GMC Biscuit jointer

[Darryn]

Hi All
I will preface this by saying I know they are not built for full time use. But has anyone had any experience with the GMC biscuit jointer. I saw one in a hardware store and it looks like an exact ripoff of the Dewalt one.

As its only for occasional home use the price seemed ok as I can't justify to my SO spending $450 or so on a name brand machine.

Any opinions

Darryn

[Iain]

Have not seen the biscuit jointer, however, a friend who manages hardware house claims that the range for the price is quite good and is probably comparable to Ryobi. For occassional use its probably alright. My father, who uses his powewr tools as much in a decade as I would in a week use some GMC and it performs well, I will add that it is better built than Ozito.
On the subject of class tools, I had the displeasure of using an Arlec variable speed, hammer, reversible $35.00 drill with a jacobs (?) chuck. Needed to drill a 1/16 starter hole and the bits (that came with the drill) would not hold in the chuck. Now that is real rubbish and probably good for sinker for surf rigs.

[ubeaut]

I purchased for my son a GMC pack containing a jigsaw, random orbital sander, drill & angle grinder. He has given them a real hiding and they are going strong.

Mind you he has only had them for a couple of months, but ther have had heavy use almost every day and the whole lot only cost $90 at a market and they threw in a cordless screw driver.

Why did I buy GMC? So I could get my good tools back from him before they were all destroyed. (from memory they had a 2 year warranty on them. Most of the better name brands don't have that.) That $90 GMC kit replaces many hundreds of dollars worth.

Cheers - Neil http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gif

[Darryn]

This is starting to sound pretty promising,

For work I only buy quality stuff, my metabo battery drill has not missed a beat nor my AEG rotary hammer drill, and they get used day in day out. But as woodwork is only a hobby and we have just bought a house I cant spend too much.

The quality did seem to look reasonable, definatley a cut above the ozito . My boss tried to cheap out once buying a few drills and grinders, now that was a bad mistake and why I buy my own power tools!!!!

Darryn

[fcm]

It always pays to look at where the tool was made - then compare it to other power tools and where they were made. This may help give you a bit of an idea on what sort of quality you can expect in the important parts like motors, etc.

[Justin]

Hi Darryn,

Can't help you on the biscuit joiner, but I recently bought a GMC 18 volt cordless drill. I've given it hell during my house renovations, including a full kitchen worth of cabinet construction. So far no probs and I'm impressed with general quality of the unit. What really sold me was the 2 year warranty - I figured even if I burnt a few out in 2 years I'd still get value for money.

Hope this helps,


Justin.

[derekcohen]

I recently bought the GMC biscuit joiner. At $175 it is an absolute bargain!!!! I felt it was as good as some machines at three times the price, and better than one or two. It is solid and feels balanced. It has a great fence (it is easy to set at the height you wish, and mine is parallel to the blade), which is the most important requirement in this type of machine. I also think it is a direct rip off of the Dewalt, which is a good thing since the Dewalt is the recognised leader in design. All-in-all you can't go wrong at this price.

Derek

[Darryn]

To doorstop it wasn't from a german company that started with M was it? When I bought my rotary hammer drill I heard they were producing some tools there but not labelling them as such which is why I bough the AEG dril.

Derek you have sealed it for me I will buy the GMC biscuit jointer thank you.

[tonks]

I have the Gmc lathe, bench drill and now the mitre saw and for mine the price was one of the most attractive features, not having a lot of moolah to spare.

The two year warranty appears on all the above gear.

My only complaint so far is that i have had to make up an adaptor to hold a jacobs chuck as the thread on the headstock spindle is not a standard size.

regards,

Allen

[John Saxton]

Hi Darryn,to put it simply buy what you think you can afford.
In so saying that I don't necessarily say go out and get a bank loan to buy the best available as everyone of us would probably have a fairly low cost tool on our shop that is more than performing to expectations and as such buy the tool to do the job because:_
1.It is within your budget.
2.It is intended to fulfil your needs.
3.It is a means of giving you the lattitude you require in your shop/home.
4.There is no negatives in people you approach about it.
Having said all that, any tool in the right hands can accomplish no matter what others say and I haven't heard any negatives in regards to GMC.Afterall they fill a market slot.
Cheers http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gif


------------------
Johnno

[This message has been edited by John Saxton (edited 03 June 2001).]

[Chris Longworth]

Hi Darryn.
I have a friend that has sold a number of the GMC drills, planers ect (didn’t have the biscuit joiner) & has not had any returns, but only praise from the people who bought them.
I saw the planer at his place & went straight to my car & pulled out my Makita planer to compare them side by side & found that the only difference was the colour. They where exact in every way.
Hope this helps.
Chris.

[Glen Bridger]

Hi guys,
GMC is an Australian company. They buy cheaper, lower quality tools from manufacturers all over the world. This probably accounts for some the their tools looking similar to some well known brands.
They have a web site and I can't remember it if this is right, but give it a go www.gmcompany.com.au (http://www.gmcompany.com.au)

Cheers,
Glen.

