Thread: Heads Up: Porter Cable clone Biscuit Joiner at Aldi's...

Well, in a way they are batpig, you just buy one - take it home and if you don't think it is value for money you bring it back. No questions asked, their return policy is very good.

Biscuit Joiner looks the goods but is it?
Electric planer also looked the goods but was it?
Bought their electric jug. Looked the goods but wasn't!

I went to Queanbeyan Aldi but the bogans had bought them all. Plenty of routers in stock but no biscuit joiners. Never realised there were so many chippies in town.
I bought one of the $29 bimetal hole saw kits last week. Sizes appear a little strange. The centre arbors appear standard so will interchange with other bimetal hole saws I have.

I went to the Queanbeyan Aldi on day this sale started although it was 1630 when i got there, no biscuit joiners in sight, this is the sixth time this has happened to the so called "sale items" at Aldi, most likely the staff snapped them up and left a token one on sale.

Here in Bendigo you basically have to be there when the store opens at 9am, they are lined up outside for the specials. Quite often by 9:30 they are all gone!

Was there last Thursday in the afternoon and they had about 3 left on pallet, asked a staff member how many they had to start off with, he reckoned about six layers on a pallet. That is a lot of biscuit joiners!

I bought one last year, different model, and it does a very good job.

So basically at Aldi the motto is: snooze you lose!

Picked up one of the Aldi bicky joiners last Thursday. Plenty of 'em at our Bowral store.

To anyone who missed out, don't worry - you didn't miss much. All alignment surfaces are a bit wobbly (on a plastic base....), the depth scale bears no relationship to the actual cutting depth, and there is plenty of slop in the slides. Probably worth about.....ooooh.......$69 or so !

After stuffing around for a while to get the thing set up moderately square (some filing required), and cutting to the right depth, much to my surprise it actually produced a reasonable joint. Good enough for the few jobs I need it for......so its a keeper. An expensive bicky joiner would ruin my chances of EVER getting a Domino......

Got mine this morning. Took it out of the box tonight. Pretty noisy, but I'm guessing that's standard for Biscuit Joiners. It's too late tonight to ruin any timber with it, so I might make a test join with it on the weekend...

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

Batpig - I've used a Lamello as well as the Aldi biscuit joiner; much quieter, but I think you'd expect that for the money.

Don't be alarmed by the burning wood smells when using the Aldi joiner - I suspect the cutter blade they supply is made of Chinese grade tool steel, i.e. only marginally harder than timber. I found it helps to do a really rapid plunge action with the Aldi joiner !

But, for the money, this Aldi joiner will certainly suit light duty users like myself. I suspect if a kitchen carcass assembler got hold of one he'd kill it in a matter of days though

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

Batpig - I've used a Lamello as well as the Aldi biscuit joiner; much quieter, but I think you'd expect that for the money.

Don't be alarmed by the burning wood smells when using the Aldi joiner - I suspect the cutter blade they supply is made of Chinese grade tool steel, i.e. only marginally harder than timber. I found it helps to do a really rapid plunge action with the Aldi joiner !

I Wouldn't Do That If I Were You..... :eek:

Do NOT suggest rapid plunging a bickie jointer to avoid wood burn. This suggestion is dangerous and quite frankly, foolish! Especially those with little or no experience with such a tool run the risk of blade jam and kickback. At the least this will result in damage to the workpiece. In worse cases, damage to your person. The plunge action should be smooth and controlled. If the wood burn becomes too annoying and the tool justifies it, upgrade the blade (Their purpose ensures they are standard dimensions).

Chinese grade tool steel? Surely it's carbide tipped? Perhaps it can be sharpened with a thin whetstone?