Fix your Biscuit Joiner Problems!
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- Today we look at one of the most controversial woodworking tools in woodworking, the Biscuit Joiner!
Biscuit joints are popular in wood jointer but seem plagued with problems for many woodworkers. In this video, I'll look at some biscuit jointer tricks to help fix some of the most common of these problems.
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Turn Your Router Table into a Biscuit Joiner - • Turn Your Router Table...
Testing Wood Joinery Strength With and Without Biscuits - • Testing Joint Strength...
Using the Best Biscuit Joiner - • Using the Biscuit Join...
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Read More about Fixes for your Biscuit Joiner Problems here - bit.ly/37vu5Br
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That fact that you had one, sold it, and bought another one to help people is amazing! You rock!
I have always used biscuits in my shop and they hold very well. Glue is necessary as the biscuits do swell with glue applied. It only makes sense to glue the biscuit if you are applying glue along the edge of the board.
Do you also use it for other joinery - say table legs or something like that?
Hi Colin, as always very informative. I have used one in England 4 or 5 times in the past 2 years. I was under the impression that the glue around the biscuits caused them to swell and make a really tight joint. I have had no problems, but I am just a keen DIY man. Keep up your brilliant videos. Steve Williamson
Wow thank you so much! I was very frustrated with my biscuits being too small. Your solution is perfect!
This is great, this channel teaches me so much about woodworking. Thanks.
I like the idea of making your own alternative to the biscuits. Thanks
I don’t use biscuits but I do have a joiner that I saw in a pawn shop for a ridiculous low price. After watching your video and seeing the strips you cut, I’m going to follow your lead. Thank you so much.
Great video Colin. Like many people my age, I got the woodworking bug from watching Norm Abram's New Yankee Workshop. He used the biscuit jointer almost exclusively, which enticed me into buying one myself. Could never figure out why my projects were so exasperating..now I know why. Your video has certainly opened my eyes...thank you.
Good review of this tool. I bought one about seven years ago, and was sorely disappointed. And ,no, it wasn't a Lamello,or other big brand. I only managed around 30 slots before the blade started to set the mdf architrave on fire.
As Colin states, dowels are much stronger and, with a decent jig, just as easy to use.
I got mine out of storage to use it as a spline cutter. I've ordered a better blade and will look forward to better results.
You couldn't have timed this video better. I had been using the dowel jig that you mentioned but was thinking of getting a biscuit joiner. Thanks to you, I just dropped that idea and will continue using my dowel jig.
I had the Dewalt for two years and it worked fine. Just never really thought it really helped anything. I found that it slowed me down and didn’t do much, at least for me. I’ve made some pretty long tables and just always found quicker ways to keep the boards aligned. I gave it to my son, who is still on the new tool honeymoon. Maybe he’ll convince me it’s worth it. I know there are lots of people who use them and swear by them. Just not for me. Good job as always Colin.
Thank you Colin.... Your videos have made 2020 that much more bearable. Merry Xmas from Great Britain
YES! I absolutely love biscuit joining. So excited to watch a new biscuit jointer video.
Thank you Colin, this was really helpful in sorting out problems I was having joining boards. You are so good at explaining stuff.
Awesome you take your time and explain clearly
Great vid ! Thanks again . Mine is a PC brand and I use the PC brand biscuits and had zero failures for what it's worth . I am sure the other brands are just fine as well as your home made ones as well .
Great tips! I haven't been happy with using biscuits for some time. Now I will try them again.
❤❤ if you are using your biscuit jointer to run down a board to cut a slot for a spline, Porter Cable has a no slip face like sand paper.
Try using another manufacturers biscuit jointer. Most others don't have that no slip face. Great show as always 👍👍
Hi Colin. Brilliant vids. Merry Christmas and a very happy 2021 to you and your family. All the best. Looking forward to more of your vids in 2021. Take care. ❤️🤶🎉🎉🙏👍👌
Great video with perfect timing; I just bought a used Freud biscuit joiner yesterday 👍👍
Thanks! I just started using a biscuit joiner, and it worked really well... until my 4th join, which fell apart. I I think these tips will help
Excellent discussion of pros and cons! Old biscuits are also a 'big' problem so I really like your idea of making a tenon equivalent. After all, if you already have the tool, it simplifies much of the issue of creating a reasonable mortise and tenon joint.
