A quality biscuit joiner (also known as a plate joiner) can be a nice addition to any shop. While it may not be the best biscuit joiner on the market, the Dewalt biscuit joiner DW682K is a popular option for both home woodworkers and small commercial shops. One of the big factors in its popularity is the legion of Dewalt fans who love their bright yellow and black power tools. According to nearly 1800 actual buyers, this Dewalt biscuit joiner rates a stellar 4.8 out of 5 possible stars. That’s impressive. And it’s usually a strong indicator of a very good product.
Fast Joints Made Easy
What’s notable about the Dewalt plate joiner is the powerful 6.5 amp 10,000 RPM motor. This thing cuts quickly and easily into any type of wood. Softwoods are a breeze and the blade plows through hardwoods to cut those pockets with relative ease. Even some of the more solid exotic hardwoods like Purpleheart won’t get in the way of the smooth push cut provided by the Dewalt biscuit joiner.
It’s got a dual rack and pinion fence to keep the fence parallel, thus ensuring accurate joints in very little time. But as with any biscuit machine, it takes some practice to get the technique down where you automatically cut perfect joints every time. If it’s your first time using a plate joiner, take the time to practice on a variety of scrap materials – preferably different woods of different thicknesses. Practice provides improved results.
Angled Joints Too
With this biscuit Joiner you can make cuts at 0° without removing the fence. And a 45° location notch allows for easy indexing from the outside surface of any miter joint. It comes with preset depth stops for all common biscuit sizes plus “anti-slip” pins to help hold your work piece in place, ensuring you get an accurate cut for a superb joint. Once you master the device – it’s quick and easy to get solid joints on a mix of projects.
Dewalt’s biscuit joiner is built with a heavy-duty aluminum shoe, so you get the strength without the excessive weight. You can even clamp it to a workbench and build a simple jig for stationary work. The surface is non-marring so you don’t have to worry about damaging your projects.
Capable and Easy
If you’re looking for something that is easy-to-use and durable, the DW682K biscuit joiner from Dewalt is it. This tool uses the standard four-inch diameter, six-tooth blade. Its powerful motor and sharp carbide tipped blade cuts into virtually any wood like a hot kitchen knife cuts through butter.
Check out various machines and you’ll soon discover that the best biscuit joiners provide a fast and efficient way to create strong joints that can be tremendously helpful in a number of instances. The trick is to mark your joints accurately and hold the tool firmly in position. And when you do so, it can revolutionize the way you assemble frames, cabinets, boxes and so on.
When shopping for a biscuit machine, it’s important to pay attention to the power of the motor. The reason is straightforward: the blade plunges into the stock immediately. It’s the motor that is the key to cutting into woods efficiently and decisively. With a strong motor, like the Dewalt deploys, making those cuts quickly and precisely is easier because it’s far less likely that the work piece will shift during the cut. Any movement at all would only create a sloppy recess that wouldn’t hold a biscuit snuggly in place.
More About The Dewalt Biscuit Joiner
Overall weight is about 6.6 pounds, so it’s relatively easy to handle. With the DW682K you get preset depth stops for all common biscuit sizes – including number 0, number 10 and number 20 biscuits.
As for the warranty, Dewalt delivers with a three year limited warranty, as well as a one year free service contract, plus a full 90 day money-back guarantee.
What’s In The Box?
– Ready-to-go Biscuit Joiner model number DW682K
– Carbide blade
– Vacuum (dust collection) adapter
– Torx Key
– Wrench
– Removable dust collection bag
– Storage container
An Excellent Addition To Any Woodworking Shop
As with all woodworking tools, you can dramatically increase the versatility and usefulness of your biscuit joiner with a couple of shop jigs. You can find useful ideas and plans for various shop jigs by searching Google. Jigs can give you a greater versatility and better quality results in your cuts. With a well-constructed jig, you’ll make your joiner cuts with greater precision. This can be particularly helpful when you need to create multiple joints on a project.
A simple jig can vary the height adjustment of the cut. With this kind of setup you can easily cut exposed mitered key slots into boxes and frames with any quality biscuit joiner like the Dewalt. This can create a beautiful look on quality crafts and furniture when you combine a light wood like maple with the darker wood like Walnut or Mahogany.
A Common Problem And The Solution
One of the problems beginning users have with biscuit joiners is usually discovered only after cutting the joint. When you start to assemble the various pieces – that’s when you notice that the newly cut holes are clogged with dust or shavings, making the joint too tight. An easy way to overcome this problem is to plunge the biscuit joiner into the wood twice – once you have it solidly in place. Keeping the biscuit joiner firmly in place is essential. But by completing the plunging action two times, you virtually ensure that the groove is dust free.
You’ve got to become familiar with the process to get it right. Always practice on scrap pieces first to get the hang of it before attempting to use a biscuit joiner on your finished work.
Align your Cutting Tools
You’ll often hear people complain about various biscuit joiners and the number one complaint is that they don’t produce accurate cuts. The truth is that every tool is like and instrument and should be tuned and adjusted until is works the way it was designed.
Factory settings aren’t always accurate. These products can get banged around in warehouses and on shipping containers. Even a slight inaccuracy in the settings can cause you endless frustration when you go to use it. But there is a way to fix it. Every tool should be finely tuned and set up accurately right out of the box. It’s the kind of fine-tuning you should apply to any tool where accuracy is important. Since it doesn’t always come this way direct from the factory – aligning your biscuit joiner is up to you.
Set Up With A Machine Square
Here’s what you need to do first. Invest in a small machine square. Machine squares are more accurate then the kind of combination or carpenter squares you typically find in a workshop. All the parameters on the Dewalt biscuit joiner are adjustable – including the cutting height and how square the blade is to the base. You can tweak your biscuit joiner until it delivers the kind of precision you need.
Pros
- Well-built machine
- Does exactly what it supposed to do
- It’s easy to use (with a little practice first)
- Mechanical height adjustment adds to its flexibility
- Dewalt quality that is certainly suitable for a small commercial shop (It’s also a good choice for a finish carpentry business)
- 8 foot long electrical cord comes in quite handy
- Fence is accurate (once adjusted) and easy-to-read
- Trigger position is at a comfortable location – making it easy to use
- Storage box is a nice addition
- Much easier to use then dowels when joining the edges of boards
- Good dust collection capability (when connected to a vacuum or dust collector)
- Once it set up accurately – it stays set
- Solid and rugged tool that is well-balanced (you can let others in your shop use it without worrying about damaging the tool)
- Easy to make adjustments
- Once joint locations are identified, lining up the joiner is easy
- Ergonomic design makes it comfortable to hold and use
- Easy to make miter joints and framing joints once you become proficient with the tool
- Makes joints that are strong and tight
- Simple to use
- Cuts accurately (cut angle can be precisely set anywhere from zero to 90°)
- Well priced
- Not ridiculously noisy
- Rock-solid engineering that Dewalt is known for
Cons
- Requires some skill to use effectively
- Product maybe shipped with the fence not accurately aligned
- Grab handle is attached to the motor rather than the plate
- Requires a rubber or plastic adapter for the dust collector
- Can be challenging for first-time users to get accurate cuts
The Verdict
Biscuit joiners can be useful tools to have for assembling cabinets, building furniture like bookcases, and for crafts like jewelry boxes. It’s a great way to make drawers that not only hold up but are put together in very little time.
Invariably, you’ll find that your assembly time has been significantly reduced when you use biscuits instead of a more traditional joint on cabinets and furniture. It’s not always the best joint to use. But many times, it can be used in place of other joints. A good biscuit joiner like the Dewalt DW682K makes joining two pieces of wood quick, simple and very accurate.