pinion broke three times as well. I sharpened the chisel and tried varying the gap between the auger and chisel, to no avail.I talked with Powermatic again, describing the situation carefully. I was advised to plunge "as quickly as possible", and sent a third rack and pinion set. Taking their advice, I brought the handle down as quickly as I could. The pinion broke on the second plunge. Finally, Powermatic asked me to take the machine to an authorized service center (an hour's drive) along with my chisel so they could inspect it. The folks at the authorized service center said that my chisel was fine and my technique was fine - the problem was a low quality cast iron pinion gear and the ALUMINUM(!?!) rack. They actually kind of mocked me for thinking that there was any way this machine could handle a 3/4" mortise. When I told them that both the Powermatic spec sheet and tech support guys say it can, they were incredulous.My repeated calls to Powermatic over an 8 week period were very frustrating. It's nice that you can actually talk to real people in Tennessee, and they were quick to send replacement parts under warranty. But they were slow to return calls, condescending, and repeatedly insisted that the machine was fine and I must be doing something wrong. They never did acknowledge that there might be a real problem (though they did acknowledge that they had never tried using a 3/4" chisel!). In the end, I asked them to simply acknowledge that there might be an issue and look into it, try it themselves, and consider revising the machine's spec sheet to 1/2" capacity. I was told that this request would not be considered. I asked to speak with someone in engineering and this request was denied. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and was told he/she would be notified of my request. But I never received a call from the supervisor. I followed up with one final call, with the same null result.This is my first experience with Powermatic. I'm sad to say that it will probably be my last.Amazon was amazing. After hearing my story, they happily agreed to accept a return of the machine for a full refund, and arranged a convenient freight pickup at no charge.

Within one day of receiving delivery and after having made several 1/2" wide, 1 1/2" deep mortises in a 2x4 piece of redwood, the hub holding the operating handle cracked causing a portion of the hub and the handle to fall off. The hub failure occurred while plunging about 1/2"deep into the redwood board. Prior the socket breaking, the machine function well and easily and accurately made several mortises. Unfortunately, without a way to attach the handle the machine is unusable.

I ordered this item approx 10 days ago via Free Super Shipping and received it today. The staples holding the box together on the side were pulled out from the cardboard, the packing straps had cut into the cardboard...I still wasn't worried, pulled it out, put it up on a table to start degreasing it and waxing the top and noticed it wobbled somewhat. It is hard to make cast iron that far out of true, so I looked at the base, looked around the back and the cast iron base at both T-slots was cracked all the way through the metal. Amazon is starting to process the replacement, I am hopeful it is not a repeat issue. It appears to be a solid piece of equipment, for the few minutes I looked at it. I did not realize until receiving that the bit tray is plastic-not a problem but caught me off guard. I can do a better rating when I get one that is not broken, until then 2 stars is me being kind.....Update:OK, I received the replacement-the tool tray was smashed to pieces and the set screw for the sharpener was missing. Further inspection showed marks on adjustment knobs, marks on the paint, etc. There is NO way this is a brand new piece of equipment. I have talked to approx. a dozen customer service reps and had a couple of very helpful people, most not so, especially overseas call centers-horrible customer service! Most recently I was told that they were going to ship the replacement pieces for the broken one, then later receive an email from the fullfilment center that they do not stock these and to go contact the manufacturer myself and order/pay for the pieces myself...FOR A SUPPOSEDLY BRAND NEW PIECE OF EQUIPMENT. One guy says he is going to make it right and you agree to a course of action then someone else changes that to something not acceptable to any right-minded person and drops you an email. I have spent HOURS AND HOURS ON THE PHONE TO CLEAR UP THEIR OWN INTERNAL MISTAKES. If you have a choice, go to a real store where there is some accountability, clearly there is not much here. Still not resolved.....

The machine showed up in good condition and the components were square and the assembly seemed to be a decent bench top machine. Two days into owning this machine with no load on the chisel the machine started to smoke. I have a call out to Jet Technical Support who think that it is the capacitor and we will see if that will fix this. The Jet Customer Support was not particularly knowledgeable about this product which made the troubleshooting an issue. Overall I think I got what I paid for and I will need to purchase a larger professional machine because the quality control on these "prosumer" grade tools is just so poor.

I'm a pretty loyal Amazon fan, but I won't be ordering any used power tools again. The first mortiser I received was broken off at the head (it was a Delta). This one looked okay until I got it set up and all it did was make a "whirring" sound. Looking at it more closely, it appeared that it had been dropped and had a significant dent on the top of the head. Think I'm going to stick with really new.

I just received the Jet Mortise machine yesterday. Took it out of the box, assembled it and plugged it in. At first it wouldn't do anything thing but hum a little. I turned the chuck a little, then turned it back on. It made a horrible grinding sound. Closer inspection revealed the fan on the top of the motor was grinding against the housing. Further inspection of the machine showed the bolt holes in the base were not taped square. These bolt holes attach the column to the base. I'm skeptical how square the machine would cut if the manufacturer cannot machine square bolt holes. This is my first Jet tool and it will be my last. I just ordered a Powermatic to replace this junk.

Very poor quality on stops and adjusting knobs. Tiwan machine. Jet/Powermatic service is the pits. Forget trying to get warranty replacements.Rude call center. Shop elsewhere. I have several Jet and Powermatic machines that work well. This mortiser has suffered cost cutting until it itsjunk. Avoid!

The handle broke on the first use! The attachment piece is cast (and not machined) so I am not very surprised that it broke.Aside from this, the machine is pretty nice but due to this damage, I would not recommend buying this.

It is hard to set up. It does not drill clear tenons. You still have to chisel them out. The metal of the handle broke after only a few uses so I need a pipe wrench to use it. Finally I put it into a corner and went back to a forschner bit and chisel which is quicker and makes much better tenons. I hate looking at it and feel stupid for spending $400 for a pain in the neck paper weight, dust collector.

I bought this machine after looking at several other bench top mortisers. I bought it for a specific propose but I have concluded it has a fatal flaw which makes it useless to me. First I'll start with the good stuff. It has a lot better clamps and adjustments then other machines you can get in its class. It also has decent horsepower. It did not bog at all even with very hard wood. It would probably be fine for softer wood applications however for what I was using it for it just didn't hack it. I was working with Ipe which is a pretty hard wood. The problem is the gear that is that controls the up and down motion is attached to it's grooved shank with a very small tooth. The rest of the machine is built like a rock but it really doesn't matter since this tooth will easily shear if you try to use the machine with moderate force. I have done this twice already in just a few minutes of use. If you have a lighter application than I do it might work OK for you. However I still feel this is a design flaw so I must rate the machine accordingly. In my view wood working tools should be rock solid and it fact most are. This is first shop tool I have had this much trouble with. My saws, drill press, planer and other equipment all work fine even with exotic hardwoods.