?? Too buy a Biscuit Joiner or Mortise attachment ??

dauphin80 · Post by **dauphin80** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 7:10 pm

Guys, please help me out. My tool budget only allows me to buy:

A) SS biscuit joiner

or

B) SS mortise attachment

What would you buy and why?

Thanks!

SDSSmith · Post by **SDSSmith** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:20 pm

dauphin80 wrote:Guys, please help me out. My tool budget only allows me to buy:

A) SS biscuit joiner

or

B) SS mortise attachment

What would you buy and why?[INDENT] Thanks![/INDENT]

[INDENT]Is your budget based on new or used? New SS biscuit joiner for me is over $160 delivered]

[/INDENT]

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:57 pm

Evidently, you will be needing to join boards and also make mortises. I'll recommend the biscuit joiner. You can already make very nice mortises with your Shopsmith. Use the horizontal boring position and a Shopsmith router chuck. You use the rip fence as a backup.

garys · Post by **garys** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 12:39 am

The Shopsmith does a great job of joining boards using dowels and its drill press capabilities. If you let the Shopsmith do your hole alignment, you should be able to get almost perfect results with what you already have, and the biscuit joiner isn't needed.

dauphin80 · Post by **dauphin80** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 5:55 am

Thanks guys for all the thoughts. It does give me something to think about!!

foxtrapper · Post by **foxtrapper** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 6:06 am

When it comes to biscuit jointing (or joining), I far and away prefer one of the hand-held units. They are cheaper and far more versatile than one that mounts onto a shopsmith.

Mortising works with the shopsmith, but there are some flex issues. Enough so even the instructor at the traveling school didn't particularly recommend it. Takes a goodly bit of force, pushing that chisel housing through the wood. That said, it didn't seem terrible to me. Yes, the dedicated ones are a bit better, but the SS wasn't horrible.

I'd go handheld biscuit jointer and ss mortising.

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 6:47 am

foxtrapper wrote:When it comes to biscuit jointing (or joining), I far and away prefer one of the hand-held units. They are cheaper and far more versatile than one that mounts onto a shopsmith.

Mortising works with the shopsmith, but there are some flex issues. Enough so even the instructor at the traveling school didn't particularly recommend it. Takes a goodly bit of force, pushing that chisel housing through the wood. That said, it didn't seem terrible to me. Yes, the dedicated ones are a bit better, but the SS wasn't horrible.

I'd go handheld biscuit jointer and ss mortising.

That is what I did. I acquired a SS BJ with one I bought, puttered with it a little and sold it. I have a Bosch BJ but if I didn't I would probably just buy a BJ router bit and use that. I am old fashioned enough that I like dowels too.
If you slip an extension table in the right end of the SS (in drill press mode) and put a simple support between it and the main table it will take about all of the flex out of the main table.

.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 11:13 am

robinson46176 wrote:That is what I did. I acquired a SS BJ with one I bought, puttered with it a little and sold it. I have a Bosch BJ but if I didn't I would probably just buy a BJ router bit and use that. I am old fashioned enough that I like dowels too.
If you slip an extension table in the right end of the SS (in drill press mode) and put a simple support between it and the main table it will take about all of the flex out of the main table.

.

It being the edge of the extension table, or the mounting tubes?

swampgator · Post by **swampgator** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:03 pm

charlese wrote:Evidently, you will be needing to join boards and also make mortises. I'll recommend the biscuit joiner. You can already make very nice mortises with your Shopsmith. Use the horizontal boring position and a Shopsmith router chuck. You use the rip fence as a backup.

Charles, this sounds like a great idea. But, I'm a bit slow on this concept. Do you have a pic on the setup? I just don't get the router chuck. That's my hold up. Thanks for your help.

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 5:07 pm

JPG40504 wrote:It being the edge of the extension table, or the mounting tubes?

For me the edge of the extension seemed best. The closer the support is to straight up and down the less likely it is to make the main table try to move any direction as pressure increases.
YMMV

.