These ere biscuits

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

marked 0,10,20 is that the thickness or the size?

Thanks

[EricP]

Huntley & Palmers used to make good biscuits. Had real names, not numbers!

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

You still taking your farleys rusk then?

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Seems they relate to the size,20 being the biggest.

[Andy Hall]

They are size

The blade in the biscuit jointer is the same regardless of the biscuit number. The adjustment controls how far the cutter projects into the material.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Yup and the manufactures made damn sure it wasn't the same thickness as

3/8" plywood so's people cant make their own size. :-(

[Andy Hall]

It's a lot thinner than that...

Lidl might have them with their own brand digestives.

[John Rumm]

Size. Thickness is standard and dictated by the kerf of the blade.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

I know it's a lot thinner,was just pointing out I wanted the biscuits bigger I couldn't use 3/8" ply.

[Andy Hall]

Ah.. Well if you want that technology then take a look at the Festool Domino machine et ses biscuits.

Axminster has a special on these (just for you, just today) at a little over £500 sovs.

For those, Aldinettolidl does not have the consumables.

[John Rumm]

Even if the ply fitted it would not work as well. The biscuits are designed to swell slightly in the glue to make a more solid fit.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

You mean 500 sobs?

I'll just higher the BJ to cut that extra mm or so and pass it through again to accept 3/8" ply and make a jig for future cutting. :-)

[The Medway Handyman]

I heard that because of this swelling effect a proper biscuit joint is stronger that a mortice & tennon?

[Andy Hall]

A mortice and tenon of similar size would be a fair claim. Normally biscuit jointing is used for corners and edges and multiple biscuits are used for strength. I wouldn't normally expect to make a mortice and tenon joint with the tenon as thin as a biscuit anyway, so it's hard to make the comparison.

There is a new type of biscuit jointer from Festool (the Domino) which uses its own proprietary biscuits. These are quite a bit thicker and more akin to loose tenons.

[Weatherlawyer]

Idiot.

A bicuit router is made from a basic angle grinder design that you can fit any width of blade (that you can find or make) to, if you are daft enough to want to.

You can make your own joints with a real router or even by running a circular handsaw down the work piece. If you have a bench saw, use that and then you can make your own tongues.

See if you can find one to make you own brains. Just lop off your head and see what type of sawdust comes out.

[Weatherlawyer]

If you wanted them thicker you couldn't use 1/2" ply with them either.

Why would you want or need them thicker or thinner? (I know I'm a fool for asking the idiot but I can't stop myself.)

The idea of the biscuits is to locate the workpieces whilst allowing a rubbed joint but resisting the tendency for the two mated parts to form a step. You don't need to use many. Two are adequate in a few feet of board. Something three or four feet long might need another in the middle.

A couple of dowels would do the job but centering them is difficult and they don't permit a rubbed joint. Setting up the dowel holes in the good old days was a real PITA. Nowadays you can just point the jointer in the general direction and the job's a good one.

[dennis]

Do you really think a bit of 3/8 ply will be as strong as a biscuit?

If you are going to use 3/8 ply then use a router and cut a long slot. (Don't forget to cut the ply the correct way as its stronger in tension in one direction than the other.)

If you are going to use the router then why not make a "glue" joint and avoid the ply altogether?

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Yes Dennis I do its what I used to do before aquiring a BJ mainly for corners of large picture frames. As for joining two boards side b side it was dowling them together.

There's nothing you can tell me about woodwork Dennis as I'm good at it. :-)

[Brian Sharrock]

Wood-working biscuits are made of beech which has been dried then compressed. When a biscuit is inserted into a (correctly sized) slot it encounters water-based glue and swells (expands) , in the thickness plane. It is this swelling action that provides the 'grip' between the parts that are biscuit jointed. Attempting to manufacture a biscuit from a material (ply) intended to be dimensionally stable is evidence of both meanness and a misunderstanding of the mechanism involved.

[Guy King]

The message from "Brian Sharrock" contains these words:

Given they're only a few pence each it's hard to see why anyone would bother.