Biscuit Joints VS Dados

One of the prime reasons I rarely use dados and rabbets as joinery methods anymore is because of the inconsistency in material thickness. Fir plywood, hardwood plywood, MDF board, 3/4 solid wood, 4/4 solid wood- all had significant variations in the thickness to prevent smooth and efficient joint fabrication without secondary sizing operations. Further, dados have poor tension resistance if the joint is being pulled apart. Along comes biscuit joinery, and in one afternoon of learning the basics, those problems are eliminated forever.

The savings in time alone are justification for switching. Consider that a dado blade set needs to be adjusted to the stock thickness, test cuts made, and end results often need cleanup to produce a crisp groove or plough. If you're mixing sheet stock you've accumulated, there's a very real probability that there will be significant thickness variation, hence rework of the dado for best fit. Trying to Dado a bookcase wall is a challenge in wrestling the work on the sawtable.

Do it with a router and it's messy without a vacuum umbilical, a double fence is needed to guarantee against wander, and stock thickness is still an issue.

Dadoing, by its nature, is a totally subtractive, difficult to correct process. A complimentary perfect mass of material must be entirely removed for the joint to work. This is decidedly more complex, and is subject to more variables than a largely additive one, where the tongue is simply added or introduced into a strategic, minimally milled joint.

Biscuit joinery is a system for assembling wood and wood product components, and is independent of stock thickness— all joinery is made from a common reference point ensuring uniformity of fit. The math is simple; since a tenon is inserted, all joints are butt type and figured point to point. Setup time is nil and once familiar with the process, it becomes the method of choice ensuring accuracy through repetition. And finally, your amortized tooling cost will be less- no limited functionality dado blade set or "plywood size" selection of router bits to purchase and maintain.

The biscuit joint is fast becoming the workhorse of the woodworking world and while no particular joinery technique is suitable at all times, the biscuit method comes very close to the theoretical ideal, combining speed, accuracy, reliability and ease of use for the individual craftsman. In short, it takes the "work" out of woodworking.

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