I'm making some basic boxes out of 4/4 walnut (16"X20"X8") as floating night tables. I have to join them now. I was considering dovetailing, but I'm running short on time. So now I'm thinking screws and plugs or biscuits. I've never used biscuits before. Is it ok to use them on solid wood instead of plywood? Or would they split the wood when they expand. If ok, what size biscuit would be recommended. Thx.
There is absolutely no problem doing this. I've done it dozens...nay...hundreds of times. In fact I often have wondered how well it would work in plywood.
There are tales of folks gluing up table tops with biscuits and seeing a ghost-outline of the biscuit but I've never seen it.
If you're going to look at b-joiners, take a look at one that can cut for the FF biscuits. My neighbor has one and uses it on small face frames and such where a 10 would be too big. He has a porter-cable and I assume it was pricey since it requires a second blade for the FF plates.
cheers jb
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Yes, biscuits work just fine on solid wood, maybe even better than on ply
John
"SofaKing" wrote in news:FpvWb.475864$ts4.86076@pd7tw3no:
If you're in a hurry, do you really want to be chasing down and learning a new tool? Dovetails or biscuits will work fine, but for 'quick and looks just fine', screws and plugs can get you to the finishing stage more quickly. And the finishing process, especially with walnut, always seems to take longer than I have budgeted for it.
Now, if you happen to have a good neighbor with the tools and know how already, go with the biscuits. But it won't be any stronger than the other two methods you mentioned, (assuming a biscuited butt joint.)
Of course, if what you want is to buy a new tool, I assume I speak for the group: "Go ahead! Buy that sucker!" (My yellow one works just fine, BTW.)
Patriarch, who believes that walnut was made for a good oil & wax finish....
Of course!
I use as large of a biscuit as the joint will allow.
On Wed 11 Feb 2004 02:08:52p, Biff Steele wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I remember a thread about that a long time ago. Maybe even a whole year. The explanation that made the most sense to me was that the biscuit swells from the glue, and doesn't completely shrink back till about 24 hours after. If you sand the panel before that, you're sanding swollen wood above the biscuits. When they finish drying it leaves a biscuit-shaped depression on one or both faces. All of this dependent on how much the biscuit swells, how much the wood bends out of shape, the weather, the temperature, and wierd stuff going on at Edwards Air Force Base.
Dan
I have two of them (the PC 557). They are great tools.
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