WOOD Magazine – October 01, 2019

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Learn how to cut

biscuit joints.

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biscuitbasics

Rails: Horizontal

frame members

Stiles: Vertical frame

members

Get tips for using

pocket-hole joinery.

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pocketpointers

Drill pocket holes on the back faces of the rails only. Pocket holes can be

plugged to reduce their visibility.

Use two dowels at each joint to prevent the pieces from twisting out of
alignment during glue-up.

Hidden Reinforcements

Biscuits require a biscuit joiner, which

plows mating semicircular grooves in each

frame piece. Gluing a football-shape biscuit

into those slots aligns the workpieces and

provides strong face-grain-to-face-grain

glue surface [Photo A]. The shortest slot cut

by a biscuit joiner dictates rails and stiles at

least 2^1 ∕ 4 " wide.

Installing dowels requires a little more time

and effort than biscuits, but dowels create the

strongest butt joint. Drilling the mating holes

in each piece requires a jig to align them accu-

rately [Photo B]. Dowels can join pieces too

narrow for biscuits.

Visible Reinforcements

To assemble a butt-jointed frame quickly,

choose pocket screws. Use a pocket-hole jig

to drill angled holes toward the end of each

rail, then drive in washer-head screws to

pull the rails tight to the stiles [Photo C].

B C

Plugs

Pocket-hole jig

Dowel jig