In my opinion biscuits will do little more than help with alignment in a
long-grain to long-grain glue joint. The glue alone will create a very
strong bond, provided your joints are nice and tight/gap free, and thus I
have never seen the need for them.

Since edge joining the 5 boards for the top is long-grain to long-grain
orientation, as will be the edge banding (face grain is also long grain),
I'd skip the biscuits and just use a good glue like Titebond (or Gorilla if
your interested in poly glues).

*However* -- Your description is not entirely clear with respect to how the
MDF comes into play. I got the idea that you are planing on "laminating"
the cherry glueup on top of a MDF panel of equal dimensions???? If so, this
is a no-no, as the cherry will be robbed of its need to expand and contract
across its grain with changes is seasonal moisture. If the MDF panel is
somehow integral to the design (which I can understand why -- maybe you can
give us more detail into the piece you are planning), you'll have to figure
out a way to attach it that will still allow movement of the cherry panel,
which obviously precludes you from gluing the edge banding to both the
cherry and MDF as well.

Clear as mud??? LOL. Give us somemore detail as to the table design, and
its intended uses and we can get you rolling in the right direction. Likely
the 1" cherry top will suffice on its own, and with a properly constructed
apron & leg assembly will be very solid. If a thick appearance to the top
is what you desire, the wider edge banding can still be applied to be flush
with the tabletop, but extend below the bottom edge.

Hope this helps. Good Luck -- Its a great hobby. Welcome to the group.


--

Brian
www.wood-workers.com/users/lavoie


"Jeb Sawyer" wrote in message
m...
Rather new to woodworking, so this may be a simple question. I'm
making a tabletop out of 1" cherry on top of 1" MDF. I am going to
band the table top with cherry also to cover up the MDF. My question
is where do I need to put biscuits? I am glueing together 5 pieces of
cherry for the top, but since it is long grain to long grain is there
still a need for biscuits. And what about the banding on the sides
(with grain running perpendicular) should I be concerned about the
wood expanding and cracking?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Jeb