Powermatic Benchtop Mortiser, 3/4" Chisel, 5-1/2" Stroke, 115/230V 1Ph (Model PM701)

I have had a Powermatic model 66 table saw for nearly ten years, and it has been rock solid. Based on that experience and the reviews of others, when it came time to buy a mortising machine I assumed the tool would be built like a tank and last for generations. I can't speak to the last, but it is solidly constructed. This is the first mortising machine I have owned, and I have only used one other which was an industrial floor model machine at a school. The order arrived earlier than promised, and the packaging was in excellent condition. The tool and all its parts were in great condition, and it was very easy to set up. I checked the backstop and it was square to the table. I bolted it down to a rolling table so I could bring it out when I needed to. When I ordered the 701, the description of the item included "free open stand", so I was kind of expecting to receive a stand with it. I did not, and when I called Amazon they told me it was not included. I had printed out the page just in case I needed it, and while I was on hold as they checked with the manufacturer and I was transferred to another agent the web page was edited and the "free open stand" listed was removed. Guess what- the second customer service agent says "I don't see anything about a free stand". I told them I had printed it out and offered to fax it to them, at first they were hanging tough, then they said I could get a discount on a stand if I wanted to order one, then they just gave me a credit for the regular cost of a stand! Thank you Amazon! That was more than I expected them to do, and it makes me feel like telling others how good they were. Back to the mortiser- the motor is 3/4 horsepower, and it is heavy. As beefy as the column is, I was surprised to see it flex every time I turned on the power, but it didn't seem to affect the normal use of the tool. I got my chisel and bit sets the day after this arrived, so I wasted no time in sharpening them further so I could test it out (these chisels need to be very sharp for them to work well). I had trouble getting it set up right, because I thought the bit and chisel sets were either 8" or 9", mine was 8-3/8" so I added the chuck extension and things didn't fit right- the chisel to bit clearance was too great. The manual is not much help here, I went online and found that the normal range is 1/8" to 3/16" (I had nearly 1/2"), so I figured out that I did't need the chuck extension after all. Once that was back off, setup was a snap and I was cutting mortises. Again, the manual didn't spare much energy on describing normal operation, so back online I went to learn that I wasn't supposed to overlap cuts, but space them apart leaving bridges of wood, and coming back and removing them, in order to avoid the chisel being pushed to one side by an unbalanced cut. I have read that the hold down on this tool is not as bad as the competition, but still not as good as more expensive models. I found that in order to be able to shift the wood after the first cut, there had to be a little play between the hold down and the wood, and the front roller blocks and the wood- I ended up having to use pressure from my hands to keep the work aligned as I plunged into and removed the mortising chisel. Maybe with practice this will become easier, but after my first job entailing about 30 mortises I was still experiencing the same. I love owning and using quality tools, and this is a quality tool. It does what it is designed to do and it does it well. It has the lower RPM that many new design mortisers have in order to keep the drill and chisel sets from burning, and it has a bigger motor to keep it from bogging down at those speeds. If you need to make angled mortise and tenon joints, go for one of the bigger models at five times the price, but don't waste your time going cheaper than this, you'll only be disappointed. P.S.: I bought the Grizzly tenon jig to go with this, I wrote a review already on it- basically, it works but there must be an easier way to make consistent tenons that hopefully is less time consuming (and the instruction manual for that is awful). I didn't have time to make my own tenoning jig, but I'm not completely happy with that one.

It just arrived today and I put it through a trail run. I ordered the Powermatic 1791096 Premium 4pc. Mortise & Chisel Set with it. The bench mortiser was packaged well but the box hadn't been banged around, it looked like it came right off the shelf. I didn't expect any damage. Delivery was great, the guys brought into my garage. The box weighs 94lbs (I weighed it!) For those who care, it's made in Taiwan. Set up was pretty easy, instructions clear and straightforward. It only required a 10mm wrench and a 3mm Allen key (not included). I installed a 1/4" mortise bit and ran a test on a piece of pine. The motor is very quiet but there's a noise just after it stops spinning. I'm guessing it's the magnetic starter disengaging. It required more pressure than I expected but I've never run a mortiser before. The handle is "L" shaped at the end and not the stick configuration in the photo. It was easy to control. The up and down movement was very smooth but a little tight, regardless how I set the gibs. I'm not complaining though. The fence moved easily and the wheels that keep the work tight to the fence operated smoothly. The hold down was not as good. It required some wiggling to get it to move up and down and once you tightened it down it applied more pressure to the workpiece requiring me to go back and ease some of the pressure. I had to set the hold down a bit loose so it wouldn't clamp the piece down when tightened. It's probably a bit out of square but I didn't check that. Squaring the chisel to the fence was a bit of a hassle. You have to lower the arm and keep it there to make the adjustment. The bit installation process requires you to set the chisel first, then the auger bit, then reset the chisel for proper clearance of the auger bit. I had to hold the handle down with my hip for the final squaring. Some sort of lockdown for this step would have been nice. On the down side, the stop is made out of plastic. Something this heavy that allows you to apply a lot of downward force should have a metal stop. I would have paid the extra $10 or so for this. The parts and chisel holder is also made of plastic and has only two slots for 3/4" chisels. The set I bought had four 3/4" chisels, made by PM. You'd think the company would have allowed for their chisels to have a place to go. The holder is molded plastic so there's no drilling out the holes without weakening the piece. I plan on making a metal holder soon. The bits I was less pleased with but I'll review them with the product. Overall it seems like a well made machine except for the plastic. Since I ordered this the price has jumped $66.00. That might have taken me to something else as it was a stretch to pay $374.

