Mike77 said:
[blockquote]Howard Acheson said:
I've been using a Freud biscuit joiner since they came out. I first used it in my commercial shop and then used it in my personal shop.
For certain joints I would not want to be without it. I have rarely had any misalignments when cutting my joints. But, you need to be careful with the setup you need to be careful when pushing to tool into the wood.
But to be fair, Freud is the best biscuit jointer made. Is the quality of the equipment used maybe part of some people's the problem?
I don't know, I'm asking. I retired my biscuit jointer for a domino.
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Quality of the equipment is certainly one aspect of it; it's hard to do good work with poor tools. Beyond quality is the functionality of the tool. Many BJ's have a fence that cannot pivot past 90 deg. My old Ryobi goes from 0 - 135 deg, and I specifically bought it for that feature. The 135 deg setting makes it dead simple to do those mitered corners I showed earlier. And on some machines the back rest is not a perfect 90 deg to the blade and you'll just never get good results if that's the case. Lamello probably makes the best BJ's, but you don't need one of that caliber to do good work.
Someone mentioned the effort required to move the machine into the work as a possible reason for poor results. A little attention to cleaning and lubing the slide mechanism can do wonders for how easily they move. After that, if you find it takes a lot of effort to make the cut then the blade is probably dull and needs to be sharpened. I just had mine sharpened and the ease with which it now cuts is amazing.
I'm going to tell you this, but can't recommend you do it, too, because it definitely violates the safety instructions. I've found I get much more consistent results if I press the fence down on the work with one hand while plunging the tool with the other. The safety instructions tell you to always have both hands on the tool and you'll get no argument from me that it is the safest way to handle the tool. The problem is I just can't get consistent results that way when I'm using the fence. Many times, however, I don't use the fence at all, like when I'm cutting the slots for a cabinet box. In that case, I reference the tool off the bottom and both hands are on the machine. I use Jim Tolpin's method of positioning the mating parts to make those cuts which almost guarantees they will align perfectly. No tool is perfect but following some simple best practices makes for a much higher probability of success. Micheal Fortune wrote a very worthwhile article about getting the most out of your BJ a couple of years ago in FWW.
John
