I intend to try my hand at pre-assembling door and window casing prior to installation. I’m old school and have always installed it a piece at a time in place. My thought was to use my router table with slot cutter bit and some type of jig to guide the miter casing into the bit consistently. I’ll be using 2¼” and 3½” wide oak colonial casing. Any suggestions on how best to set this up?
My second question is to use biscuits or make my own from plywood. I’ve never used biscuits and I’ve heard that they can cause a bulge in the wood when they swell. As this will be pre-stained material I won’t be able to sand it out after the fact. Again, any suggestions would be appreciated.
Replies
I just nail mine together
Biscuits in a properly sized slot, with the slot centered in 3/4" stock, should not swell the wood.
Also, the beauty of biscuits is that as they absorb moisture from the glue, they swell, essentially clamping the joint tight within 10-15 minutes or so. A ply biscuit will just be a glue joint.
If you install a "standard sized" biscuit slot cutter on your router, I don't see why your router table wouldn't suffice.
As to guiding the wood to the cutter, dry assemble your casing, mark the center point of the intended location of the slot on the face of the wood, then just hand guide the wood onto the cutter, using a centerline drawn on the fence of the router table for accuracy.
Might want to check eBay or a reseller for used biscuit jointers. If yuou can pick up a decent one at a decent price, it's money well spent.
Better contruction, faster assembly, and safer.
Best, Mongo
You can also try one of these http://www.miterclamp.com/. I haven't used them but I've heard they're great. Next time I need to do a lot of mitered casing I'll be picking one up.
According to some articles I've read, Biscuits showing after finish isn't due to the biscuit swelling. It is due to an increase in moisture content when glued. The area around the biscuit has a higher moisture content and swells. The wood is sanded and finished before the moisture content equalizes. Therefore, the biscuit shows as a shadow because there is actually less wood due to shrinkage when the area around the biscuit dries.
I've heard that too, but I think I remember somebody saying that in certain materials (MDF?) the swelling was there to stay.