AMERICAN (HOUSTON) POWER MORTISER

This is an American (Houston) No3 Power Mortiser. It emulates hand mortise chopping. Some machines for larger mortises – railway cars for instance – have a companion drill auger. This was used for sash work in softwoods mostly.

This is the reciprocator. Houston literature claims to have a dampener in here somewhere to lessen wear. I have not gotten into this machine yet so I don’t know. I have never run it. It was demonstrated to me running and that was enough to make be wary of it. I will fire it up eventually. It is one old machine that I think I would prefer to power with a VFD devise.

These are examples of different chisel designs. Second from the top appears to be the most common.

RUNNING AGAIN

Last time I saw this run was when I bought it, 1987-88 Winter. Until this week at the end of 2012.