Biscuit Joiner Comparison

Ron309753 · Post by **Ron309753** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:56 am

When I inherited the 1955 MarkV from my father-in-law, I also inherited a DeWalt biscuit joiner. I was thinking of selling it and getting the Shopsmith version. Has anyone used both and have a strong preference? I watched Nick's video and the ability to use the miter gauge fence extension to line up the cuts would be easier than trying to eyeball the handheld joiner.

Thanks,

Ron

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:51 am

Ron
I would keep the Dewalt. If after using it for awhile you might want to get the Shopsmith one.
Frankly I couldn't afford a hand held biscuit jointer when I bought my shopsmith one. (I think lamello was the only one out and it cost an arm and a leg)

One thing you might want to consider, now that pocket hold jointing, spline jointing are becoming the vogue and with the huge improvements in glue I don't do much biscuit jointing any more. In many of the applications where I once used biscuits I now use pocket holes or just glue.

Most commercial operations are switching to loose tendons which are said to be stronger and quicker.

Biscuits carry problems, while it has never happened to me I'm hearing more and more stories of the biscuits telegraphing their profile onto the surface of the wood when used too close to the surface.

Also the Shopsmith is an excellent horizontal boring machine and does fantastic work using dowels. You can even slot one of the holes so you have wiggle room.
Ed

foxtrapper · Post by **foxtrapper** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 2:41 pm

Of the two, I far prefer a hand held biscuit joiner to a table mounted one. I can much more easily hold the machine and position it than hold the wood pieces and position them. Accuracy with a hand held unit is not a problem.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 3:20 pm

I go along with Ed-in-Tampa's post. It is exactly what I would have said if I could have found the words.

iclark · Post by **iclark** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:31 am

Ron,

I got an '86 510 this summer from a gent who was retiring from his home improvement business and moving to another state. he threw in the SS biscuit joiner that his wife had given him as a present, but he kept his portable one (sorry, I don't remember the brand). based on the work that I saw on his house and shop, he was a very skilled craftsman.

he said that the SS unit worked fine and that he had used it for several projects until he picked up the portable one for a home remodeling project. he reported that he got as good joints with the portable and he could do it wherever he had a flat floor. the ease of putting long boards on the floor versus setting up the SS table system and supports meant that he just didn't take the SS biscuit jointer out of its box very much after that.

Ivan