Porter-Cable 513 1-1/2 Horsepower Lock Mortiser

by Porter-Cable

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Hand mortising is a thing of the past, and the Porter-Cable 513 1-1/2 HP lock mortiser will get the job done quicker and more efficiently than ever before. The powerful 11 Amp motor spins at 27,500 RPM for incredibly detailed cuts. Particularly useful when making cuts for box locks, the 513 heavy-duty lock mortiser cuts mortises up to 7 x 1-1/4 x 4-3/4 inches (LxWxD). The 513 will accommodate doors as thick as 4-1/2 inches, and it will automatically center the cutter on the doors edge no matter how thick it is. Its durable steel and alloy construction ensure years of reliable, accurate cuts.

From the Manufacturer

Ideal for custom millwork and door shops, remodeling, commercial, and trim sites Porter-Cable’s 11 amp, 27,500 RPM lock mortising kit cuts accurately in hard and soft wood doors up to 4-1/2 inches thick. It sets up quickly, automatically registering the cutter to center of door. It cuts mortises up to 7-inches long, 1-1/4 inches wide and 4-3/4 inches deep. Use the 517 heavy-duty lock mortiser (sold separately) to rout lock faces on door after box lock mortises have been cut. The lock mortising machine ships with a 1-3/4 Peak HP motor, height rod assembly (4 each #804960 rods, 1 each #800203 stop, and 1 each #800204 nut), wrench #692677, 3/4" bit #43703, 1" bit #43704, Allen wrench #48245, and operating manual. Ninety-day money back guarantee, 3 year limited warranty, 1 year free service contract.

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 20.5 x 16.5 x 19 inches
• Shipping Weight: 33.8 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0000224LA
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Item model number: 513
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,875 in Home Improvement (See Top 100 in Home Improvement)
  • #74 in Home Improvement > Power & Hand Tools > Power Tools > Drill Presses

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars PC 513 lock mortiser, March 13, 2003

By 

"stevenja" (Anacortes, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Porter-Cable 513 1-1/2 Horsepower Lock Mortiser (Tools & Home Improvement)

If you are a finish carpenter, door/hardware installer, or door shop that does a lot of mortise lock prep, this is THE tool! Together with the PC 517 Lock Face Template, this stuff preps wood doors for mortise locks quickly and accurately.

Why only 4 stars?

One: Price; it's pretty spendy. Purchase both tools and you spent something like $.... The occasional mortise lock installer should stay away from this equipment unless you think it might grow into a Specialty Skill.

Two: Adjustability; Adjusting back and forth between different lock configurations can be a hassle until you figure out the learning curve. The markings on the frame for mortise height, and the stop rod for mortise depth, are "not that accurate;" takes a bit of time and practice to figure this thing out.

And this: You spend this much on a fine tool, you sure don't want to lug it around in the cardboard box it came in. Build a nice wood box, a place for everything and everything in it's place. Why PC has the nerve to sell this tool for so much money and not provide a decent storage box, even if it's blow-molded plastic, is a mystery to me. Sign of the times, I guess.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Part excellent, part cheapness, all expensive, May 28, 2009

By 

G. Conner "OldSchoolSkill" (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Porter-Cable 513 1-1/2 Horsepower Lock Mortiser (Tools & Home Improvement)

I do not own this thing but have used it and seen it used numerous times.

Pros:
Strong motor with good bearings.
Automatic centering of clamping mechanism with heavy-duty reverse-twin threads...
Lever-driven vertical motion is smooth and easy
Heavy-duty STEEL guide rods--- At first glance, it looks like you could penetrate a bank vault with it!

Cons:
Weight--- this thing is so heavy, you have to really clamp down hard to keep it in place, and holding it while clamping is a three handed job. The faces of the clamps are plain aluminum or magnesium, so they need friction tape or cork or sandpaper to help them hold on. The weight of the machine PLUS the significant lateral forces involved in routing add up quickly. The clamps WILL hold, but I have seen how this thing leaves indentations on the door surface. It needs much larger surface plates for the clamps.

Cable-driven vertical motion--- Instead of continuing with cheap-but-reliable threaded rod, (as they used for the clamping mechanism) they chose to use cable and pulley system. Why??? ... cable stretches so you have to coax the final micrometers of cut in the upward direction. Obviously, this is less of a problem when you do the sensible thing and rout with the door on the floor, with the lock facing up. That helps with the weight / clamping issue too, but it negates the assumed efficiency of routing in place with the door hung. For this kind of dough, they could easily have used Acme style threaded rod throughout.

