SHOPSMITH biscuit jointer?

I know most folks here have more sophisticated tools, but i love the SS for drill press, lathe and routing...

I recently found out that they make a biscuit assembly for it and wondered if anyone here might have used one??

They're $140 new from shopsmith and there are 3 or 4 new/near new ones on ebay... have bids on 2 of them now, so any input, good or bad would be appreciated..

I was thinking that it might be a good addition to my hand held dewalt for the more precision or repetitive chores...

Mac

Reply to
mac davis
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IMHO Plate Joiner, "Biscuit Joiner" should be portable. You will find that you make quite a few slots in the middlse of a panel surface. That might be impossible with this set up. For that a couple of dllars more you can get t atop notch bull blown Biscuit Joiner.

This set up reminds of the Kirby vac's with all the attachments that almost get you into woodworking.

Umm you already have a portable and want to add one that may not be as usable?

Reply to
Leon

I'd guess he's after tha ability to jig up off of the SS. it could be convenient for stuff like face frames and rail and stile setups- but those are easy enough to jig up for with the portable machine. I'm not familiar with the SS attachment but it seems marginal to me, especially at that price, especially since the OP already has a standalone machine.

Reply to
bridger

Um, as a 10,000 biscuit a year user, this "tool" from shopsmith is worthless.

Reply to
Rumpty

However, since it appears that neither one of you own or use a Shopsmith, let alone a Shopsmith plate joiner, you really are in no position to comment. The Shopsmith attachment allows for the use of the full table system and the fence, along with all of your positioning jigs. If you happen to have an Incra or Jointech fence system on the Shopsmith that might make it even more useful. On the other hand, the Shopsmith unit cannot put biscuits in the middle of the face of a board and can be quite clumsy putting one in the end of a long heavy board. There have been comments both on the positive side and negative side on the Shopsmith users group on yahoo with the concensus appearing to be that if you can only have one it should be portable.

Dave Hall

Reply to
David Hall

you read my mind! lol I have a dewalt umm... 672?? that works well, but thought that it would also be nice to have the "stationary" option..

Mac

Reply to
mac davis

my thought was that if you're doing angles or miters, it would be nice to have height adjustment from the drill press quill and the saw table, tilt/angle form the saw table and miter fence..

also, finding another use for the SS that doesn't require it being changed from the router/hort. drilling/lathe position, which it stays in since I've added the cut off saw and RAS sort of appeals to me..

Mac

Reply to
mac davis

I have been using a plate joiner since 1989. I have never wanted a stationary or seen where one would be an advantage over a portable. With stationary you are going to have to lift boards and panels up to the stationary tool. With portable as you well know, the light weight machine is easer to move around. I would save my money on this one.

Reply to
Leon

thanks, Dave... that's pretty much what I was trying to say, but haven't learned the "wood jargon" yet.. *g*

I downloaded the manual from shopsmith and it shows the saw table tilted and the work riding on the rip fence to cut the slot in on the face of the board, if I understand what you're saying..

For long or heavy boards, I plan to use the dewalt on the work bench...

My problem might be that a lot of my prior woodworking was sort of a production setup, and this looked pretty cool for the price if you were gluing up a lot of table tops or boxes...

Mac

Reply to
mac davis

well, so far the cost is less than $50, but I expect more bids... Most of the things that I'm doing so far are fairly small or short pieces... maybe the beginners way of not making too much expensive saw dust?

I played with mounting my Dewalt on the saw table last night and doing

3 or 10 sample cuts, and the idea of having the cutter on the quill and using both hands to push the work into the cutter makes sense to me... but obviously I have a LOT to learn... This group is fantastic!

Mac

Reply to
mac davis

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