Thread: Biscuits & Slot Cutters

Carbatec sell a biscuit joint kit with slot cutter (50.8 mm i think by 4 mm) and number 10 biscuits. I bought one and made a blanket box as my first biscuit joint project. Found i had to slide the piece to be cut a little to get the slot length correct for the biscuits i was useing. In all it worked well, just a bit fidley. I have noticed that Porter Cable have an "FF" size small biscuit available that is used with a 50mm cutter available for their biscuit jointer, so i think that these would be ideal for your cutter, i have been going to get some to try but haven't had time yet.
Also, the triton biscuits are an odd shape as they are to suit a cutter in the order of 38mm to 40mm or so, may be another option, but i like the "FF" option myself.

Hope this helps. Mick.

Thanks Mick, I will ckeck them all out. I don't think that I have ever seen a drawing of biscuit profiles (dimension). Would be nice to know.

Hi Electrolad,
Found this after doing a quick search on Google. Thought you may be interested.

The three basic biscuit sizes are:

#0: About 5/8 of an inch wide by 1 3/4 inches long (47 x 15 mm)
#10: About 3/4 of an inch wide by 2 1/8 inches long (53 x 19 mm)
#20: 1 inch wide by 2 1/2 inches long (56 x 23 mm)

There are also smaller face frame or mini biscuits that are designed for use with materials as narrow as 1 1/2 inches, such as cabinet face frames.


Mick.

Originally posted by ElectroLad
Another question if I may folks.

I have a 47.6mm x 4mm Slot Cutter. Is this suitable for use in a bench to cut slots for biscuits?

If so what biscuit size is suitable. I am aware that most Biscuit cutters use a 100mm cutter.

Yes, that slot cutter is suitable for biscuit joints.

I have a Jesada biscuit joining kit which consists of a slot cutter and three different sized bearings for creating slots for 0, 10, 20 sized biscuits. Their sizes are in imperial measurement but convert to your size of slot cutter.

Jesada

They also give the size of the bearings so you could just get bearings to suit your slot cutter

The slot cutters cut the correct depth but the length is a little short.
No big deal though, I have two marks on my fence, align centre line for biscuit with first mark slide timber to second mark, easy, job done.

If you wish to use biscuits in the centre of a sheet then fit a 4mm straight router bit and route out a slot the correct length and depth at the required position. Using a plunge router hand held with a sraight edge is easiest.

Thanks for all he feedback folks.

I went out and bought some Triton biscuits on Saturday (Bunnies is just down the road) to see how they would go. It only raised another question.

The slot is 4mm wide but the Triton biscuits seem to vary in width between 3.5 and 4 mm with most 3.6 to 3.7mm.
This causes the majority of them to "flog" around in the slot and if joining edge to edge can cause a misalingment of the two joined boards to be up to 1mm. Is this the normal tolerance for biscuits or do I need a better quality biscuit?

Or perhaps the Triton cutter is a non standard width?

I was of the understanding that biscuit joints were great because they left no room for lateral misalignment while allowing longitudinally movement for alignment in that direction.

Maybe I have got it all wrong! Thanks again everybody.

When the biscuits are made they are compressed.
The biscuits expand when the glue is applied giving a tight joint.

ElectroLad

Use your slot cutter in a special router table fence (ala Triton) as a biscuit machine. I built one based on the Triton and, before I owned a hand held biscuit joiner, used it very successfully to line up and join boards for table tops, etc.

see: http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...5&pagenumber=2

regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks Derek and Sprog.

I'm still puzzled by the whole thing. Here is where I am at. I have two 190 x 19mm boards that I am edge joining. I have slotted them with a 4mm cutter and inserted the biscuits (Triton) with ample PVA glue. Now the biscuits have a lateral movement because they are maybe 3.5mm thick.

Now I bring the edges together and clamp. Because the biscuits have not yet swelled I have to be very careful with the board alignment before clamping. If I'm not careful before clamping and the boards are misaligned by perhaps 0.5mm there is no way that the swelling biscuits are going to pull the misalignment together since by this time the glue on the edges has pretty well set.

Perhaps I have got it all wrong but I thought that the biscuits should be almost exactly 4mm thick. That way the boards would be pulled together straight away and the swelling would ensure that it stayed that way.

Just out of interest I stuck a Triton biscuit in a glass of water for an hour and it swelled from 3.6mm to 4.1mm. Seems to me that the swelling effect of PVA glue would not be as great as the water treatment. I'm not knocking Triton, I just don't understand.

Thanks again folks. ElectroLad

I personally would not rely on biscuits to align boards I was edge gluing.

Depending on the length of the boards, I use two or more double bar clamps when edge gluing the boards together. The clamps keep the boards perfectly flat; the joints need minor sanding after the glue has dried.

These are the ones I use, bought them from Carbatec in Perth, Timbecon also have them as no doubt do other places.


Double Bar Clamp Link

Carbatec WA

I have similar ones made by Veritas which work extremely well.

Just one point though, I always take the advice from Veritas and place some greaseproof paper between the clamp and the panels I am gluing on the glue lines. This is so I don't end up with the clamp stuck to my panel.

- Wood Borer

Originally posted by Wood Borer
I have similar ones made by Veritas which work extremely well.

Just one point though, I always take the advice from Veritas and place some greaseproof paper between the clamp and the panels I am gluing on the glue lines. This is so I don't end up with the clamp stuck to my panel.

- Wood Borer

The Veritas clamps are very good but almost twice the price of the bar clamps which are very well made. Which ever you use, the results will be excellent.

I pinched a roll of cling film from the kitchen to protect the clamps but greasproof paper is probably less of a pain to use. We all know what it is like tryting to position cling film
Maybe I should return it and see if there is any greasproof paper lying around

Thanks to all again.

Looks like I need to duck down to Carbatec and get a few maybe 4, of those double bar clamps. I am currently using a jury rig using M6 threaded rod and wing nuts. Clamps very well even if a bit awkard but one cannot easily align the boards. Hence my wanting the biscuits to do this part of the process.

Cheers ElectroLad

Bit surprised by the variance you found in the Triton biscuits. I hadn't attempted to measure them.

However, I have been using the Triton biscuit cutter very successfully, and have measured the cutter to be 4mm +/- ? (wasn't being that precise). I have been doing mid-panel slots by using the router on the router accessory plate- sliding along the Triton workcentre rails with a 4mm straight cutter to give me the mid panel slots, and found that it worked really well - and no "slop" in the biscuits either. Quite a tight fit, even when dry.

So the round about way of getting to the point is- 4mm is the correct slot width, and I would expect the biscuits to be pretty close to that width, and certainly not a "loose" fit in the dry slot.

Hope that helps.