Biscuit Jointer jig for drawer/box construction

[ajmoran]

I made this jig to speed up drawer/box construction. It holds the work piece safely and accurately and no measuring out is needed. Works very well with my Trend T20 biscuit jointer.

The jig is made out of MFC and 22mm thick MDF and is all joined together with Timco Classic Plus woodscrews. Excellent screws that self countersink and most of the time they don't require pre-drilling for MDF (although I did pre-drill here).

The jig is double sided. This side is for face cuts:

The other side is for edge cuts:

With the T20's nicely ground base the biscuit jointer is kept stable. The pencil marks on the jig are '-100mm' '-50mm' '0' '+50mm' '100mm':

To position the biscuit slot in the right place for 12mm material the jig raises the work piece by using 4mm thick MDF. You can also see here how the Timco screws do a great job of self-countersinking in MDF:

Here is the box to build:

Start with the face cuts. The workpiece is positioned on the '-50mm' mark that has been pencilled on the jig. (The little pieces of 4mm MDF are a guide to position the biscuit jointer.)

Plunge cut the first face cut:

Advance the workpiece along so that the first face cut is aligned with the '-100mm' mark. To help I've drawn an outline of a number 10 biscuit on the jig. It doesn't need to be too precise though since you get about 4mm lateral tolerance.

Flip the workpiece over and make the face cuts for the other side. We now register with the '+50mm' mark:

Advance and repeat as before:

Now for the edge cuts. Flip the jig over and once again align on the '-50mm' mark. Then follow the advance and repeat:

Ready to do a dry fit:

The alignment of the pieces is excellent:

And the completed box:

 

[Sportique]

I like that - I have often thought that the biscuit jointer lends itself to jig-use almost as much as the router :!: :?:

Mental note - check t'interweb for other biscuit jointer jigs ...

Dave

 

[Benchwayze]

Neat idea, and I agree with Sportique.

I now need a jig to make lapped biscuit joints, so the 'pull', of the drawer is across the face of the biscuit.
I am frightening myself here. Another few sleepless nights, while I work things out in me 'ead!

 

[jadboog]

Great method - I'll try this one out in making my future boxes - thanks ajmoran!

 

[ajmoran]

Thanks for all the comments.

John - you may be interested in the variation I have used for use with Blum Tandem drawer runners. In this one the pull is indeed across the face of the biscuit:

For these drawer boxes the sides overhang the drawer box bottom:

This creates a ledge against which the Tandem runners can locate:

The front of the runner is fixed with the locking devices:

Complete drawer underside:

The benefits of this drawer design are that there is no routing needed to fit the drawer bottom and also the drawer backs don't need to be notched to make space for the drawer runner run-through or the push to open Tip-On module (if fitted).
You can see some screws used in this one which avoids the need to glue and clamp.

Cheers
Andrew