Using Wood Biscuits In Your Woodworking Projects
By Ray J. Walberg
Wood Biscuits are very important joinery tools in and provide that extra stability projects often need. It has been said that good projects use glue, while great projects use a little more. In many cases, wood biscuits are that little more. Wood biscuits are small, oval shaped discs which join two pieces of wood together and are inserted by a biscuit joiner. Wood biscuits have not always been part of woodworking, though. Small wooden pegs were used in the past, but today biscuits are used when something stronger than glue is required.

Projects requiring biscuits often involve wood panels of twelve inches or more to be joined without noticeable seams. Glue is an appropriate tool in but is often not sufficient for excellent projects. Wood biscuits are not difficult to use. A biscuit joiner cuts a hole in the oppose edges of the wood, after which you cover the biscuit in glue and insert it into the hole. You then simply clamp the two panels or boards together. Once the glue and the biscuit meet in the hole made by the biscuit joiner, the biscuit expands to further fill in the hole which tightens the joint to an even greater degree.

Though the thickness of biscuits vary by manufacturer, most are slightly less than one-fourteenth of an inch thick. The three common sizes, though. Size zero is five-eighths of an inch thick and one and three-quarter inches long. Size ten is three-quarters of an inch wide and two and one-eighths of an inch long, and size twenty is one inch wide and two

and three-eighths inch long. If you are looking for a specific thickness, check with different companies who may manufacturer multiple sizes even though it is not one of the more common sizes.
When determining the best size, though, you should try to use the largest size possible for your project. This will increase the stability of the project and panels joined together.

Wood biscuits can be used on any joint project, but they can be very helpful in edge to edge joint projects such as a dining room tables, for instance. They are also useful in projects involving a miter joint, such as a picture frame. In projects with a T joint like a bookshelf, for example, biscuits can offer quite a bit of extra stability needed.

Once you are ready to use wood biscuits as a joinery tool rather than rely totally on glue, there are a few things you should remember. Always store wood biscuits properly in a dry, airtight container until you are ready to use them. Moister can cause them to swell which, obviously, makes it difficult to use them. Also, be sure to check how your joints fit before you start the project and begin joining them with the biscuits and glue. Dry fitting your components is a necessary step when wood biscuits are used as the joinery tool.

Ray Walberg writes most often for www.insidewoodworking.com , an online site covering information on power tools . His abstracts on wood working tools can be found on his site .