Thread: Biscuit Joiner

Ask yourself how often you will use it.
Depending upon your answer, you should not necessarily dismiss the GMC/Ozito end of the market. This is not complicated or precision machinery.

My Ryobi biscuit joiner destroyed itself recently and following the many posts on GMC I bought one of those.
So far I am very happy with it. The fence is a direct copy of the Makita fence, the machine appears to cut well and there is good alignment of the blade.
The two year warrenty is a real bonus, much better than any of the other makes. It costs a lot less than the big name brands.
I would stay away from the Ozito, they appear to be very poor quality.
Suresh

I was involved in the previous biscuit joiner posts. bought the DeWalt clone GMC. Found the fence too tight to wind, wandered back into Bunnings and they swapped it for another, all good now.

Have noticed that the Vermont American, or some similar sounding brand, of 20's biscuits require a bit of bigger hole (deeper) than the tool gives, but haven't used them all up to try another brand as yet. The problems only minor, and when I get time I am sure I can set the depth pin a little better, untill then I just use the max setting and have no probs.
IMO the Ryobi is too clumbsy, the Ozito had a plastic clip on fence attachment which I would be sure to lose andthe rest where too expensive by double.

Hi there Goldy,
as a woodnut there are just three tools that I need to be in heaven and a biscuit jointer is one.
Recently I dropped into Bunnings at Parafield (SA)to find three biscuit jointers bolted down on display. Something seemed odd - eventually I realised what it was. The aluminium casting on the GMC and the De Walt were identical - even down to the scrtaches on the dies. Now the thing wot drives the blade round and round may be different but who can tell? Otherwise the only other noticable difference was that the GMC had a hrad chrome plated base and the De Walt looked like black steel. Mow $161 for the GMC and $359 for the De Walt had me wondering.
If you scour this site you'll find that others have detected this too.
Now as a part time salesman in a local hardware I'm impressed by the "bang for the buck" with GMC. O.K. the switches can be a pest - but since they are generally infant failure devices you're well covered by the warranty - which is trully hassle-free.
Oddly thre's really no middle ground with biscuit jointers it's either budget end $100 to $200 and then the jump to the $400-600 end of the world.
Hence if you are a professional and can justify the top end - go for it. Otherwise look at the top end of the budget range.

Thanks all will take xrons advice and have a good look. I`m a big beleive in buying good quality tools but might have to buy a GMC for once. Agree with ozito they are cheap and nasty will last 1 of 2 years and are what you pay for cheap and weak.

regards goldy

I have a Milwaukee (Atlas Copco) and am absolutely stoked with it. The fence on it makes the others look like cheap toys...

http://www.atlascopco.de/internet/ac...2568a5004046a4!OpenDocument

how much was the atlas copco Chris?

Gino

Geoffrey

Did you mean the GMC would not cut deep enough for a standard 20 biscuit.

If so then there is a phillips head screw recessed into the front of the fence, this needs to be screwed in or out to make the machine cut deeper.

I had this problem and was just about to take the machine back, then I found this adjustment and no problems now.


Daniel

Gino, unfortunately it was not cheap, around $600. After looking for some time at biscuit jointers here and overseas I thought this one had the best features. What I find particularly useful is a hight adjust on the fence, similar to the turret stop on a router, that allows you to set up a series of repeatable cuts. You cannot see it on the link I posted above, so I will post an image of the other side of the fence.

I've said this before - I've had excellent, reliable, and accurate service from my GMC Biscuit Joiner. The only problem I found was that the fence settings would move as the screw down was difficult to tighten with my fingers. The standard screw down is a small, round, knurled knob. I replaced this with a butterfly nut, which is easier to tighten, and my problem went away. A pic is below.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks for all the info went down to bunnings and compared the dewalt to the GMC and you can`t realy tell much difference.
Looks like I`m going to go for the Dewalt as there`s nothing wrong with GMC stuff but! As being in the metal trade, if we used cheaper end of the market tool compared to quality brands they last eg 6 weeks compared to 12 months.
Even though its for home and proably a over kill and only use it on weekends, will pay the exta money for a dewalt.

Thanks all

Goldy

Goldy, when I was looking at the DeWalts I noticed that all of the units I looked at on display had the blade noticibly out of parallel to the fence/base. This was the case of units I looked at in the United States and in Bunnings Australia. If you leave the unit like this you will end up with the opposite sides of the joint crossing like an "X" rather than meeting perfectly. There is supposed to be an easy fix for this problem, not quite sure what it is (seem to recall it taking a couple of minutes with a screwdriver?), someone on this forum may know or you might want to do a search of some of the US sites. Since I was looking about two years ago this problem may well have been fixed. Not wanting to alarm you or dissuade you from your purchase, just don't want you to be dissapointed with the DeWalts performance if it can be very simply fixed...

Good luck and I hope you enjoy using your new tool, whatever one you choose.

Chris

If the blade is out with the flat base of the machine then there is not much you could do about it. But I dont think this would be the case it is more likely the fence is out in relation to the blade. Look for two screws which hold the fence assembly to the base, you can loosen them and then realign the fence with the base.

The GMC's have philips screws (or at least mine does) which are best replaced with allen head cap screws or similar, the dewalts have decent screws as standard.

I have a GMC (bought on price but have spent a while mucking around to get it accurate)
I dont think the GMC fence moves as smoothly as the dewalts do either

HTH

Darryn

I came across this article in Fine Woodworking yesterday. It should answer all questions regarding cutting accuracy for both the deWalt and GMC.

Regards from Perth

Derek