Joiner Technique

You’re on the right track. It’s just gonna take some trial and error. And if you’ve ever tried to edge join two pieces with biscuits you understand that they never really line up. I’ve never heard a satisfactory explanation for this little glitch with biscuit joiners. Good luck.

-- Cole - Rydal, GA

The trick here is to NOT use the part of your biscuit joiner that controls the depth of the slot.

Mark the center of your slot on each piece. Sit your biscuit joiner plate on a flat surface and make your first slot. Sit the other piece of wood on its edge and make another slot. Since you’re registering from the same surface, the slots should align just right.

-- Adversity doesn't build character...................it reveals it.

Clamp a straight edge (3/4” board) on your plywood, enough south of the liner so the cutter lands right on your line. Register the base of the router to the straightedge and you should be fine.

Cole, the reason you have problems with alignment is the cutter is not exactly parallel with the fence of the machine. If it is .01 inches off, when you turn the machine around to cut the mating surface, the two slots will be .02 out of parallel.

My Lamello is dead on parallel and my DeWalt is darn close. I never have problems with alignment.

Kindly,

Lee

-- "...in his brain, which is as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd with observation, the which he vents in mangled forms." --Shakespeare, "As You Like It"

What about using a router and doing a half lap?

-- Save lives, ease suffering, reduce morbidity and mortality, stomp out pestilence and disease, postpone the inevitable, and fake compassion. The Paramedics Creed

I agree with everything said but will add, if you have a router you can do a dado, if you have a decent circular saw you can do a dado, if you have one sharp chisel and a hand saw you can do a dado.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

Thanks for the info. It looks like a little practice I can get my biscuits to line up. And keeping my ears open I guess I do have a dado I just need to think outside my narrow little world. Thanks again.

-- Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

you dont need a dado blade set to make dado’s. make a kerf maker (i know, but I use mine) and it cuts the exact width dado for you, just in several passes.

Or use the router to make a dado slot, but you did not mention if you had a router :)

-- Crashn - the only thing I make more of than sawdust is mistakes