[Trev]

hello to all
chris in respone to your note about gmc tools
i wasn't aware they made planers, so i tried bunnings as they sell gmc and a couple of other stores but they don't seem to know about the planer, could you tell me who sells them please.
regards
trev.

[Iain]

Bunnings have a deal with Ozito and it is an exclusine line, thank God. They do carry a limited range of GMC but I think Hardewarehouse carry a more extensive range. http://www.gmcompany.com/default.htm

[This message has been edited by Iain (edited 07 June 2001).]

[Kerry Blue]

I already had a Triton biscuit joiner but was given a GMC one as a gift about 6 months ago. Very happy with it for occasional use.

[Darryn]

Hi everyone again, I finally went and bought the GMC biscuit jointer.

Its not too bad though I did have to spend about 1/2 an hour mucking around with the fence as it was not parallel with the blade and its still not quite right.

But I am doing a quick and dirty kitchen renovation at the moment and don't have a real long time to spend tuning exactly, so far it seems to be serving its purpose.

Some parts of the machine are not so well executed like the rack and pinion fence height adjuster is a bit rough and the slide mechanism was very rough to start with b ut it seems to have loosened up a bit.

On the whole I am pretty happy as it only cost $159, I must confess to trying a biscuit cutter in my router first as this was only $41. But I took it back as I couldn't get tight joints there must have been some runout somewhere, but my router is a blue bosch (not cheapp) and only a few months old too.

This may be starting to change my ideas on the cheaper tools who knows, I guess with the replacement warranty I can always take it back if it craps itself!!

Darryn

[This message has been edited by (edited 29 July 2001).]

[Iain]

I went to Bunnings thismorning and had a look at the jointer as it seems to get some reasonable reviews. The mechanism seemed fine to me and I do not understand what alignment problems you are talking about. The adjuster seemed to be smooth and I did not see an adjustment to align the blade to the body.
Maybe I missed something??
Anyway the price was $159.00 and I had a look at www.ehardware.com.au (http://www.ehardware.com.au) and they have the same tool on offer for $148.00.
Bunnings offer to beat their price by 10% thats $133.20.
Like you said, 2 year warranty, what have I got to lose?

[Darryn]

Damm about the ehardware price!!!
Bunnings would probably try and squirm out of it by saying something about an online price not a real shop but anyway I needed it there and then.

The plunge mechanism on mine was very stiff to begin with for about the first 20 biscuits but it is ok now.

The adjustment I was talking about is two screws on the face of the jointer just above the little anti slip pins. These two screws control the relationship of the adjustable fence with the blade. On my unit the adjustable fence did not sit parallel with the blade so when you cut with it the slot was not parallel with the top edge of the board the fence was resting on. I found one of the small screws is slightly bent and also there is not much clearance in the screw head recess for adjustment. I looked at its big brother the dewalt today and they have a slightly bigger recess and use a torx screw not just a crappy philips head screw.

I am going to replace the screws with the dewalt style if possible as I will be able to lock the adjustment down more securely.

I don't know if this is a recommended method of use but I find I get best results by having the trigger locked on. It seems a bit too jerky once you have the joiner in position and then have to trun it on so when I do a line of buscuits I just keep it running and make the cuts.

I am also joining 16 mm board on a kitchen cabinet carcass. As I have to use the fence not the base to work off I hold the joiner in my right hand and use the palm of my left hand to apply pressure to the fence to make sure it is nice and flat on the board, Again this may not be recommended but I find it works well.

If I had a digital camera I would post some pics on a web site but I don't have one yet so I can't :-(

Darryn

[This message has been edited by (edited 29 July 2001).]

[Iain]

Went out and bought one today at Bunnings for $133.20, took a printout of the ehardware page and they, well, were not happy but they honoured their pledge.
You could return the unit under the 30 day satisfaction refund guarantee and get your money back and try again.
I was impressed with the packaging, spare brushes (which I shall probably have lost by the time I need them) and the dust extraction options.

[Darryn]

Now thats a thought!!!

I can always say I couldn't get it adjusted correctly and so it is not up to scratch I guess.

I will then go to another bunnings and get one there with the printout page!

I liked the spare brushes too, its the first time I have seen it supplied with any power tools.

