Is a biscuit joint as strong as a dado joint? I am making a cabinet and it’s to tall to run a dado in the middle. I know I could use a router but my wifes cousin has my router and bits. Thanks
Headstrong, I’ll take on anyone!
Is a biscuit joint as strong as a dado joint? I am making a cabinet and it’s to tall to run a dado in the middle. I know I could use a router but my wifes cousin has my router and bits. Thanks
Headstrong, I’ll take on anyone!
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Replies
Hard to say not knowing what you're trying to join, but biscuits and glue make a pretty good joint in most cases.
Yes and no. A dado joint isn't very strong against twisting, but a biscuit joint is. A dado's gonna be about the strongest you can get for something like a shelf that must resist lateral force, however.
However, in just about any situation a biscuit joint is no slouch. A Domino is better, of course, if you're made of money.
I'm making a cabinet for fly tying. I can add trim head screws in between the biscuits. It's not going to hold much weight. Thanks.
Headstrong, I'll take on anyone!
Why not just put battens in and let the shelves be removeable?
Heckuva lot easier to clean and finish...
Depend on what the connection is used for. I generally use biscuits when gluing up narrow boards to make up a wider piece or when making up a drawer out of a decent veneer plywood before than I just used glue alone. I never has a failure in either case. A well glued joint (with a good quality and fresh glue) and a moderate amount of clamp pressure will offer good strength for most projects.
A glue joint's strength is usually defined by the total area of the glued surfaces. (That's why a finger joint is so strong; there's a huge total surface area when you add the area of both faces of all those little fingers together.)
You can calculate roughly how many biscuits you'd have to put in the joint to equal the gluable surface area of a full-length dado joint. That said, biscuit joints are quite common in commercial cabinet carcasses, because the manufacturers have found that they work.
And that said, I must say I can't understand how the height of the cabinet would prevent you from making a dado joint if you wanted to. I'd suggest you cut it with a dado head on your table saw rather than a router, however; it's easy to adjust the exact width of the slot by shimming the blades and chippers so you get a perfect fit with the stock to be inserted. You can't do that with a router bit.
Getting back to biscuits again, one trick I use for making flat-paneled shed doors is doubling up two sets of biscuits side-by-side (total of 4 biscuits) at each rail/stile joint. When the stock is thick enough to allow it, putting in double sets of biscuits (separated laterally by, say, 5/16") can really bump up the total strength of the joint. I haven't had a joint failure yet using that system.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
foolish men call Justice....
One guy I knew who had a custom cab shop, had a sawblade that was custom made ( back then, there were fewer options) to be the same thickness kerf as a biscuit joiner blade. It was a 10'' table saw blade.
Say for a shelf in the middle of a box, we'd just run the kerf all the way along the edge of the shelf, and a corresponding kerf in the side of the box.
The beauty was you could just put the biscuits end to end, use as few or many as you wish anywhere along the line...slobber up with glue and get to clamping up. No need to register at least on that axis, nor make repeated plunges with a joiner.
I found if you do crowd them as tightly as you could, it is one heck uv a strong joint! And fast.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"If you want something you've never had, do something you've never done"
Would make more sense to use spline in that situation.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
Not really. Spline is not precompressed, nor is it premade, nor is it useable in a normal biscuit slot,nor is the grain at a diagonal.
So how ya figgure?Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"If you want something you've never had, do something you've never done"
I'm pretty sure you can get premade, laminated spline. Dunno about compressed.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
Never heard of it , unless ya mean BB plywood.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"If you want something you've never had, do something you've never done"
I know I've seen it -- basically like rips of thin plywood.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
Is that method also good for melamine particle board (as opposed to say, birch plywood)? In that case, there'd be no glue bond on the pieces themselves: biscuits only.I'm talking about cabinet carcass construction here, not a maximum strength application.
Thats all you need. I just used that as an example. The other uses are endless.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"If you want something you've never had, do something you've never done"
I'd never biscuit a shelf; too much trouble. One pass of the carcase pieces over the dado head is a lot easier than effing around shoving the cookie machine into the right spots on both the carcase and the shelf....
Silliest mistake I ever made with a biscuiter was using it to glue up some stock for raised-panel cab doors. Dunno what I was thinking, duh. When I ran them through the shaper over the panel-raising bit after the glue dried....
Snork.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
For making most cabinets (unless its going to carry a very large load) biscuits are a good way to go.
I'm not quite sure what your trying to biscuit but have you considered pocket screws?
Be a little more specific if you can.
Doug
I made a few bookcases with dadoes, blind nailed from underneath etc. They all wobbled until the back was on. I became a convert when I made the first bookcase with biscuits (butt joints for all shelves) and it was fairly rock solid when the clamps came off. I made 35 of these for the church's library and offices and after 10 years still no failures.
So I walked into this biscuit joint and said ...
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
I said, look , don't butter me up, I'm in jam here..Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"If you want something you've never had, do something you've never done"
Im with Tom on the battens I think they will be stronger than a biscuit joint to.but how long a span we talking here. If its not to wide well you can always double up on the biscuits.Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Ronald Reagan /Users/ronaldteti/Desktop/Picture 1.png
I went with dados. The cabinet is 26" Oak plywood. I glued it tonight and will finish the cabinet tomorrow. I went with a solid shelf in the middle and I'll have a pull out shelf under it. It will look like a computer armoire. I will have shelf standards on each side for adjustable shelves top and bottom. I'll post pics when done.
Headstrong, I'll take on anyone!
drive over to your wife's cousin's house and get back your tools!!
one thing I hate about loaning out tools is they never come back on their own and they're not there when you need them most.