Using A Biscuit Joiner To Make An Interior Barn Door

All the same rules of finish carpentry apply you just have a stronger joint that wont ever open up.

Using a biscuit joiner to make an interior barn door.

An oval wooden biscuit is covered with glue placed in the slot and the two boards are clamped together to form a joint. A biscuit joiner uses a small blade 4 inches or 101 6 millimeters to cut a crescent shaped hole in the opposite edges of two pieces of wood. It joins two pieces of wood together without staples nails or screws. Fill the slot with glue a small paintbrush works well and insert the biscuit.

If it is set too deep the biscuits will be too far embedded on one piece and won t deliver the holding power that we want. Did i just make any sense. I used a picture frame clamp to keep the door frame square while the glue dried. When adjusted properly the biscuit joiner will cut a slot 1 32 deeper than half the width of your biscuit.

Cut first slot sut second slot glue insert biscuit. Apply glue to the slot in the corresponding piece then insert the other end of the biscuit. The additional 1 32 provides a little wiggle room as well as room for glue. While you can almost never go wrong adding a biscuit to a joint i ve found from talking to woodworkers in my classes that biscuits are often overused.

Turn on the cutter and make the cut. As far as the tool goes i can take a 100 00 jointer and a 500 00 jointer make a biscuit joint with each tool using the same quality and type of biscuit and glue and they will both have the exact same strength. Learn how to make a biscuit joint just one of the nine essential joints you should consider for your project. The biscuit is thin off the bat and the joiner hole is larger there is play and the joint will move.

In an edge to edge glue up such as for a raised panel or visible m inlineop two well jointed edges with adequate glue will create a joint stronger than the surrounding material even without a biscuit. First you have to clamp drill glue then screw then fill or plug then sand then finish. A biscuit joiner also known as a plate joiner is an electric woodworking tool. Use the largest biscuit possible for maximum strength 2.

Biscuits are not a magic way to do joints that will be tight and perfect with no effort. The biscuits i used were actually a tad wide for the boards. Then line up the centerline on your gauge with the layout line on your workpiece for a quick reference on which to use. Simply mill a slot for each size glue in a biscuit making sure you push it in only halfway and mark a centerline for each.