Ryobi has come out with a new AC-powered biscuit joiner kit, model JM83K.
The biscuit joiner is a tool that cuts half-football-shaped slots into 2 pieces of wood that are to be mated together. The slots are filled with glue and a thin football-shaped piece of wood is inserted before the wood is joined and clamped together.
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So it’s kind of like using dowels, but easier.
The Ryobi biscuit joiner has metal fences with rack and pinion adjustment, an ergonomic handle, and 6A motor.
- 0-135° cutting angle range
- Positive stops at 0°, 45°, 90°, 135°
- Carbide-tipped blade
- 6A motor
- Up to 11,000 RPM
- Dust bag
The kit comes with the tool, dust bag, storage bag, and some #10 biscuits to start you off with.
Price: $100
Buy Now(via Home Depot)
Some Options
Dewalt ($149-180)
Porter Cable ($200)
Makita ($178)
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Update: This looks to be an update to the Ryobi JM82GK, also $100 via HD.
First Thoughts
If you look at some competing options, you should notice that the Ryobi looks completely different. Its “ergonomic handle” does indeed look to be ergonomic. The motor looks to be arranged vertically, and the handle is oriented in a more natural angle.
The $100 price tag makes this the most affordable name-brand biscuit joiner that I’ve seen.
I haven’t used a biscuit joiner before. I have used dowels, pocket holes, and floating tenons. Biscuit joinery has always seemed like a useful power tool joinery technique to me, but I could never bring myself to try it.
I wonder why this was released as a corded tool, rather than cordless.
In any case, the unique ergonomics and affordable pricing makes this an attractive option. If I were in the market for an occasional use biscuit joiner, this one would definitely catch my attention.
For more regular use, I’d consider one of the more professional woodworking options listed above – but not before trying to find a way to do a comfort comparison with this Ryobi.
Josh
I’ve seen a bright green Ryobi biscuit joiner show up with a few woodworkers on YouTube. I’ve been wondering how well it works, as it’s certainly inexpensive
fred
Biscuit Jointers (aka plate jointers) were invented (or first introduced) by Lamello – and once off-patent they became all the rage. They still have their uses – but they also have a few foibles. Because the compressed (usually beech wood) biscuits often swell when glue soaks into them – they can sometimes cause a bump to form in the face of the stock being joined. They also (IMO) are not anywhere near as strong as doweled or mortise and tenon (loose or fixed) or splined joints. In the shop – our Lamello machines got a lot of use – but more to align some joints for glue up. At home – I bought a Dewalt DW682 – in the 1990’s and a Ryobi DJ50 at around the same time. The Ryobi cuts slots for biscuits from 5/8 inch to 1 inch wide – and I have found it useful over the years for moldings and trim work. The Ryobi DBJ50 cost me something like $69 – so as expected at that price it is not what you would call a precision tool – although it works well enough once you get used to its limitations.
At $100 this new Ryobi might be OK for the occasional user – but you might want to compare it to a Porter-Cable 557 (about $200) or the Dewalt DW682 (about $150). The Lamello machines are in a different class as regards precision – and also way more expensive. Since buying my Festool Domino XL machine – my Dewalt 682 mostly gathers dust – except once in a while to cut slots for decking clips.
fred
I should have mentioned that one thing I like about the Festool Domino 700 machine compared to the 500 is its D-Handle ergonomic grip. The Domino 500 machine is built a lot like the Dewalt, Lamello and Porter Cable plate jointers – with an inline grip and auxiliary top handle. As you point out, this new Ryobi machine’s grip is akin to the Craftsman 17539 – and might be more ergonomic.
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-17539-6-amp-corded-plate-jointer/p-00917539000P
Drew M
The PorterCable 557 mk3 is the best one made aside from the Lamello and other much more expensive options. 557mk4 is the post dewalt acquisition of porter cable model and they changed a few things to make it cheaper and use the base dewalt angle grinder. Mk1 and mk2 had minor issues.
