DeWalt DW682K Biscuit Joiner

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Peter G Denmark

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Hello.

I'm new to this forum, and new to fine woodworking. I am from Denmark, but i now live in Sweden, where i've build my own house. I wanted to get into more delicate woodworking, so i decided to build a 35m2 stand alone insulated workshop as well, which i now nearing it's completion. I guess it will be finished in 3 month or so.

I have started to stock up on basic powertools for the workshop, and so far i have found a Wadkin ags10 tablesaw for 170£ (no sliding table, but the extra long extension wing), an old 400kg cast iron jointer (or do british people call it
a planer?) 400mm wide (about 16") by 2500mm (100") for 200£ with new knives, a really cheap asian no-name thicknesser/thickness planer with 3 sets of new spare knives for 50£ (which is actually doing a pretty ok job) and a new Trend T11 router.
As said - i have limited experience with fine woodworking tools, so i just bought what i thought looked good quality wise, that i could get for, what i thought, was a reasonable price.

Anyway - the latest thing i got is a Dewalt DW682K biscuit joiner for 40£, that i bough online. The seller described the maschine as really well maintained. This was far from the truth. Handle broken, baseplate bent, half the knobs missing, no dust bag - oh well. I welded a new handle, fitted a dustbag from an old ROS, and straightened the baseplate in a wise.

I guess it's pretty close to how i should be out of the box, but i have a few questions:

- The base is not precisely parallel with the blade. It's off/slopes 0,2mm (0,008"), which means that when edge joining, i can feel a very slight burr. It doesn't take much work to sans down, but is this within acceptable precision for these kind of maschines?

- There is a bit of play in the sliding mechanism, which is just a couple of plastic rails, that glides in a grove in the casting. This means that when i hold the fence down to the table, i can tilt the back end of the joiner up and down about 3-4 mm (also 3mm side to side, which i don't care about, seeing as the biscuits allows for sideway adjustment anyway). Is this normal?
I can almost overcome this by using the same pushing technique every time, but i'd like it better without the play. Wrapping some aluminium from a soda bottle around the part of the plastic that glides in the groove might make things right - i guess i'll have to try.

-I get pretty consistent cuts, in the sense that i can't see any difference when eyeballing. But when measuring with a caliper, there are differences of about 0,25mm (0,01"). Could this also be the case with a new joiner of the same brand, or even the more expensive ones?

I love the idea of the biscuit joiner, because i don't have much money, and therefore i mill my own lumber. The cheapest is of course spruce and pine. But these soft woods are more disposed towards warping and bending than the harder woods in my experience. The biscuits are great, because instead of planing the boards totally straight, and lose a LOT of material, i can get away with forcing then into alignment with each other when edge gluing, and the biscuits really help this process.

Would you recommend that i get a better joiner, or am i being to anal?

This post got a lot longer than intended - sorry. My apologies for the metric measurements, the bad grammar and any mis spelling - english isn't my first language :).
 
I don't really know the answer to your questions but welcome and your English is fine.

We tend to use metric measurements here now so most can convert between the two systems quite easily.

Good luck getting some answers.

Mick
 
Thanks man - i appreciate it.

I've seen the videos (and every other video on youtube that concerns biscuit joiners ). But the things he made, didn't give a clear picture of whether the machine is precise or not.

Good luck with yout joiner though - for joining mdf and other cheap fiber boards, i dont think there is a better way to go, so no matter what, i won't regret buying this tool.
 
Hi Peter

If you can either modify the the biscuit jointer or by using a repeatable technique, you should be able to do most jobs with it. Dewalt are reasonable quality tools.

I'm a bit concerned about using biscuits to force warped timber into alignment. Wood glued up under tension is liable to continue moving and maybe cause the glue joint to fail and could ruin your work. If possible, save the most warped timber for smaller parts and cut to length then plane as you will waste less wood.

Good Luck

Bob
 
I used my one (£25 at a bootfair) to build my oak workbench....

280820091290.jpg


It's an Atlas Copco one...from um....SWEDEN!! How strange!

I believe it is the same one as AEG made as they were taken over by Atlas Copco in 1992....

Anyway...I made my workbench with it from biscuits and Titebond Original...really thick oak and it is still solid as a rock a couple of years later in a pretty damp/dry/damp workshop environment so this is testiment to biscuits!

Welcome to this great place...there are some nice people here...your English is perfect...my Danish zero....so you are doing fine! Stay around and let us see come of your work...there are a few here from Scandinavia already!

Cheers my friend and Glædelig jul og godt nytår!

Jim

Is Google Translate great! :ho2 ??
 
@ Bob: Thank you for the great advise. Milling shorter pieces will ofcourse save material.
The stock i was thinking of "forcing" into alignment was something like 2 meter 25x100mm spruce boards (that is really cheap here), with a slight bow. Something like 5mm pr meter. That way i would be able to make one larger board of say 2 meters times 40 centimeters.
I wouldn't try forcing warped/twisted 2 by 4's into alignment, since "building in" that much tension, would rightly be a bad idea. But thinner stock, that doesn't cup or warp - would that really be such a problem?
I will certainly keep your words in mind.

@Jim: Every danish word i have read from you, have been flawless :). It's reassuring to hear your succes story with biscuits. Since i haven't started building any finer wood projects, i havn't really got anything to show yet.
But when i get the Wadkin saw hauled over and I finish the shop, i'll be sure to drop by here, to get some comfirmation, or critisism, from fellow wood nerds. I am sure, i'm going to need it, 'cause wives can often seem immensely underwhelmed. After hours of slaving over a project, a "that's nice" is all they can muster :).
 
Hi Peter,

You might still have some problems with straightening thinner stock by your method as it turns into a battle between the two pieces and so the combined piece may still move. Also be aware that 'normal' pva type wood glue never totally hardens and so can move under tension so a glue such as cascamite* might be a better one to use in this application.

I'm not saying that you will have the problems but I feel there is a risk that you might.

*Also sold as Extramite and Polymite, it is a synthetic casein resin supplied as a powder to be mixed with water for use.

Cheers

Bob
 
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