Seconded. I bought the Freud set at 100 GBP and have done dozens of doors quite painlessly. Router table is home made (requirements are minimal) and router is a big (2200W) cheap (60 GBP) job.
FWIW...
I remember an incident from a few years ago that makes me wonder if most doors are not overbuilt. While shopping for a new home, we were talking with the realtor in the kitchen of a house we were viewing. The kitchen cabinets appeared to be laminate clad MDF with concealed hinges. Tired of standing, the realtor swung open the door on a lower cabinet and SAT on the top edge. At first I was simply shocked that the door did not break or that the hinge screws did not pull out of the cabinet.. Secondly, the realtor did this so casually, without testing the door for strength, that it became apparent that this was a common behavior for the realtor. Presumably, this had worked as a seat in so many cases that the realtor simply considered all cabinet doors to be built-in chairs. I have not been brave enough to try this myself.
M&T will outlast biscuits. Kitchen cabinet doors get a lot of use (and sometimes abuse). There are thousands of books on making doors--take a look at Taunton Press books. Here, you'll be far ahead with a good set of Bessy K-body clamps and corner blocks.
good point. And thinking this way, two dowels relatively near the outside of the joint would do a much better job of resisting typical non-linear (e.g. twisting or racking) forces.
Question on this: Other than seat rails, bed rails, and maybe table rails, how important is shear strength? It seems that for many of our joints, including the cabinet door frame, the forces acting on the joint are angular. And what is important to the joint integrity is that the joint not pull apart at the side of the joint under tension.
As another poster pointed out, the strength added by a biscuit is concentrated on the center, so only has 1/2 the "arm" of an attachment at the end of the joint.
Thinking this way also points out one reason that M&T is so much stronger in actual use--the M&T provides no only additional resistance to pulling out of the side of the joint under tension, but additional mechanical w00d-to-wood contact from the shoulders of the joint. e.g., even a relatively loose unglued M&T provides massively more resistance to a joint opening out at an angel than does a biscuit.
Well, there is no question in my mind that it is stronger; just whether the difference is relevant.
Interesting. Sounds almost like "fatiguing" the joint with lots of little stresses that have a cumulative effect. I don't have the engineering knowledge to agree or disagree, but that sounds plausible..
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Good grief! I think it's time for another cup of coffee!
From reading this thread, it seems like most people are saying that it's the _glue_ around the biscuit that fails - not the biscuit itself. Which makes me wonder what adhesive the article used (I haven't seen that particular mag. sold in this country).
Can't you just use a stronger adhesive?
Pete
I agree. Yellow woodworking glues are weak when filling gaps. A properly fitted joint features smooth surface mating to smooth surface.
The biscuit failures I've had all involved the biscuit sliding out of the slot.
Standard woodworking glue, just like most woodworkers.
Epoxy would probably work well, but it adds other complexities.
Use urethane glue. Holds like crazy.
I totally agree!
Sometimes, a slightly loose fitting biscuit and the rough surface of the biscuit cause problems.
Biscuits are supposed to absorb moisture from the glue and expand. Epoxy and polyurethane don't provide moisture.
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