BigDan
Fred are you using the Seneco adapter for your XL 700 to use the smaller 500 bits? I’m on the fence but went ahead and ordered the XL 700, arriving tomorrow 😀
Peelman
Is this really “new”? My Home Depot has sold this one for ages now (and they are usually the last ones to get anything new or cool). I have considered buying it quite a few times.
Stuart
Looks like this is an update to a similar-looking model, JM82GK. This is the JM83K.
From what I can tell, aside from looks, this one has a different dust bag and a slightly faster max cutting speed (11,000 vs 10,000).
The design is new to me, but this one is technically still a new tool. So nobody’s wrong! =)
peelman
OK that’s what I was wondering, if it was a revision or not; I couldn’t remember what the one in-store looked like exactly, other than remembering it was much more compact than other joiners out there (Porter Cable’s and Dewalt’s, for example).
Looks like I have a new thing to keep an eye out for 🙂
Nathan
given the option a few years ago I might have bought the ryobi one, but I bought the freud model – yes like the blades – it’s a cheaper copy of something else. I was looking hard at the dewalt but didn’t want to spend that money.
It’s been great I don’t use it often but I have used it a few times for things like a shadow box. and I used it for joining a table top I made.
I will say like someone else mentioned you need to be aware of the other biscuit sizes and glue up – but if you stay within the “normal” guidelines they work amazingly well. I would say the biscuit would be stronger than a dowle setup – depending on the number you used. But no it wouldn’t be as strong as a mortise and tenon.
ewijntuin
recently bought one from harborfreight for $55. except for a dull blade it’s good tool. the tool is just a angle grinder with another type of head
Nathan
don’t discount the precision and accuracy of making clean, square and even biscuit slots when you’re joining something 6ft long.
or the solid 45 angle if you want to join a corner with 4/4 hardwood on a bevel.
Once the glue dries a biscuit joint is very soild and extra slop in the slot alignment can compromise that. or worse cause the pieces to slip out in clamping.
fred
Slop can also be the downfall of dowel joints. Some of the cheap jigs don’t provide precise registration and/or exact repeatability in positioning holes in mating parts. And – the inexpensive machine that I tried (Freud FDW710K V0) was even worse. I haven’t tried the Mafell dual doweling machine -which gets good reviews – but now use a Dowelmax jig (made in Canada) when I want dowels instead of dominos.
Jimmie
A Dowelmax jig has been on my wishlist for a while now.
fred
Re 4/4 hardwood – on high-end hardwood casing jobs – we’d use our Lamello machines to install biscuits at the miters. Then hold the glue up with Chestnut Clam Clamps. We’d get strong corners that would resist opening due to seasonal wood movement – much better than gluing alone or gluing with pinning.
Koko the Talking Ape
Looks interesting. I dig the rack and pinion height adjustment. Last time I saw that was on a Porter-Cable, I think. Also, the front fence is big, and can swing past 90 deg. in both directions. It can be difficult to correct a misaligned pocket.
My understanding is that biscuits are stronger than dowels, because of the greater glue area, and about equal to mortise and tenon joints. They should also be about equal to splined joints, since they are are partial splines.
fred
That’s not my experience in all cases. Try building an oak door with biscuits instead of splines or loose tenons and you may find how strong or not they are. The extra surface and glue area that biscuits provide – and the fact that the biscuits have wood grain oriented in different directions – does add strength and they work well for some things like a table top – where even a spring joint – with no added surface is fine. But for joints where lots of bending, racking or torque will be applied the thickness of the biscuit and the glue-joint may not be enough to resist the forces applied to it in long-term use. In theory – a well prepared and glued joint should actually be stronger than the wood – but in practice – joints do fail over time because of things like weather, temperature changes and abuse. Exterior doors that I cited may be the classic test of a joint’s strength – and before modern glues – they were often constructed with steel bands and through bolts to beef them up – even if M&T or splines were used.
