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.
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.
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‡.
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.
“The slot for a #0 biscuit measures about 21⁄8” wide, so you can’t hide a biscuit joint in stock narrower than this. Even a well-tuned biscuit joiner can sometimes cut slots that result in a non-flush-fitting joint. Cutting the spline slots on your tablesaw requires a tall jig, but you can cut them easily and quickly with your biscuit joiner and the attached fence jig, see drawing below.
how to do biscuit joints Related Question:
Do biscuit joints work?
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 joints easy?
Biscuit Basics His kitchen cabinets are all held together with biscuit joints. It’s easy to fall in love with biscuit joints—they’re so fast and easy. At least they are when you get the hang of them. If you’re new to biscuit joinery, you can learn here how to do the four basic woodworking joints.
How far apart should biscuit joints be?
Biscuit Spacing Once you’ve determined the positions for the edge biscuits, you can calculate even spacing for the biscuits between the edges. Anywhere from 6 to 12 inches apart, measured on-center is usually sufficient.
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.
Do biscuit joints add strength?
Some folks (including me) may use biscuits for alignment or “reinforcement”, but the truth is they do very little to strengthen the joint. In this long-grain situation, its really the glue that’s doing all the work. As you have heard me and others say many times, the glue joint is stronger than the wood itself.
Are biscuit joints necessary?
Biscuits can be used to join the ends of boards to edge or face grain. 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.
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.
What is the strongest type of wood joint?
Mortise and Tenon Woodworking Joints One of the strongest woodworking joints is the mortise and tenon joint. This joint is simple and strong. Woodworkers have used it for many years. Normally you use it to join two pieces of wood at 90-degrees.
What size are FF biscuits?
The Porter-Cable face frame biscuits join material as narrow as 1-1/2 inches. Standard size 0 biscuits are too long for use in 1-1/2-inch stock, but these biscuits are 13-by-30-millimeters.
How many biscuits make a joint?
As Michael indicates above, the benefit of biscuits is that they help you align the edge glue joint with ease. Two biscuits per foot is a great rule of thumb, but the goal is just to make the alignment task easier.