Just bought a biscuit machine today, that was helpful
Excellent video,great tips.With all the off cuts lying around it would be so much better to maker your own
Thanks and it was very informative
Awesome tips I like the idea of creating your own biscuits never thought of that
Great tips and fixes for the biscuit dilemma! 👍🏽
Here's a couple of tips. Use a Lamello glue bottle, it has a tip that slides into the slot and glue comes out of two holes on the sides of the tip. Puts just enough glue in the slot with no squeeze out so long as you don't put too much in. Also, when your blade has been sharpened a few times and is cutting too narrow of a slot, a piece of masking tape on the blade when you reinstall it (where the blade sits on the arbor), will cause the blade to wobble thus cutting a slightly wider slot. Personally, I would never use that Porter Cable, the fence is a piece of junk in my opinion. I have a Dewalt that I use at home, and use a Lamello top 20 at work. Anyone that complains about biscuit joinery either doesn't know what they're doing, or they're using crappy tools and cheap, knock-off lamello's . Biscuits work great if used correctly.
It seems that the biscuits, when coated with glue, swell a little bit in the slot, thus making them tight. You do have to have them clamped in alignment though before the glue dries.
Very good and a pleasure to watch as always!
Thanks for the heads up 🆙!
This tool can add some strength to miter joints and end grain mated surfaces. It's not going to be as strong as an integral tenon or dowels, but for joints that are not subject to strong forces, these loose tenons with modern glues are more than adequate. The Porter Cable is worth the extra cost with the preset for FF and the two-inch blade so you can create biscuit joints on narrow stock. Most reasonably priced models don't do FF biscuits.
Thanks Colin, I enjoyed it.
Wonderful and useful information
Dowels have very little end grain gluing surface biscuits are a pretty strong joint you should look at the Fine Woodworking strength test. Its amazing how many people have a strong opinion against biscuits i used them in a cabinet shop to build carcasses for years excellent tool for that.
@Brandon James Becker no fancy brand needed
Dowel is stupidity over biscuit, for same quality you need to be more precise and much slower process then biscuit, that is the fact.
Great tip.
Hi Colin, I'm fairly new to woodworking so I don't have the 20, 30, or 40 years of experience that some of your followers have. I was given a nice looking Porter Cable biscuit jointer about two years ago but I've never used it. One reason was that I didn't know how but the other reason was because I never saw anyone using it in any of the RUclips videos that I've watched. Then last year I saw Steve Ramsey's video saying biscuit jointer saying they were "useless" and then the Stubby Nubs video saying they were just "misused and misunderstood". And then came yours. I really enjoyed your video that explained the good, the bad, and the alternatives without going overboard on any one side. Thank you for chiming in and sharing your thoughts. And now since I a little bit more about biscuit jointers, I think I'll check mine out for myself to see what all the fuss is about. Thanks again for sharing.
Colin, I love the idea of 3/4 x 3/4 squares for alignment. You might want to emphasize that the grain should go perpendicular to the mating surfaces for max shear strength. Thanks for the suggestion. (btw, a rectangle .75 x 1.2" will fit into a #20 slot made with a Ø4" cutter cutting .45" deep.)
Just watched your plane rack video, and at the end you said you may move it. Looks like five years later you’re still happy with where it’s at!
I never use the fence on my biscuit joint, all I need is the little centering mark. To deal with variations in thicknesses, I put the faces down on the work bench and if necessary, add additional support under the entire workplace to raise it up. As others have said, biscuits are not good where strength is needed, but they work great in some applications. Can't beat dowel joinery for its strength and attractiveness. Definitely loving that jig!
Great Info!!! I was wondering about that. Some swear by it. Much Appreciated!!👍😎!
Since you only really need the biscuits to be tight during assembly and gluing them leaves you open to "telegraphing" where the shrinkage of the (glued) biscuits pulls the surface of your finished job that simply soaking the biscuits in water till they swell enough to be a firm fit and then tapping them home and then gluing the board edges (avoiding the biscuits) might be the best option. The only down-side I can think of is that they might just rattle in their slots when the jobs complete (a cupboard door might be a place where this would be annoying)
Although I never looked into getting a biscuit Joiner, I did find myself in a ridiculously funny situation. I was looking in Wickes (A DIY store in England) and found a variety of biscuits. I then proceeded to look for a Biscuit Joiner, but couldn't find one. I asked the people in the store and their response was, "We don't sell those". I then pointed out that they had the biscuits. Their response, "Oh, yes, um agh...... I don't know what to tell you."
I've had my porter cable for about 15 years and it still works great.
It's a decent brand.
Pays to watch the whole video. I was about to ask about dowels instead lol. Big fan of dowels here also.
