After running across the term "R1 biscuit" and googling it and finding out what they were, I've repeatedly had project in which I said to myself "gee, one of those detail biscuits would be nice right here". Well, was down to Sears yesterday and they had one in stock, I bought it on impulse.
Tried it out today. It does what they say and the biscuits really _are_ tiny, here's a photo with the Porter Cable FF on the end for comparison .
I find one major flaw in the design of the tool so far--the fence has a bevel adjacent to the cutter that is wide enough for quarter inch stock to slip into. This is not a problem when slotting an edge or end but makes accurate slot placement very diffcult when slotting into the side of a piece of stock. When time permits it doesn't look like it would be too hard to make up a new fence that addresses this.
A minor flaw is that the fence position is adjustable in fixed increments and the increments--given the nature of the tool a micrometer adjustment would be very convenient, but for 70 bucks maybe I'm expecting too much.
Other than that, well, it's a neat concept. The biscuit are thin, it really is possible to put them in the edge of a piece of 1/4 inch stock, which is what I was looking for.
I'm not sure why this tool didn't do better in the market, perhaps it was a case of the marketers not understanding the niche it fits. Or maybe with work that size it's just easier to slot it on a router table.
For picture framing it looks like the bees' knees, for small boxes and the like out of the box it's not so hot.
-- --John to email, dial "usenet" and validate (was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)