There are two situations where a router can’t substitute for a biscuit joiner: A router can cut slots only along the edges of a board, not across its face; and it can only cut along square edges, not beveled ones. Here’s how you can use your router with a straight bit to plane wide material: Mount an oversized base plate on your router and screw the base plate to a pair of stiff, straight “Stretchers.” Make your stretchers at least twice as long as the width of the workpiece, plus 8 in. Finding the right router bit Router bit shank options.
To align just make a pencil mark centered on where you want the biscuit and cut a little longer than the biscuit. The biscuit joiner cuts a slot a little longer than the biscuit also. On the occasions where I think a biscuit would be useful/necessary I use a router bit.
Q: I would like to try biscuit joinery but I do not own a biscuit joiner. You can alter the slot depth to accommodate No. 0, No. 10 and No. 20 biscuits by using different router bits or by changing bearings. To cut a biscuit slot with a router, you generally need to make the initial plunge cut and then move the router approximately 1/2 in.
So you need to cut a few biscuit grooves but don’t own a biscuit joiner – No problem, cutting the grooves with your router and a slot-cutter bit is easy. If you can’t afford a $200 or so biscuit joiner, then a router and a $40 biscuit joining router bit set is a real money saver, assuming you already own a router. Grooves cut using a router setup do not match the shape of a biscuit as well as grooves cut using a biscuit joiner.
Dust collection is probably a draw, assuming you can hook up your router or your biscuit joiner to a DC. 4. You can use a router to cut a biscuit slot on the face of a board. You can use the same straight bit to cut biscuit slots when joining boards on their ends or edges, but you need a jig, and you either need to eyeball the width of the slot or set up stop blocks on the jig.
biscuit joiner vs router 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.
What can I use instead of a biscuit joiner?
Some tests suggest a dowel joint will provide stronger joinery than biscuits. Tests also indicate that dowel joints are not as strong as tenon joints or dovetail joints. They do make solid and accurate joints, though. A dowel joint will be a better method than nails or screws and are much less susceptible to breakage.