On 11 Dec 2006 19:00:09 GMT, "J. Clarke"
wrote:

After running across the term "R1 biscuit" and googling it and finding
out what they were, I've repeatedly had project in which I said to
myself "gee, one of those detail biscuits would be nice right here".
Well, was down to Sears yesterday and they had one in stock, I bought it
on impulse.

Tried it out today. It does what they say and the biscuits really _are_
tiny, here's a photo with the Porter Cable FF on the end for comparison
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=319761020&size=m.

I find one major flaw in the design of the tool so far--the fence has a
bevel adjacent to the cutter that is wide enough for quarter inch stock to
slip into. This is not a problem when slotting an edge or end but makes
accurate slot placement very diffcult when slotting into the side of a
piece of stock. When time permits it doesn't look like it would be too
hard to make up a new fence that addresses this.

A minor flaw is that the fence position is adjustable in fixed increments
and the increments--given the nature of the tool a micrometer adjustment
would be very convenient, but for 70 bucks maybe I'm expecting too much.

Other than that, well, it's a neat concept. The biscuit are thin, it
really is possible to put them in the edge of a piece of 1/4 inch stock,
which is what I was looking for.

I'm not sure why this tool didn't do better in the market, perhaps it was
a case of the marketers not understanding the niche it fits. Or maybe
with work that size it's just easier to slot it on a router table.

For picture framing it looks like the bees' knees, for small boxes and the
like out of the box it's not so hot.

I use my Ryobi detail biscuit joiner quite a bit and like it. I have
used it on a number of boxes made with 1/4 to 1/2 thick sides. I have
used it less often on picture frame miters. I have not had a need to
buy the biscuits for a while but have noted that they are no longer in
stock at Home Depot or Lowes nor at Woodcraft. I do believe that Sears
still carries them. BTW I am getting a Porter Cable biscuit joiner for
Christmas (funny how I know that) and actually don't envision ever
changing out the cutter to the FF cutter as the Ryobi detail joiner
should meet all of those needs.

Dave Hall