Thread: Cabinetmaking joinery

Biscuits!

Biscuit Forum

Many people will have their personal preference but I have found that biscuits work well or for bookshelf shelves a recessed housing done with a router or dado blade. I would favour biscuits for the ease and strength.

I am sure that you will get 101 different views on this.

Stinky

Gotta agree with the biscuits.Up untill recently I was using the Triton biscuit joiner.It was great but it had it's limitations.I now have the Dewalt biscuit joiner and its great for that sort of work If your feeling motivated rebates work well but biscuits are my choice for speed and accuracy

Theres nothing like a blind sliding dovetail joint....

Ive had good sucess in panel goods (chip & mdf) with director screws and mushroom bolts.

fast, easy and strong.

No glue and you acn finish all the panels before assembly.


The above are special screws designed for end grain screwing.

I'm starting to enjoy using pocket hole joinery. really quick, strong and easy and no clamps needed!

In most cases, you can easily hide the the pocket holes as well, or they are in positions that are not easily visible unless you are looking for them. Can always get plugs too.. I have a pic in the pics section of a toy box made with pocket holes and unless you tip it up to see the bottom, you would never know...

For shelving, bookcases etc I would probably use housing joints made with the router.

Biscuits are good too and always hidden from view! I tend to favour biscuit joining on picture frames using 45 degree mitres

Your choice... but I find I use a different method depending on the item I am building...

All the above offer up good advice Ashley, but it's obviously dependent on the tools you have on hand.
With solid timber you can apply any or all those suggestions but with manufactured board you have to be a little more selective in your range of joints.
Rebating /mitreing your joints offers up another avenue for you to look at.
In frame construction one of the quickest ways is by pocket hole joints,biscuits are fine also but extra bracing for square may be required,but these both require tools that you may not have access to,therefore if you have a saw and chisels as most do these days the dovetail joint offers you strength but requires time and accuracy.
Basically a question of what you have in your arsenal of tools to achieve what you want in your joints.
Cheers