Biscuit joiner reviews | Lamello, Makita or a Dewalt?

Introduction

Biscuit joiners are power tools that serve a particular purpose: they cut slots into the wood, through which “biscuits” are inserted. Biscuits are flat wooden discs that when inserted into the slots secure two different slabs of wood together. With the combination of glue and the biscuit expanding with PVA glue to tightly clamp itself to both surfaces.

Biscuit joiners have been around since the early 1960s when a Swiss woodworker named Hermann Steiner developed them. It was also Steiner who established the Lamello brand, which was responsible for some of the most highly-regarded professional biscuit joiners on the market.

In principle, plate joiners are quite similar to angle grinders. Instead of the diamond or abrasive cutters found in angle grinders, however, the best biscuit joiners typically have a tungsten-carbide tip (TCT) blade. They also have steel “fences” that stabilize the unit and ensure evenly raised slots.

Biscuit joiners are pretty rudimentary in function–they pretty much only let you cut slots into slabs of wood. Even so, this basic function allows for a pretty broad range of carpentry and woodworking tasks.

With a quality joiner in your shop, you can attach two pieces of wood to make a wider board, make neatly-fitting joints, and even assemble strong and durable shelves and cabinets. For such a seemingly simple tool, the range of things you can create with a good electric joiner is pretty impressive.

 Features

• Brand – Dewalt, Makita, Festool, and Lamello are among the best brands of electric joiners you can buy, with professional features and dependable performance
• Durability –  A biscuit joiner should be capable of heavy-duty work without breaking down or suffering from inconsistency issues.
• Size –  The ability to cut different-sized slots is a useful feature to have in a biscuit joiner. This feature lets you use the same tool to cut slots for the most commonly available sizes of biscuits.
• Power –  A biscuit joiner should have enough power to cut through any wood with ease.

How do biscuit joiners work

Electric joiners are fairly simple tools that perform a single basic function: cut slots into wood. These tools have a “fence” (usually made of heavy stainless steel) that you press flush against the edge or surface of the piece of wood where you want the cut.

Plate joiners have a sharp cutting blade that pushes against the wood when the power is switched on. After making a similar cut into another piece of wood, they can be joined together with wooden football-shaped discs known as “biscuits”. 

After your cuts have been made pull out your expanding wood biscuit from your woodwork apron   insert your biscuit inside the perfectly shaped slots with some PVA glue.

Pressing the two pieces together, the biscuits expand to create a  strong wood jointing system! that many woodworkers rely on for their furniture building projects.

When to use a biscuit joiner?

Biscuit joints are pretty strong and versatile and can support fairly heavy loads. You can, therefore, use biscuit joiners to create a wide variety of furniture, from tables and benches to bookshelves and even cupboards.

Biscuit joiners are useful for any task that involves joining slabs of wood together. Although most woodworkers use them to join two pieces of wood side by side, they can also be used to make butt joints and for joining the edge of a slab to a flat surface, as you would when making a shelf.

Even if you opt to use glue to attach two pieces of wood, using biscuits will help ensure proper alignment when you clamp the individual pieces together.

When not to use a biscuit joiner?

Biscuits are probably not the best choice when the joint is subject to moister or the outdoors.

They are also less suitable for pieces that will undergo repeated stress and flexing. In some cases, biscuits may be unnecessary if you have two pieces with precisely cut edges and good, strong wood glue, and additional support in the framing.