HF Biscuit Joiner

[tseavoy]

Hi All,
I'm in the process of planning the building of a studio/whatever for my wife. It will be an outbuilding. I plan to make my own windows. It seems using a biscuit joiner for the corner joints would be easier than mortise & tenon -- I would have to get or make a tenoning jig for my table saw (or use my backsaw and chisel, heaven forbid). The Harbor Freight biscuit joiner is about $30. Anyone with experience with it?

Tom on Marrowstone


If you don't succeed on the first try, it probably wasn't worth it.

[jonmulzer]

Why not just butt joints and screws? Or rabbets? Maybe I am missing what you are trying to do here? How about a Kreg jig? I pick up some things at HF but I shy away from anything there that spins a blade. And a biscuit joiner has to be pretty precise to work to your satisfaction. I doubt their quality control is good enough for such a machine to work well. Keep an eye on craigslist. I picked up a Dewalt biscuit joiner a while back for $50 I think and I can't tell it from a new one. It also came with 5-6 bottles of biscuits. I would look for a used one for a long time before I bought that particular tool from HF.

[Knottscott]

I sold my DeWalt biscuit joiner 3 years ago and never looked back. It's so rare that I actually need biscuits. More often than not, no biscuits are needed when butt jointing boards, and if they are needed I cut the slot with a router bit.

I use a lot of pocket holes now instead...even the $20 basic Kreg jig and a Quick Grip type clamp are all you need to get rolling with pocket holes. They're incredibly simple to use and make a very strong joint.

[LCHIEN]

my experience: I bought a $30-something HF biscuit joiner about 8-10 years ago. It cut oversize slots which is useless so I returned it.

I bought a dewalt which works fine and i have it and still use it when i need to. Its a nice tool in the arsenal for when you need it.

I guess the moral is to buy good tools to start with.

[dbhost]

I don't know about the HF Biscuit Joiner personally, but I have never seen it listed in the HF Gems list...

For my shop I have a Ryobi JM82K Biscuit Joiner I bought in '07. I have done plenty of joints with it and they are fine, not as strong as M&T, but at least in my projects, stronger than pocket screws.

I have loaned out my biscuit joiner to a friend that was working on a kitchen cabinet set and he wanted to biscuit the face frames. He had just had a fairly new DeWalt fail on him which was in for warranty when he borrowed mine. It was all I could do to get it back from him. You either love or hate the D handle, and he LOVED it... (As do I). If you like a barrel handle you will hate this joiner though...

[Bill in Buena Park]

Tom,
I have not tried the HF Biscuit joiner either, but have both the original Ryobi JM80 and the JM82K equiv in Craftsman, love them both, and use them often. However, I don't know how well biscuits will hold the window frame together with the potential for wracking (if they'll be sliders), unless you consider the double-biscuit method. Assuming you're going to use some type of cope&stick framework, you might also consider doweling - i.e., double through-dowels at each joint.

[tseavoy]

Thanks guys,
I think I will drop the biscuit joint approach and go with my first choice of dowel joints. But then -- an open mortise & tenon (with the tenon showing on the side and top) may be the strongest and not too hard to do. The windows will be just hinged on the sides for opening.

Tom on Marrowstone

[Bill in Buena Park]

Thanks guys,
...an open mortise & tenon (with the tenon showing on the side and top) may be the strongest and not too hard to do...

Tom on Marrowstone

Tom, are you describing a bridle joint (aka "slot m&t")? If tenon exposure is acceptable, this would be a very strong joint.

[tseavoy]

Thanks Bill,
I just came back from the shop where I made a bridle joint out of scrap pieces of 2X4, using marking gauge, table saw for the bottom of the tenon, bandsaw to cut the tenon and open mortise,and coping saw to cut out the bottom of the mortise. It didn't take long and it came out great.