I will add my vote to the "biscuits are useful sometimes" camp. I use an old "Skil" plate joiner. The fence is plastic and the instructions that came with it recommended making blocks of wood in varying thickness to use in setting it. I did and find the blocks useful for many other things. Set that way, it works. Slots are a tight fit on usually Porter Cable biscuits. I've gone through a few thousand biscuits. Every time I have used them in a stressed joint I have been disappointed. To align boards during a glueup, they work well. They do not give me perfect alignment but it is good enough not much sanding is required. Considering the boards I am often using I am happy with the result. A spline would work too but would take me longer to do. I suspect a Domino would work well but I don't have one and it would be very expensive to use for this purpose. For my little hobby shop, I plan to keep my old Skil and just limit it's use to alignment, not for strength.
I think you might have a suspect unit if your alignment is poor. I use both the lamello and the dewalt versions and they are spot on if I don't rock the unit during the plunge.
The only biscuits I'll use are Lamello. They are also available labeled/ marketed by Wolfcraft and can sometimes be found at Sears and Ace. You've got to verify though as sometimes they are labeled as wolfcraft. They are made in Germany and possibly even by Lamello - but I cannot vouch for the non Lamello ones.
Biscuit joinery has its place. We've been using them since the 80's when we bought out first Lamello machine. Currently using a Top 20 and a Lamello Zeta P2.
They certainly do add strength, and can be very useful for alignment. But, the machines & cutters, and plates, need to be "right". I wont bother with any other brand but a true Lamello machine. There is a difference. We tried three others in the past. Cutters can vary in size (thickness) and plates as well.
They are not ideal for everything, but weve been using them successfully for many decades, for many situations in the shop, and I wouldnt want to be without. YMMV.
Biscuits are insanely useful. Especially on face frames as Malcolm said. Of course they are not a Domino. Just a wee bit of a price difference between the two. My Dewalt biscuit joiner will never be sold. In fact I need to order more #20 biscuits and because of this thread I will look into the Lamello biscuits.
But for Heavens sake, they were never intended for furniture!
Measure your cutter with a pair of calipers and your biscuits. Lamello adheres to their spec's others do not. 4mm is the correct width for your cutter.
First of all, plywood varies in thickness. If you use biscuits for alignment ,you might get some spots where the biscuits are aligned, but not the entire joint. They're meant to be undersized to allow for adjustments in glue ups. When the water based glue expands them they lock in place. Which is why you don't want to sand the joint too soon. You'll get a hollow. in short there's no substitute for skill.
West Central Alberta, East of the Rockies - West of the Rest
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Many years ago I was talked into buying a biscuit joiner (did it myself, I guess), it was the worst investment ever! At least the biscuits that I bought, from No Name to Porter Cable didn't have consistent thickness, I measured a whole batch out at one time and found they were all over the place between 3.1 mm and 3.7ish mm - what good is that for alignment in a 4 mm slot.
For panel glueups I use cauls exclusively, for solid wood edging on countertops and sometimes on faceframes or miters I use dowels. If I had money burning a hole in my pocket I would get a Domino, probably not any time soon.
I looked at the plate biscuit jointers, but instead bought a slot cutter bit for the router table. With that setup, the biscuits worked fine for tight door and window casing miters in the house.
Jim Chestnut has a video on tweaking the biscuit jointer that may be helpful - Google Clam Clamps, and look up the video index.
Back in my NORM days, I built his umbrella stand: http://www.newyankee.com/index.php?i...tand/p/7916509 and used biscuits for all the joinery. 20+ years and three moves later it is still solid as a rock.
Would I do that today, no, but it shows that biscuits have more strength than people give them credit for. As other people have stated, they have their use and can be a useful shop tool.
Worked for a guy in the 80's who Maybe had the first Lamello machine in Canada. I was a bit suspicious he had his masters papers what is that thing ive never heard of. I dont remember what we used it for there but I got one right away. Cost more than my used Edge Sander. Its been used tons over the years. The story doesnt change what you need depends on what you do but that is one tool that has many uses. I bought a second one the lesser of the two after it had about 20 years on it. I thought it wasnt behaving well enough. Its the nature of those beasts, you want to join something and have it consistent to .001 everywhere it wont happen. Ive never used one for edge gluing boards say on a table top. Sometimes I have to heat up and dry the biscuits as they have swollen from the shop, sometimes I just rub them on some 36 grit paper. Depends on what they are going to be doing. Wing cutter will do some things but its limited you cant hit a panel in the middle with it, the lamello the blade comes out the end. You can put a board down to use as a guide then compress the machine and just run a continuous slot if need be.
A few other folks have mentioned the same thing. I have found the Lamello biscuits are the most consistent. Buying by the box is the way to go. But is a good practice to sort ahead of a glue job. While I have had good luck with some of the other manufacturers, I have also had frustrating experiences requiring sanding and thickness measuring for every biscuit. I've rarely, almost never, had a situation where they are too loose. There must be an issue with your blade or how you are using the machine.
Biscuits are great and I use them all the time for putting edging on shelves, long miters, solid wood buildups, window and door casing miter joints to name a few applications. I bought a Domino a few years ago but find I often reach for the PC biscuit jointer first. Ridiculous as it might sound, I even went so far as to add the Festool plug to make connecting to my auto-start vacuum easier/faster.
Last edited by Bill Adamsen; 05-02-2017 at 8:21 AM.
Reason: typo
"the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.” Confucius
Hi, as others have said, a good biscuit joiner and good biscuits work well.
I don't use them for edge joints, your finger can feel whether the boards are aligned during glue ups very accurately.
I have a 4mm slot cutter for the shaper which produces perfect alignment, better than a hand held machine for biscuits within the range that the shaper can produce the slots. I also have a glue joint cutter which produces perfect alignments..........Regards, Rod.
A few other folks have mentioned the same thing. I have found the Lamello biscuits are the most consistent. Buying by the box is the way to go. But is a good practice to sort ahead of a glue job. While I have had good luck with some of the other manufacturers, I have also had frustrating experiences requiring sanding and thickness measuring for every biscuit. I've rarely, almost never, had a situation where they are too loose. There must be an issue with your blade or how you are using the machine.
Biscuits are great and I use them all the time for putting edging on shelves, long miters, solid wood buildups, window and door casing miter joints to name a few applications. I bought a Domino a few years ago but find I often reach for the PC biscuit jointer first. Ridiculous as it might sound, I even went so far as to add the Festool plug to make connecting to my auto-start vacuum easier/faster.
On the sorting thing Bill, try putting them in the microwave until they are quite hot, usually brings them back to spec. Sometimes when it is really humid and I forget to close the container mine swell a bit as it is humid here often and this works for me. Plus I can heat my coffee in the shop!
I still use my old craftsman biscuit joiner all the time, it was indispensable on the last several projects I built. lots of 45* miters and face to edge alignment work where the pieces would have been sliding all over the place and made glue up a nightmare. I'm sure something like a domino would have done the trick as well but, the lowly biscuit has yet to let me down and does not require further investment in equipment. A dozen pieces of commission furniture in my shop sense Thanksgiving don't lie, the biscuit is still useful to me.
I have used a hundreds of biscuits when I was installing drug store counter that could not be glued just drawtite together and they worked like they should.
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Originally Posted by Bill Adamsen
