Makita 18v LXT Cordless Biscuit/Plate Joiner Review - XJP03Z

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What are biscuits for in woodworking? - Biscuits offer excellent alignment and measurable strength in a woodworking joint. A biscuit joiner makes a matching shaped mortise in the two pieces of wood that are meant to be joined together. A biscuit is a small pre-manufactured piece of wood that goes into the mortise aligning the two boards very closely. In a panel glue up or other long grain to long grain joint, the long grain joint provides much more strength than the biscuit. In that situation, they are intended for alignment purposes only. In a situation where end-grain is involved, they add a significant amount of strength compared to the end-grain to end-grain or end-grain to long or side grain situations. In those situation biscuits are used for strength and alignment. Of course the joints need to be glued!

Why bother with biscuits? - In panel glue-ups or other glue-up situations, the majority of the time you want the boards to be in the same plane as much as possible. This is to maintain the thickness of the panel or glue-up when running the material through the jointer, planer, or drum sander. If the boards are not aligned, you have to remove significant amount of material to get the entire panel or glue-up smooth.

Biscuits are a very affordable way to ensure alignment during a glue up. The equipment is affordable and the biscuits cost are minimal compared to other input costs in your panel, especially when you buy them in bulk. There are other methods and equipment out there to help with alignment. These methods range from simple clamps at each joint to cauls and clamps along the entire panel to expensive patented equipment like the Festool Domino.

We favor biscuits over Dominos for panel glue-ups just due to the flexibility of the biscuits and the time. With a domino, you have to be dead on nuts to your mark when you have it in the tightest setting. A biscuit typically offers you 1/8" lateral movement when using a #20 biscuit.

Makita 18volt Biscuit/Plate Joiner - XJP03Z

We have had many biscuit joiner units that have all be corded. Until the Makita 18volt model, we always had to have an outlet and an extension cord. This wasn't too big of a deal as we were in a workshop but whenever we needed to use the tool, we had to get it setup. The beautiful thing about the Makita 18volt cordless unit is the immediate use. Grab it, slap a battery in it, and get making biscuit slots. It has made the process of biscuits, panel glue-ups, and other simple tasks so much more efficient and enjoyable. It has been a real game changer for us.