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.
When adjusted properly, the biscuit joiner will cut a slot 1/32″ deeper than half the width of your biscuit. As you begin to setup for your cut, start by carefully positioning the biscuit joiner to align with your biscuit placement mark. Once you get solid placement of the biscuit joiner and fence, find the detent on your biscuit joiner’s fence, place your thumb firmly on the detent, and let go of the handle to allow the biscuit joiner to “Bottom out” on the work piece.
biscuit joiner or jointer Related Question:
Are biscuit joiners worth it?
Biscuits joints serve best as a quick and easy way to keep glue-up parts in alignment, and that they add appreciable pull-apart to strength joints that would be otherwise too weak to stand on their own – like butt joints and miter joints.
Are biscuit jointers any good?
The DW682K proved accurate in every cut we made, with spot-on slot placement and biscuit fit. And it has a smooth plunge action. The lightest tool in the test at just under 7 pounds, it feels nicely balanced with a comfortable grip. Still, it has a few issues.
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.