And I have used it. But mostly I forget about it. The tool has a little saw blade that plunges into wood, creating a slot. You make a slot in each piece of wood you want to join, then add some glue and drop in one of these little biscuits. These things are compressed wood, and the glue causes them to expand a little, creating a joint. One of the most common uses for biscuits is edge-joining panels—say, for making a table top. Again, watching Norm Abram gluing up panels this way pushed me into buying a biscuit joiner.
Eventually, woodworkers came to realize that biscuits add basically zero strength to an edge joint. Just gluing up boards edge to edge is super strong on its own.
The wood will break before the joint does. The main purpose of any type of joint is to connect the end of a board to another board. End grain is very porous, and glue alone will create a very weak connection. Dealing with end grain is one of the fundamental challenges in woodworking. This includes plywood edges, which are also fairly weak when only glue is used.
So these points of connection need some sort of reinforcement—either mechanical like using screws or nails , or by shaping the wood in a way that physically holds the pieces together like dovetails , or by cutting the wood in a manner that allows face grain to contact face grain such as a lap joint or a box joint. Ultimately there is no clear cut answer here and you will have to decide for yourself on a project by project basis.
If you have a nagging feeling about a particular application, it is best to not use biscuits and instead opt for a heavier duty approach so you can sleep better. But once you develop some experience with biscuit joinery, you can develop a keen sense of when to use them. You might find that you incorporate them into projects more than you think. I have been using them regularly for well over a decade, and have never had a joint failure, nor have I ever seen one fail in a scenario outside of a published joint torture test.
The edge joining debate. I have also found in my own experience that I can achieve joints that are more consistently flush in a panel glue-up without using biscuits.
I recognize that they are a legitimate alignment aid for panel construction, however, so I am not critical of others who use this approach. Telegraphing biscuits. Over the years I have heard many stories of biscuits swelling with glue inside a joint and expanding the wood fibers such that you could see the shape of the biscuit telegraphing through to the surface of the project, or conversely shrinking over time and pulling the wood fibers inward with it.
The most common scenario where this seems to occur is in edge joining, and as I previously stated, I have rarely used biscuits for this application, so I suspect that my chances of experiencing the telegraphing biscuit are low. I suspect that this would be most likely to occur with thinner, softer materials, that could be more easily manipulated by the expansion or contraction of biscuits.
After observing for a few weeks, I was unable to observe any telegraphing in either panel, but I have heard enough people expressing their frustration over this condition that I suggest keeping its potential in mind as you determine when to use biscuits in your projects. The article covers case construction, miters, face frames, and edge banding for shelves. Click here to cancel reply. Either approach should work fine for your project, although I might lean slightly toward pocket hole joinery for this application.
My reasoning here is that you will create a cross-grain joint with the rail and stile, which is generally OK with biscuits when done across a relatively small surface area. I would like to know what distances between biscuits are recommended, e. Great question, Les. In your description, I will assume you are referring to edge joining boards together.
If that is the case, your benefit will primarily be alignment, as additional strength is not gained by using biscuits for this application. If you want to use them for alignment, place them as closely together as necessary to achieve flush alignment at the top surface of your panel.
If the stock is not perfectly flat, you may need more biscuits to hold the surface flush. I find them to be unnecessary, and in fact, sometimes counterproductive, yielding a panel that is actually less flat than without them.
I find that I can get a better flush surface by starting at one end of the panel and carefully forcing all joints flush at each clamp, ensuring this is the case before tightening the clamp and moving to the next clamp in sequence. If I do this carefully, I have found that I need to do less sanding compared to using biscuits for alignment.
It is wise to use a glue with generous open time, such as Tightbond III, so that you have a longer time manipulate the joints, rather than giving up and spending more time with the belt sander. Thomas, great point. This is a nice way to edge your plywood shelves. In fact, I cover this in part 2 of this article, along with a number of other joints where biscuits can be effectively used. What I did was try and hold a small piece of scrap about 1. The blade grabbed and shot across the fingers of my left hand; thankfully, only cutting up flesh on my index and middle finger between the knuckle and first joint… took 15 stitches including 2 internal for the nicked tendon … Moral, be mindful of where your hands and fingers are.
Chris, I am terribly sorry to hear about your injury. I agree wholeheartedly with your suggestion to know where your digits are, and where the spinning cutter is, at all times. With biscuit joinery and most other power tools, small parts require different techniques. I appreciate your sharing this story, as it helps all of us to slow down and keep safety in mind in the workshop. Hi Jim, I am guessing that the biscuit size that you need is R3. If I remember correctly those were about the same length as FFs, but much thinner.
Cheers, Paul. If you have any questions on this article or any of the materials here, please feel free to post on the forum to get the perspectives of multiple woodworkers. Hope to see you back! I believe that this unit was made by Ryobi. You might want to check with them as well. Nice article but without a biscuit joiner, can you discuss using a router with a biscuit cutting bit? Thank you for the feedback on this article. Do think biscuit joints are strong enough for a outdoor swing type fence gate?
Clean the joiner according to product directions before storing when not in use. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Because they are made of compressed wood, biscuits need to be stored in tight dry containers, or they will absorb moisture and swell.
Helpful 0 Not Helpful 1. Practice placing your components before gluing to make sure everything fits. Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0. Common woodworking joints are: edge to edge table or cabinet tops , miter joints picture frames , butt joinery end-to-end , corner joints drawers or chairs , and T joints book or curio shelf. Submit a Tip All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. If the joiner is burning or smoking the wood in the slots, it is time to sharpen or replace the blade.
Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0. Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1. Related wikiHows How to. How to. Co-authors: 7. Updated: April 11, With the table saw, you cut the spline from edge to edge. To cut a slot in an angled edge, use your fence.
How you cut the slots in the mitered face depends on the fence-adjustment flexibility of your biscuit joiner and your working style. If your router has a fixed fence or if you prefer working with your workpiece flat against your bench you will want to try making your cuts as shown in Photo H. Some joiners, like the Porter-Cable see the Buying Guide have a two-stage fence that can reference the outer face of the miter as shown in Photo I.
The wrap-around style of this fence also makes it easier to hold the tool in place while making the cut. Adjust the fence height or add a shim so that the blade does not cut through the tip of the miter. There are times, as when joining a rail to a leg where you may not want a flush-fitting joint.
Your biscuit joinser is equally adept at creating offsets. The trick is to use a spacer that the same thickness as your desired step back. To make the offset joint, mark the leg and apron for the biscuit slot just as before. Now choose a spacer that is the same thickness as your desired offset.
Position the spacer under the jointer as shown in Photo J, position the leg with the show face against the bench and cut the slot. To cut the matching slot in the apron, simply remove the spacer and slot the end of the board as shown in Photo K.
Be sure the show face is touching the bench. To start, position the boards edge-to-edge, then make short pencil lines across the joints about every 8" for the slots, as shown in Photo L. Let the cutter reach full speed before plunging it into the wood. Remove any sawdust from the slots, test-fit your biscuits, and dry-assemble the panel. You must be logged in to write a comment. Log In. Find a Store. My Account.
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