Replies

1. 
   chills1994 | Jan 02, 2005 09:31am | #1

   My suggestion would be to take many small bites with the HCM.  Take a shallow "bite" and then pull or retract the chisel and auger fully out of the wood.  Then take a deeper plunge and so on.  I've noticed that wood chips like to hang up between the auger and chisel.  This causes friction and heat to build up.  Extracting them both out of the stock and not taking an agressive plunge allows the auger to cear the chips through the slots in the square chisel. 

   I have a chisel honing set but have not used it yet.  I haven't really used my HCM either, all that much.  I've also heard that you're supposed to deburr the inside of the chisel with sandpaper wrapped around a dowel.  This allows more clearance between auger and bit.

1. 
   jptort | Jan 02, 2005 10:21pm | #3

   Thanks, taking 'smaller bites' made a big difference.   I also opened the clearance to 1/8 inch, the middle of the recommended range, ant that seemed to help, too.

2. 
   Peter36 | Jan 02, 2005 08:11pm | #2

   Hello. I don't know if this helps but 2 things that I do on mine to help with the ejection are; as the previous post states, take short plunges and retract the bit as opposed to 1 continuous plunge. The other thing is I always face the slot in the chisel towards the already cut mortise. This gives the chips somewhere to go, obviously not on the first plunge but any sucessive ones. Lastly I also scribe a line that is the center of my mortise, I leave a large gap between the chisel and bit and this scribed line helps to keep the bit from walking away from its center.

1. 
   jptort | Jan 02, 2005 10:24pm | #4

   Good advise.  That really allowed the chips to clear better. I also stuck the end of a small shop vac hose over the end of the hold-down fork and it helped clear the discharge.  Thanks for the response.

1. 
   chills1994 | Jan 06, 2005 06:46am | #5

   Glad that helped, Santa Fe.