Hey Colin, you just upped my game when it comes to using a biscuit joiner. I like the thought of using my own stock to make biscuits. However, I have a thought. If the joint isn't perfect for some reason or another, isn't that what a good hand plane or a planer would be for? I know not everyone has those tools, but I would've liked to have heard your thoughts on that.
That was one of my first tools introduced to me by Norm Abrams. I would imagine he was compensated by Porter Cable. I made several projects with the tool. But I bought the Dowel Max which is a mistake proof way of joinery. When using the biscuit joiner you must hold down the plate tightly to prevent the cutter from "walking" away from your mark. Don't hold the wood, hold the plate down.
Great video - I need to get one of those Dowelmax jigs.
Thanks for sharing that!
We got some brands that are dirt cheap in EU.. yet you still get 3-5 years of warranty.. it's a no brainer compared to other (sometimes 10-20x more expensive) tools.
I have never been able to get perfect alignment with dowels, although I have tried several ways to line them up. Maybe you have a real Cadillac dowel jig! On the other hand, I have had great luck with my DeWalt biscuit joiner as long as I ignore the plate and align the boards on a very flat surface. I think there must be many factors affecting these things, and they are not always obvious. Thanks for the video.
Dowel is stupidity over biscuit, for same quality you need to be more precise and much slower process then biscuit, that is the fact.
I have bandsaw. Can make biscuits on it?
Thanks Colin, I always assumed that the biscuits were designed for adding strength by giving the glue more surface area. I found out the hard way that is not true and in fact the biscuits caused failure by encouraging tear out and cracking of the boards where they are thinner on each side of the biscuit in my tests. IE: the boards were susceptible to ripping along the grain above or below the biscuit. I found that butt joined glued boards with no biscuits or dowels were just as strong and most times stronger.
From Denmark, I wish Colin and all of you a Merry Christmas ❤️
- and a healthy 2021 with lots of new projects in your wooden workshops.
As always a pleasure to watch and listen to Colin. 👍
This tool is too expensive for me, and would not be used a lot anyway, but I'm not ready not to try.
Since I've got a lot of the same kind of strips of hardwood, in different thicknesses, I'll try if I can make a simple jig to make precise and thin cuts with my router that matches my hardwood. If it works it's fine, and if not; it's fine too. 😊
I haven't noticed any issues with my biscuit jointed, it was a cheap tool from Aldi, I keep the biscuits in a plastic air tight container. I find it a very useful tool, when joining boards, I only find the boards are thr problem, not true and flat. I alway run my belt sander over the top surface, and this works for me.
I like the way you made your "biscuits" out of hard wood. When you started to show them, it crossed my mind: Can you make hardwood biscuits from a hole-saw on a drill press?
You would have to orient it, of course, for the grain, but cut the hole to get the round piece. Then, with the cutter off-center, it cuts the circle you removed creating a football made of hardwood with the grain perpendicular to the joint.
That would reinforce the strength of the joint, even in a but joint, I believe.
I also had to adjust my slide to cut deeper and noticed all the "measuring" spots i needed to adjust them with screws
Thank you fore a grate video. No I understand Way I have the trubbel when I try to use my maskin
Thanks 🙏
Tenho uma marca total, muito boa, uso bastante
I have nothing to say really, but I appreciate your content, and wish to help with the yt-algorithms.
My frustration is the biscuits being too small. I jab be a used ryobi from 1998 and have always wondered if the standard blade thickness has decreased... I'm going to start making my own biscuits. Thanks for the idea!
Exact same issues I had with mine (biscuits too small) I was able to get a slightly thinner blade which improved my odds a bit, but it's definitely not my go-to tool.
could you use a router table to make shallow mortises, and use the pieces you cut as floating tenons?
What s that tool you said??
Where do I but it??
What dowelmax system do you use? Thanks.
Anyone else notice he shot everyone a bird? 😂
Yes, I had to show my wife. Funny.😂. Good video though.
The main problem with most biscuit jointers is imperfect parallel alignment between the fence and the blade resulting in a slot cut at an angle. At that point you are screwed.
Hi,
I really enjoy each and every video of yours.
If you can do any adjustment on your titlel, should it not be Jointer instead of Joiner?
English is not my native language, but I think it should be like that.
Keep it safe, it is not over yet.
Willy from Belgium
😷😷😷
I got poor results for years, & finally realized that the fence height was slipping & had to be tightened with channel-locks.
Try Striplox biscuits. They are plastic with raised dots which grip and relatively cheap. None of your problems and given the speed compared with dowels a real time saver.
