In order to make a biscuit joint, it’s imperative that your biscuit jointer is set to the correct size of biscuit you’ll be inserting into the slot. Equally, setting up the biscuit jointer to the correct height for the cut is important. A good quality biscuit jointer will provide you with a clear line of sight for your cut, per the Makita PJ7000.
Years ago, back in the 1990s and early 2000s, a biscuit joiner became a very popular woodworking tool. Well, as much as I admire Norm Abram, a biscuit joiner may be one of the most useless power tools you can own. If you’re new to woodworking, or if you’re a maker, you may not even know what a biscuit joiner is. Again, watching Norm Abram gluing up panels this way pushed me into buying a biscuit joiner. They are great for professional woodworking environments, but the tool’s cost places it outside the mission of Woodworking for Mere Mortals. A biscuit joiner cuts pretty wide slots, so you can’t use it on narrowish boards. There are some other uses, but I don’t find any of them to be a compelling reason to own a biscuit joiner.
A biscuit joiner or biscuit jointer is a woodworking tool used to join two pieces of wood together. In the succeeding years there followed further developments such as the circular saw and the first stationary biscuit joining machine in 1956 followed by the first portable biscuit joiner for Lamello grooves in 1968. D Furniture hinge Depth of groove: 13 mm Use only on biscuit joiner with six-depth setting S Slide-in connector Depth of groove : 14.7 mm Use only on biscuit joiner with six-depth setting S6 85 30 4 mm‡.
For tabletops, biscuit joints between boards are much faster than milling tongue-and-groove joints on a router table. Biscuit joints get a bit of criticism for their strength, but there are quite a few applications where biscuit joints are ideal. Biscuit joints can also strengthen an end-to-end butt joint, giving the glue in the joint something more than just the end grain to adhere to.
A biscuit joint can be helpful to align long edge to edge joints, as well as strengthen weaker joints that use glue such as butt and miter joints. In general, you should be able to use a biscuit joiner on an edge-to-edge joint, a T joint, an edge miter joint, a corner joint, an offset joint, and a frame joint. Making a biscuit joint requires using a biscuit joiner tool.
how does a biscuit joint work Related Question:
Are biscuit joints strong?
When done correctly, a biscuit joint is at least as strong as a similar size mortise and tenon joint, and decidedly stronger than a dowel joint.”
Are biscuit joiners worth it?
They will definitely provide more strength than glue alone, but not a lot. If your boards are too narrow, you can reinforce the joint by adding the biscuit on the back side of the face. But again, I would prefer to just use pocket screws, dados, or rabbets.
What are the disadvantages of a biscuit joint?
Biscuit joints do not stand up well against other joinery methods. We won’t spend any time comparing with mortise and tenon joints because all other joinery methods pale in comparison when measuring strength. But, as an example, the use of dowels as opposed to biscuits is a step up in strength.
What makes a biscuit joint so strong?
The real magic of the mortise and tenon joint is that it takes this end grain to long-grain union and converts it to long-grain to long-grain, simply by inserting one piece into the other. As a result, the joint has a great deal of glue surface and strength.