Australian Wood Review – September 2019

48 Australian Wood Review

TOOLS & EQUIPMENT

The grain direction of the biscuit is angled slightly to avoid

short grain weakness at the sides. When the glue and its

moisture make contact with the compressed wood biscuit

it expands making for a tight joint. Normal times for letting

the wood glue cure still apply. This system is perfect for

manufactured boards like MDF and ply, but also suits real

wood joining very well.

Brand selection

A good biscuit joiner will have around 700 watts of power,

several depth settings for the different sized biscuits, a facility

for being used on mitres, a good right angle fence with height

adjustment and a dust outlet. Cordless tools are available now

which is great, but if you are plugging in a dust extractor hose

(a good idea) then you may as well have a cabled tool.

I have a Makita joiner at the moment and it is very good.

Previously I have trialled other tools and found the DeWalt

also very good but the best is the Lamello, being the real deal.

They have several versions all very well made at different price

points. Don’t get a really cheap tool as I have found they are

problematic, for example the blade and base and fence may

not be parallel, making good flush fitting joints impossible.

In use

You can use a joiner for edge joining, shelves, mitres and

small cabinet doors. Basically you butt the two mating

pieces of wood together and strike a pencil mark where

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