Darryn

[Iain]

Did a run of joints today and found the same alignment problem and upon raising the fence to the highest setting I found that the long brass gear that engages the teeth of the body of the plate is out one tooth which equates to about 1mm.
After much fiddling I managed to reset in the correct position. This involved removing the screw at the top of the fence and removing the entire fence and then, after removing some burring on the cast with a bit of wet and dry, reassembled the whole thing.
Damn, still did not want to play and I found that winding it down to its lowest setting you can get it to skip across the gears. After a bit of up and down it aligned but it tends to slip out at the extremities.
Once aligned I found it was accurate to .1mm which I thought was not bad.
Pity about the misalignment of the teeth and I may gave a tete a tete with GMC on MOnday.
I also found casting problems when I dismatled the fence, holes and rough patches and what looks like a crack.
This may be a one of but quality control is a bit lacking I think, however, for $133.20 I am not going to bitch too loudly and if I decide I like the idea of a biscuit jointer I may upgrade later. Having said all of that, it may last forever if I treat it carefully.
This is not a loud bitch as generally I am happy with the unit and it has performed as well as I expected once the alignment problem was sorted out.
One question, what is a TORX screw and is it worth replacing the existing screws, I also found the alignment was limited to about 1mm.

[Gino]

Hi Iain.

A Torx screw has a Star configuration, the tool grips better into the head so the risk of slipping is less.

For what it's worth I was talking to a guy a Bunnings when a customer returned theirs because it had a broken screw head on the base of the unit, according to the Bunnings guy it is prone to this. So if you attack the base screws be very carful and I would replace them if I removed them succesfully the first time.
I've been meaning to do a comparison between the dewalt and the GMC but they have never had the two in stock at exactly the same time.

Hope this is of use.

regards

Gino

[Iain]

Now for my gripe with the GMC jointer.
It cuts well and aligns correctly but the dust extraction is not worth two knobs of goat s**t.
I attach the bag and it clogs at the entrance.
Remove bag and attach dust extractor, shaving just build up in the plastic tube where it clips into the alloy housing.
Remove plastic fitting and shavings blast all over the floor but this is the only effective way of efficient removal of wood.
I think the little rectangular fitting at the base of the plastic tube where it clips into the machine effectively retains the shavings and clogs http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/mad.gif
Whoever designed the extraction system should be shot with a ball of their own s**t, apart from this problem it works well.
A larger port is in order to efficiently remove the shavings so I will endure the mess on the floor for the time being.

[Gino]

vearing from the subject slightly. I was at a hardware house in Melbourne and saw a newly released biscuit joiner from Ryobi for about $125.
Just thought I'd mention it in case it made a difference to anyone.

regards

Gino

[Darryn]

To Ian

I recall reading a review somewhere of the Dewalt biscuit joiner which is this units obvious source of inspiration.

They lamented the same problem about the small exhaust port and also the little pin sticking up in the port.

Saying that I have not had many problems with mine as far as dust extraction goes, I use it with an industrial vacumn cleaner and it hasn't clogged and just with the bag if I am in the shed. What sort of stuff are you biscuiting? I have only used it on chipboard.

As far as alignment goes mine really is and I think I will take it back for the refund and buy another or possibly the Ryobi one Gino spoke about.

Darryn

[Iain]

Darryn, take it back and go through every jointer until you find a good one. There will be a good one and I found several with fence problems. Out of alignment, limited travel etc etc.
I was cutting Tas Oak and it generated a shaving the thichness of the blade and the length of the cut which successfully blocked the exit port. MDF would generate dust, I think, and therefore not be a problem.

[Darryn]

Maybe thats the problem when I bought mine it was the only one there but I needed it there and then so had to get it. I Will try again and hope they have some more units in stock

Darryn

[ken yates]

I had the same problem of dust clogging up my Dewalt jointer. Even with vacuum on it. And the bag was useless. I finally solved the problem by cutting the slots slower this allowed for smaller wood chips and didn't clog up as easy. I don't like cleaning all that dust off of everything in the shop as it appears the jointer will send it everywhere. http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/biggrin.gif

[derekcohen]

Since I did provide a positive review of the GMC biscuit joiner some while back, some further comments to address the negatives above: I have used it for several months now to join both MDF and Jarrah. It has performed extremely well throughout. Allignment has remained spot-on. It has a fairly smooth action and sufficient power when cutting. Dust extraction is just adequate with the bag but better if connected to a shop vacuum (as I prefer). The only modification I made was to replace the fence setting finger nut (I don't know what to call it!) with a butterfly nut. This enabled sufficient tightness to prevent any movement of the fence. Prior to this I did get some slipping. It is now rock solid.

I generally avoid buying "cheap" tools, believing that you get what you pay for, but so far I have been very satisfied with the GMC.

Derek (in Perth)

[Roger Peine]

Bought one of these myself. Haven't really had a good workout with it, as yet. Seems that it doesn't cut deep enough for the given size biscuits. I will investigate further.

[Iain]

These pro woodworkers are all the same, Roger, if all else fails, read the instructions. http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/rolleyes.gif
There is an adjustment on the indexing setting, just need a screwdriver and increase of decrrease the depth of cut.
Now it's admission time, I had the same problem and telephoned GMC to find out what was wrong. It's about a ten second job and you feel a bit of a goose when you realise how simple it is http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/frown.gif

[Roger Peine]

Iain..Do you mean read the black stuff on the white sheets? Maaaate, last week i couldn't even spell woodwork, and now i are one!!!