Looks nice, but pretty expensive. The fact that they come in packs of 25 tell you all you need to know;-)
@@langrock74 I don't know where you are and what they sell local to you. They come in 200, 500 & 1000 unit sets and the price drops. I wasn't sure if it wasn't just hype so I purchased 25 to give it a go. I was so pleased with the results that I ordered 200 the same day. Each to there own but some upgrades ARE WOFTM but I find this is a significant improvement. Get 25 try them out and if they work out hunt up a supplier
Is it true that the biscuits swell when glue is added to the slots?
Buy one from Aldi - online. £44 - $75 Canadian $. 3 years warranty. Basically biscuits are just an alignment devise. Have not had any problems with the table tops etc. Keep up the good work. A.
Push the tear out into the biscuit slots. There is enough space to the side of the slot not to interfere with the biscuit fit.
I tried using Digestives. They didn't work well at all so I just ate the rest of the pack.
Custard creams are better lmao
@@georgiemae11 And too much squeeze out ..lolol..
😅🤣
How can you make your own biscuits?
If you use your router to cut the slots and use square strips as biscuits it produces super biscuit joints
What was that last thing he showed….a dowel joiner? Anyone use this? Does he have a video on that? He mention joining uneven boards with them. That’s the problem I am having. The 2 pieces I just jointed….there is a bit of a higher boards then the other….not a massive problem but enough to bother me and have to sand down.
I just take a chisel to remove that tear out. No big deal.
I’m disappointed that you have portrayed the biscuit joiner in such a bad light. I have been using one professionally for 40 years and have not had a problem or failure. In fact to my mind the versatility of the BJ far outweighs dowels. I disagree too that biscuits don’t add strength. It is also down to the quality of the tool and I’m afraid the cheaper ones, as with yours, are the problem, not the type of joint. Yes, some biscuits are lesser quality than others, so it is with dowels!
I got so frustrated with mine I tore the front off and now I use it for a grinder. If I’m going to use biscuits, I use a slot cutter on my router. Nice video.
If your biscuits don't fit tight soak them in water before using them for a bit and they swell up and become very tight in the slot.
What advantage does a biscuit joiner how have over a dowel for alignment? It seems that dowel sizes would be more reproducible but everyone uses a joiner.
* sorry I posted this right before the section on dowels
The thing with dowels is the accuracy of the location of the mating dowel hole. Trying to assemble two lengths of boards with say three or more dowels and that can be a struggle. Biscuits are a lot more forgiving.
Dowel is stupidity over biscuit, for same quality you need to be more precise and much slower process then biscuit, that is the fact.
You do your biscuit joining first, then your planing and crosscutting. That might be why you are having a problem. I never had a problem and they were always solid joints. Even solid oak tabletops. Idk what you're using but my biscuits never fit like that. I had that same joiner by pc. The smallest ones are face frame biscuits and it uses a special small blade
To think that I have been using dowels going back more than 30 years now.
Hi my names is James Smith as well. Nice to meet you James
So... basically, turn biscuits into floating tenons.
Yep... It's called a domino, and made by Festool in 4mm thru 14mm sizes in multiple lengths for multiple thicknesses (thickni?) of wood!
I am using biscuit to get a flush surface only. I don't use it as a strenght.
Hi. How u? Love from Nepal.
I use trends biscuits top quality you get what you pay for
why can't you just join your boards with a drill press and dowel pins?
I’ve got to say, watching this I’m glad I skipped the biscuit completely and opted for the Festool Domino from the start.
Thanks for the video! Take care!
If only that Dowel Max system wasn't so darn expensive ... $200 is a bit much for this, IMHO. Has anyone tried the knock-off version?
My biscuit joiner is now going to Craigslist
My dad used a biscuit joiner for damn near everything thinking it was adding strength to the joint.
I tried to tell him it was for alignment only, but he would glue those puppies into every joint it seemed like.
Personally, I want to get better at loose tenons for my joints, and maybe look at a dowel jig or someday a Domino.
Uless the blade is EXACTLY in the verticle center of the board edge, you'll never get an exact up/down alignment. A bench top is the best reference for blade alignment. I prefer the plate joiner (I have the exact same model) over dowels because dowels they don't allow for minor lateral adjustments. Seems like my wood cuts are not very precise. I measure with a micrometer, mark with chalk and cut with an axe.
Best tip I was given was ditch the blade and buy a decent one!
Force board to align "Beat it into submission "
I have a brand new never used biscuit joiner for sale
Actually there are four sizes from lammelo
What is the size below zero. I have 4 . Don’t remember where or when I got them. No size stamped on them.
@@joeobrien196 actually lammelo make a bigger size than 20 or they used to
😘😘😘