Cutter is good but replacements are expensive and because of the design, (it can't accept standard up-cut spiral-bits) cutter choices are limited. Replacements are certainly NOT easy-to-find at your local home-store.

Fine-Adjustments are finicky and non-intuitive. Requires tests cuts in pre-sized scrap. That totally defeats the implied efficiency, especially if you have several different sizes of doors and locks to mortise. ( as in most restorations)

No provisions whatsoever for dust collection. Are they kidding? They want to sell a tool with a street-price of one-grand, presumably designed for routing mortises in place, but there is absolutely NO thought given to the mess this machine makes. Milled mortised are one of those places where missing-matter from black-holes magically reappears. It's funny how a four-inch mortise can make a three-foot pile of wood-chips and fill a freshly painted and carpeted room with dust. If you need kindling, this is the machine to have!

Cost... I just can't see a thousand bucks worth of metal or machining here. Perhaps I am just too old, too cheap or too experienced... but I can make a similar tool for less, and that's paying retail for premium parts: hardened stainless-steel guide rods, acme twin-threads, handles, machined parts, welding, router-motor... everything. Lots of people have more metal working experience than I do, and they could probably build one faster than I can.

As it is, when I have to do deep mortises in fancy hardwood doors (for Lawyers offices, historic buildings and recording studios, etc.) I use a simple plywood jig and a big-plunge router like the PC Speedmatic. Simple stop-blocks reliably set X-Y axis travel-limits, cheap C-clamps with padded cauls hold the jig in place and I cover the whole caboodle with a clear plastic box attached to my shop-vac. Admittedly, I cannot rout a mortise with the door in place, nor will my biggest router go four-and-a-half inches deep. ( All my drill-bits do though!) But it only takes a minute to pull the pins and clamp the door over some saw-horses or a portable bench. And if the specified lock-set is the antique square-corner type, we still have to finish the mortise with a chisel anyway... so where is the advantage?

When I first saw this thing on a job-site, it looked like that post-industrial Porter-Cable design-magic was back... Then I saw its owner reading the manual, fussing with adjustments, cussing, more adjustments, more cussing. He asked for my help and we got it to work. But for all the time it took, I could have gone to my truck, got my home-made jig and finished three doors.

He got his used, ( the previous owner used it only once) so he has no chance of returning it. Even at five-bills, (what he paid) I can't see the value, even though it looks as tough as a '55 Buick.

It is a great-looking heavy-duty tool, and will definitely HOG out some massive mortises... once you get it set-up. But... The adjustments are not fast, the clamps are not quite big enough, there is no way to collect or contain the mountain of dust it makes, it is cumbersome and (for the noble working-stiffs) WAY overpriced.

There are better, more versatile and much more practical products / methods for deep-mortising.
For well over thirty years, I have done the same types of mortises with a square, a marking gauge, a drill (with a fifty-cent chunk of wood for a guide-block) and a sharp-mortising chisel. If you have only one mortise to do, that is just as fast and far more economical. And if you have twelve doors to do, spend thirty minutes making a routing jig. Don't forget to buy a cheap clear plastic bin from Target. Use a utility knife to cut holes on the sides for your hands to go through so you can hold the router. Attach your shop vac hose with a two-dollar fitting hot-glued in place. It's amazing how well that sucks up the dust and chips!

Assuming you already have a router and some know-how, you can build a better contraption with plywood and a plastic bucket for less than thirty bucks worth of time and materials.

One last point... the entire purpose of this thing it to do DEEP mortises in pre-hung doors. Of the countless doors I have built and hung, the ONLY time I have needed deep mortises for specialty lock-sets are in high-end installations or restoration work. For the high-end new stuff, we do everything in the shop then install the door on-site. For restoration work, dust is ALWAYS an issue. Half of the problem of getting the bid is guaranteeing a clean and safe work-site. (that means NO dust) And if the work is on a public building ( like restoration of historic museums, court-houses, banks or battleships) many times the restoration committee insists all the work is done with hand tools or off-site anyway. You can buy a really good mortise chisel or two for a hundred bucks. You already have a square, a pencil and a hammer, right?

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lock Face Template, October 12, 2008

By 

CONCEPT GNRL CONTRACTING "Concept GC" (Yonkers, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Porter-Cable 513 1-1/2 Horsepower Lock Mortiser (Tools & Home Improvement)

Great Tool. We had (14) custom mortisse locks to install in white oak doors. No room for error. Once set up correctly (took some practice runs in scrap wood), the tool did each lock cut out in minutes. Expensive, yes. It is a great tool if you have a large # of deep mortisse locks to do.