Biscuit Joiner

[alanan]

I am contemplating purchasing a biscuit joiner. I have no experience at all with this tool. can anyone give me some advice. I salvage a lot of old cabinets, to make beehives, very often the recovered timber is not wide enough for the purpose, requiring joining, or wastage. Are these tools satisfactory. I am always a bit cautious, having purchased a workx sonycrafter, because I thought it would be suitable for a job I was doing, from the TV adverts, and found that is was almost totally useless.
Alan

[Junkie]

We have 3 of the Makita 100mm Plate Joiner-Biscuit Cutter (https://www.makita.com.au/products/power-tools/categories/specialty-woodworking/pj7000-100mm-plate-joiner-biscuit-cutter)s at work and I have one at home. Great value tool.

[Chief Tiff]

For your purposes a biscuit joiner will be very handy; but cheap ones are full of slop and unless you are very careful will cut oversized slots.

I own a Makita 710W ($270 from Bunnings) and it cuts accurately. My first joiner was an Ozito and it taught me the basics of use and where the pitfalls and accuracy lay. Between these I had a Ryobi piece of junk that was more PITA than tool so I recommend going for a Makita/DeWalt/AEG/etc branded tool.

Assuming your hives are of a consistent size I can show you a simple and very cheap mounting jig that will allow you to batch cut slots in all your planks in seconds.

Regarding the rubbish multitool you bought; they are only good at cutting square holes or flush to another surface. Every other of the 101 uses they claim to be able to do is performed 1000% better using the proper tool in the first place. The original tool is made by Fein and has a $700 price tag because it cuts square holes and cuts flush very, very well. Unfortunately crap DIY TV shows have resulted in cheaper versions flooding the marketplace claiming to be "the only power tool you'll ever need!!!" A bit like replacing all your spanners with a shifter from a $2 shop...

[ian]

I am contemplating purchasing a biscuit joiner. I have no experience at all with this tool. can anyone give me some advice. I salvage a lot of old cabinets, to make beehives, very often the recovered timber is not wide enough for the purpose, requiring joining, or wastage. Are these tools satisfactory. I am always a bit cautious, having purchased a workx sonicrafter, because I thought it would be suitable for a job I was doing, from the TV adverts, and found that is was almost totally useless.Hi Alan

IMO the full answer starts with "It depends"

I think you will almost certainly be disappointed with a low cost biscuit joiner (also known as a plate joiner).
I used to have a Makita which I sold when I inherited my father's Festool Domino.

Plate joiners have their place when working with stuff like MDF and particleboard and making 90 degree corners, but if you are edge joining stuff to make wider panels you might be better off improving your gluing technique. Glue-ups can be kept aligned (without using biscuits) if you loosely clamp the boards and then use battens top and bottom to align the edges before applying full sideways pressure with your clamps.

[PJM16]

Biscuit joiners will do what you're after, just don't buy a cheap one.

I've got the Makita and it's great, it needed a little fine tuning with it's depth setting when I first bought it and it hasn't been an issue since.

As for the biscuits, don't get ripped off at Bunnings. Go online to Carbatec or Timbecon, much much cheaper.

As for use, just make sure you let it get up to speed before you plunge for the cut. I remember a kid at school not doing so while I was in the firing line. I'm still not sure how I didn't get hurt.

[david.elliott]

Biscuit joiners will do what you're after, just don't buy a cheap one.

I've got the Makita and it's great, it needed a little fine tuning with it's depth setting when I first bought it and it hasn't been an issue since.

As for the biscuits, don't get ripped off at Bunnings. Go online to Carbatec or Timbecon, much much cheaper.

As for use, just make sure you let it get up to speed before you plunge for the cut. I remember a kid at school not doing so while I was in the firing line. I'm still not sure how I didn't get hurt.

I buy mine in boxes of 1000 from http://www.bix.com.au/

[alanan]

might not be satisfactory
For your purposes a biscuit joiner will be very handy; but cheap ones are full of slop and unless you are very careful will cut oversized slots.

I own a Makita 710W ($270 from Bunnings) and it cuts accurately. My first joiner was an Ozito and it taught me the basics of use and where the pitfalls and accuracy lay. Between these I had a Ryobi piece of junk that was more PITA than tool so I recommend going for a Makita/DeWalt/AEG/etc branded tool.

Assuming your hives are of a consistent size I can show you a simple and very cheap mounting jig that will allow you to batch cut slots in all your planks in seconds.

Regarding the rubbish multitool you bought; they are only good at cutting square holes or flush to another surface. Every other of the 101 uses they claim to be able to do is performed 1000% better using the proper tool in the first place. The original tool is made by Fein and has a $700 price tag because it cuts square holes and cuts flush very, very well. Unfortunately crap DIY TV shows have resulted in cheaper versions flooding the marketplace claiming to be "the only power tool you'll ever need!!!" A bit like replacing all your spanners with a shifter from a $2 shop...

[DavidG]

I bought a cheap one. Destroyed itself in first use.
Went out and bought a Makita and it is still going strong.

[tonzeyd]

I'm going to go against the crowd and have to say in your situation I'd say don't bother wasting your time with a biscuit joiner.

Given that your beehives are outside joining the boards with a biscuit joiner will simply lead to failure as moisture gets into the joints will just separate, plus given that its recycled materials the joint won't need to look pretty, plus depending on the cabinet material you are using if its chipboard ever more reason not to use biscuits.

If it were me i'd just use braces, glue and nail/screws and be done with it. Much quicker construction time then using biscuits etc. If you use high quality screws you should be able to salvage them when the hive eventually packs up.

Alternatively save your money and get these from bunnings
https://www.bunnings.com.au/haron-8mm-dowel-joining-kit_p6322775

As said the joint doeesn't need to be perfect it just needs to join the boards together, alternatively just buy the centre points if you've got dowels at home. Plus if you don't plan on moving the hive after its constructed you can even get away without gluing the joints, which makes it much easier to dismantle if required. Much stronger than biscuits and significantly cheaper then a tool you'll probably use a few times a year.