14-651 1/2" Mortiser, Gray

First off, I'd like to address the negative reviews of this machine. I wish people would review the tools and not the delivery service or the retailer.Now, about the 14-651. This a beast of a machine. It's heavy, it's got a strong motor and it can drill a lot of square holes. That's what a mortiser is supposed to do, right?Most of this tool is metal. The base is cast iron, unlike some that are part metal, part chipboard etc. As some other reviewers have commented, some of the locking levers are plastic. If you feel the need to go He-man on them, I imagine they might break. But you really don't need to crank them down that much. The important lever (the holddown lever) is metal. The drill bits come packaged individually with plastic caps to protect the tips. They look decently made and come pretty sharp. I'm sure that like most edge tools, a honing would help them perform at their best. But they cut fine out of the box.This is an easy tool to set up. You have to attach the hand lever, the tool holder and degrease the cast iron parts. You don't really need to align anything until you make your cuts. Even though the directions "recommend" bolting the mortiser down, it should be mandatory.Why did it get five stars? Well, all the important parts are metal. It's got a great motor that spins at a reasonable rpm (1725 not 3450 like some of them). It's priced very competively and has a long warranty. Its design isn't lacking anything. Combine that w/ Amazon's free shipping and it's a stellar deal. My home was only 2 shipping days away from the depot so it didn't get a lot of handling. I'm sure that with a longer trip, say five days or more, I can see where the risk of damage might increase. But, if you review this mortiser, please review the tool, not the shipper.

What a great tool and a great deal. (...)Bad news. It arrived broken. The cast iron yoke that held the motor to the spindle shaft was cracked in half.Good news. Amazon replaced by air shipping me a new one in just a matter of days plus paid for the return shipping of the broken one (78lbs!).Tool review. Set up is pretty straight forward with clear instructions in manual. It comes coated with a heavy layer of oil so be prepared to do some cleaning. Good news is that zero rust was on the machine. I liked spring loaded handle in that I could quickly reposition it for each new mortise cut. It comes with five decent drill/chisels that should last for a very long time if kept sharp.This machine is heavy at 78lbs, which is what you want when cutting a mortise. Without bolting it down I have not had a problem with it wobbling during cuts. I did some test cuts starting with the smallest chisel set and worked my way up to the largest set (1/2 inch), only on the largest set did I feel the motor bog down just a small amount. But for me this was not an issue because I am not in the production business but use this solely for hobby purposes.Bottom line: Great machine. And kudos to Amazon for their fast service!

As others have noted, the machine is well packaged and dripping in oil. There was so much oil in the carton that my first thought was that there must be a gear box that had leaked.Clean up and assembly was easy with good instructions. After using this for a while I have a few comments on the machine.1. This does a good job of cutting machine mortises, and I will use it whenever I have a blind, not through mortise, which will be covered by a shoulder. Most of my mortises are not through mortises and are covered by a shoulder, so this works fine and is amazingly fast compared to hand cutting. Even with a deep scribe cut the mortises are a little rough to be left visible. Although this doesn't produce the quality of large expensive machines or hand cut mortises, it is a welcome addition to the shop for blind mortises covered by a shoulder. It's a bit of a challenge to get the chisel parallel to the fence, so I lower the head down, put a straight edge between the fence and chisel, and CAREFULLY tighten the chisel down trying to keep it square and parallel to the fence.2. The quality of the chisels and bits was disappointing. The chisels in particular had turned over burrs on all the cutting edges. All of them needed to be cleaned up with a diamond file before they would cut without excessive pressure. Do yourself a favor and clean up the cutting edges before you use them. I'll probably buy a better chisel set, but these are functional after sharpening. I expected better from Delta, but this was easily fixed.3. The two hold down legs that support the work are NOT parallel to the base. When adjusted to touch the wood at the inside towards the base these is a gap of about 3 - 4mm on the ends towards the operator. I had intended to mill the arms down to be parallel to the work piece. However , after using this for awhile decided I like them as they are. I cut two wood shims / wedges and put those wedges between the hold down arms and the work piece to clamp the work down. It's much quicker to pull the shims to re-position the work, and the shims hold tighter than just the arms.4. A really minor issue, I dislike the chuck key with the safety pin that pops the key out of the chuck so you can't leave it in accidentally. Access to the chuck is not really easy with the housing and door, adding that 'safety' pin is not user friendly when attempting to precisely adjust the position of the drill inside the cutting chisel.. I will be grinding off the spring loaded safety pin so the key doesn't pop out if I relax inward pressure on it.4. This is a good solid machine. It's heavy enough to feel solid when in use and has enough power to cut hard maple and oak with appropriate feed rates.I like having this available and it is a good addition to the shop.