On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 19:44:25 -0700, GerryG wrote
(in article ):

That doesn't really sound right. For one, the glue should always be put in
the
slot, and not on the side of the biscuit, as you may have indicated, else it
will start to swell too soon and glue may be scraped off as it's inserted.

My comment was meant more to imply consistency. Glue in the slot alone
(without spreading up the sides with a brush) usually will leave the biscuit
sides dry. My applications haven't really required excessive neatness and
yes, I do get a fair amount of squeeze out (I use tape to catch it). I
haven't really noticed early expansion problems, but I'm quick to get the
assembly together and rarely use more than eight biscuits at a time.

On the consistency issue I have found it better to drop the fence (PC cutter)
and reference on the top edges of the "display" side. I have found more
alignment error when resting both the board surfaces and cutter on the
table. My reasoning is that if you reference the cutter directly to the
board, you eliminate any possible errors with a cutter-to table-to board
method of referencing.

Either way, there will always be a degree of error...



Next, the biggest advantage of biscuits is the vertical alignment. You've
seen
the numbers for the slot and biscuits sizes. If you need to (or even can)
influence vertical alignment with glue or clamps, something is wrong. Or, are
you talking about differences of .002?

The errors I typically see are 1/32" or so. With care and good material prep
I can get 0.002".

-Bruce

GerryG

On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 19:26:20 -0700, Bruce wrote:



I found that to get good vertical alignment you need to put equal amounts
of
glue on each side. If one side has it thick and one has it thin, it'll move
unevenly. Clamps can also help even the surfaces if any small misalignment
is
unacceptable.
-Bruce