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.

I bought this mortise machine to replace my Delta mortiser. I do 1/2-inch mortises on tables that I build. The delta was at its limit, and the chisels would clog up periodically and jam. The Powermatic has the additional power needed to plow through wood and not plug up. I need to mention that I used the Powermatic brand mortise chisels, and they make a huge difference. Worth the money spent. those chisels are super sharp. I had to use care while installing them. The mortiser is a really sturdy piece of equipment. My Delta is very sturdy, and the Powermatic blows it away. It's about twice the weight too. I bought it on a promotional deal on Amazon which made it even sweeter.

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 have several Powermatic large tools in my shop, including a PM2000 cabinet saw, large shaper, fine dust filter, 8" jointer, and 15" PM thickness planer. Recently, I saw the need for a mortiser, so I looked around and opted for the Powermatic table top model. I've used it multiple times over the last 4 weeks and find it to be accurate, easy to set up (change the chisels and auger bit), and reliable. It's important to have sharp chisels, especially in hard wood. The table fence is easy to move backward and forward, and the two rollers in the front not only hold the work against the fence, they allow lateral movement of the wood to continue to cut the mortises.

It is hard to look back a year or two or ten ago and not have some regret about not buying every woodworking machine I ever thought about getting because the prices have skyrocketed. Putting price increases aside, this machine arrived in good shape, the box barely had any scuff marks on it, good job to Amazon's delivery crew. Assembly is easy just stick the handle in a hole and tighten the steel locking handle (I later used an adjustable wrench to put some real torque on it), the head is locked for shipping with three gibb screws and those need to be loosened so the head can move, the machine is not drenched in oil but the raw metal has light oil on it that needs to be wiped off (I used a paper towel with mineral spirits) then (ironically) the gear rail and dovetail ways need to be lubricated (I had wheel bearing grease on hand so that is what I used). I waxed all of the bare metal that didn't get grease put on it. I tried the machine out by doing some test and setup cuts and then I cut 28 mortises in cherry (1/2-inch W x 1 3/4-inch L x 1 1/4-inch D). A stop block clamped to the fence with a spacer produced extremely accurate and repeatable results. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to cutting mortises, Paul Sellers could probably chop out 28 precision mortises by hand in the same amount of time I did it with this machine, but I'm not Paul Sellers. I tried it using a router for this job and ended up with less than acceptable results. This is the first time I have used the machine and I got great results. If you are contemplating, getting a hollow chisel mortiser (or any woodworking machine) go ahead and do it. The longer you have it and the more you use it the sooner it amortizes. I am in my mid 60's, I will have this machine longer than I will be able to do woodworking, it did a great job completing something I was having trouble with, and it opens the door to more mortise and tenon projects. All-in-all it is a good purchase for me.

I received my Powermatic 701 Bench Mortiser on Friday from Amazon (WMH Tool). No damages. Over the weekend I set it up and made 12 mortises in red oak table legs. Wow! Powermatic makes the heaviest, most powerful power tools in the professional woodworking market - period. First, this thing weighs about 80 pounds. It's iron castings are massive. The arm and column on which the motor and quill are mounted are like bridge supports. I looked at the competitor's machines and they're like toys compared to this one. The cast iron table is huge, thick and perfectly flat. The fence system is great - lots of ways to secure the workpiece with a heavy cast fence that moves back and forth on slots in the table keeping it perfectly 90 degrees to the head. The fence locks down and won't move or flex. And the hold down is the best one I've seen. The rolling front locking wheels are great. The motor (3/4 HP) is the largest in the class. And it hums like a kitten. Love that PM power. Once my chisels were sharp, this machine allowed me to make easy mortises in the hard oak. Chop, chop. The arm mechanism can be mounted on the left or right and feels solid once you set it in place. It takes a lot of punishment as does the excellent rack and pinion gear set it moves on. The depth stop is also solid. I was going to put this unit on my workbench and move it around when I needed to use it - wrong! It's just too darn heavy. So I mounted it to a piece of 3/4 inch plywood and now it's permanently mounted to the top of my rolling tool chest. At nearly $475.00 it's by far the most expensive bench mortiser. This is true of all Powermatic tools - they are the high end. I have a PM2000 table saw and 54A 6-inch jointer in addition to this beauty. They were all more expensive then the competition. But if you're a serious woodworker or a professional furniture maker, this is your machine. OK, one minor gripe - there should be a way to immobilize the arbor shaft so you can more easily tighten and loosen the chuck. Not a huge deal but would be an improvement. Powermatic tools are bought once and last forever (and then you give them to your son or grandson and so on). Spend the money now and you'll be a happy mortiser for a long, long time. [...]