Koko the Talking Ape
Now you got me curious, so I did a bit of research. And I stand corrected! Mortise and tenon joints are stronger, generally speaking, than biscuit joints. That makes sense (now that I think about it) because the tenon extends most of the way through the corner, where a biscuit only extends an inch or so at most into the joint.
But the subject actually is kind of complicated. Most tests just compared bending (or racking) strength (as when a gorilla hangs from the outside corner of a door) apparently because those tests are easy to conduct. But there also is shear and twisting strength.
For racking, it looks like M&T joints are stronger (and one test showed lap and bridle joints to be the strongest.) But one reader pointed out that some biscuits are made from solid wood, made with grain diagonal to the axis, and some are plywood, and much less prone to splitting. Others point out that the size and spacing of the biscuits matter too.
Anyway, this piece looks pretty representative. In an application such as a door, biscuit joints had about 80% of the strength of M&T joints. And they say a gorilla of about 3,700 pounds (1,700 kg.) can hang from the corner of a four-panel door of either biscuit or M&T construction without it collapsing. I actually think they did that calculation wrong, but it just goes to show that either joint might be strong “enough.”
http://www.woodworking.org/WC/GArchive98/Abstract/abstract1.html –
I am actually curious about how well these joints deal with with moisture cycling. Lap, bridle and M&T joints all have significant cross-grain glue contact. Will the different directions of expansion and contraction eventually break the glue bond? I bet those through bolts you mention are really about resisting moisture cycles rather than adding strength.
fred
When I mentioned through bolts – I was thinking of some doors I saw in Spain or Portugal – huge in size – maybe 4 or 5 inches thick and at least 10 feet high – with iron through rods you could see on the edges – and iron banding across the faces. Probably no ball bearing hinges ether – unless they were added recently. Construction probably kept both a carpenter and a blacksmith busy.
Koko the Talking Ape
Sure. And now that I think about it, wood moves in proportion to the size of the piece: a piece twice as big will move twice as much. But joints and glue might tolerate only a fixed amount of movement, maybe a few hundredths of an inch. So you will see things like through bolts more often in work that uses massive members, like those doors you mention. I notice through bolts in workbenches and bed frames, which also have relatively massive components.
ktash
Just noticed that Home Depot is having a “Black Friday Spring Sale” starting tomorrow. Looks like some Ryobi yard tools and power tools are in the local ad. Also Milwaukee. Different places may have different ads.
Will
This is the same as the Craftsman joiner. The drawback of this design, from what I’ve read, is in the handle; it’s more awkward when trying to apply pressure downward for angled cuts than with a straight handled joiner.
fred
Hmm. The Festool folks put a D handle on the back and a grip on the front of their Domino XL (700) machine- so the grip with your right hand is good and your left hand applies downward pressure
BonPacific
I don’t see a ton of difference between this and my old blue Ryobi. The reference plates and depth stop seem identical. The handle is similar enough.
Jon Miller
PRECISELY my reaction. I bought the blue one used for $25. Still had the original blade which was still plenty sharp. I don’t use the fence as I can feel it flex too much to rely on it, so I just register everything on a flat surface (like my table saw). Material and joiner on the same surface means they always align. But I haven’t used it for miters/angles because of the fence issue. If I thought that would be a concern for me I would buy a nicer unit.
Actually I have used it for one type of miter: You can do shallow miter splines with it by first gluing the miter, then after it sets use the joiner to cut the spline slot. A jig to keep the angle consistent helps. It’s not as nice as a table saw spline cutting jig, but it’s very fast and good enough for some tasks. Just set it to the 20 (deepest cut) setting and go.
jbson
I have an old Ryobi mini biscuit joiner DBJ 50 which is very nice for aligning small trim pieces for edge gluing, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Ryobi-DBJ50K-Detail-Biscuit-Biscuits/dp/B00002240W
I also have an old Skil full size biscuit joiner which not that precise works well enogh foe me.
Big Dan
Fred are you using the Seneco Woodworking adapter on your XL 700 to use the smaller 500 bits? I just ordered my XL 700 getting it tomorrow and was concerned about this voiding warranty, causing issues, etc.