Gerry - I just did it - they are all around .175. It's almost got to be the
blade or machine - I'm going to go now and pull the cover of and see if the
blade is seated properly, burr free etc.

jim

"GerryG" wrote in message
...
Your blade and biscuits sound okay. Suggest you measure a cut slot. If
that
comes out larger, it's the joiner. If the slot width is same as the blade
tooth, something's being missed here.
GerryG

On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 22:25:46 GMT, "Jim Bailey"
wrote:

Thanks to all of you ! Here's some answers to your questions and where
I'm
at:

1. I don't have a dial indicator available so it's going to be difficult
to
check runout, or if the blade
tips might be offset from one another.

2. I do have dial calipers - the biscuits and the tips of the blades all
measure in the vicinity of .155
+- .005 with the blade tips being pretty consistently on the low end of
that
spread.

3. I tried a couple of different woods just for completeness. Same
results.
I was also very careful that
the unit didn't move around while I was cutting.

4. I called PC and they transfered my call to a local (90 miles away)
service center. They said that if I couldn't bring it in to them, to
mail
it to them and they'd look at it.

5. The biscuits came in a PC box - I going to assume they're PC. They're
marked USA20. They we'er a prt of the Amazon package - 1000 free biscuits
with 557 purchase.

So - I guess it's mail it to them at this point. I'm a bit dissapointed.

jim

"Jim Bailey" wrote in message
m...
I need somone to set my expectations biscuit joinery.

I just got my dandy new PC557 (and 1000 free biscuits) last night and
was
anxious to fire it up today. After giving the directions a good
thorough
going over, I grabbed some 3/4" x about 15 or 16" and was gong to
biscuit
join their edges - 2 #20's about 12" apart. The tool is really
smooth -
no
jerking or moving but still, you want to hold eveything flat and
stable,
or
I can see where it could try to move around a bit.

Well, dry biscuits in the slots have about a 32nd clearance, which of
course
translates to the same vertical movement when the joint is together.
I'd
hoped for a much more snug fit than that. You can also slide the 2
joined
edges laterally about an inch either way - but that's not a problem -
you're
lining up on your original biscuit marks anyway - but the vertical
movemen
t
bugs me a bit.

After reading all the stuff here about how those biscuits swell, I
thought
maybe with gluing them up, the swelling would stabilize the joint a
bit.
No
such luck - I even got aggravated and soaked a biscuit in a glass of
water
for about 15 minutes - still loose in the slot. I just went back out
to
the
shop (about two hours later) and you can still slide the biscuit in and
out
without problem.

Have I set my expectations too high about how snug the joint would be
with
this method ?

jim