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Starting new "first" project.

Tom Baugues

Tom Baugues

Member
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2,794
Location
Lafayette, Indiana
Hi guys/gals. I've never tried to build a real piece of furniture before and I'm now going to try to build an end table. Actually it will be a small cabinet that will set between my wifes and my recliner in our TV room. It will be a place to set the remotes and glasses of drink etc. It will have two small doors in the front that will open to allow "stuff" to be stored inside.
I'm building it out of "select" pine and will add some "wainscot" panels to it for looks. The wood looks very good and straight. I'm using 8" width boards. I need to create 20" wide panels, 26 inches long from this 8" stock. (It will end up looking more like a box with doors in front.) I have a joiner and will be sure to square up the edges of each board.
Do I need to use biscuits in the joints? Or can I just glue them up edge to edge of each board? I'll use titebond glue.


Tom
 
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Agreed. From what I've heard, the biscuits don't really add much in strength, but the do help to keep the glue up aligned. If you joint the edges nicely, the glue will do a great job of keeping things together. The biscuits or dowels help to keep the panels lined up with each other.
 
Bob, did you have an issue with the biscuits? Or did you just get some cool new doweling jib? Just curious.
 
I never use biscuits or dowels or cawls but somehow everything comes out just fine. If you joint your boards carefully to make sure you have a perfect 90 degree to the side you will have no problem unless your material is not straight. The biscuits and dowels don't do much since the titebond will be much stronger than the wood itself.
 
Brent Dowell said:
Bob, did you have an issue with the biscuits? Or did you just get some cool new doweling jib? Just curious.
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It may be just me but I had way too much trouble keeping the boards flush especially with larger glue ups. I find that there is too much play between the thickness of the slot and the thickness of the biscuit. On the larger glue ups even cauls wouldn't keep every joint flush enough to not cause extra work with a belt sander or hand plane to flush them up.
My old doweling jig may be slower but the joints are close to perfect.
 
Jim Hager said:
I never use biscuits or dowels or cawls but somehow everything comes out just fine. If you joint your boards carefully to make sure you have a perfect 90 degree to the side you will have no problem unless your material is not straight. The biscuits and dowels don't do much since the titebond will be much stronger than the wood itself.
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Hey Jim, nice to see you over here!

I certainly agree with you that the glue is much stronger than the wood :thumb:
 
Like Jim (nice to see you BTW), I just use glue (Titebond). I've never had a failure and have used edge gluing of panels for table tops, cabinet sides, etc.
 
I went looking through all my old woodworking supplies that I have had stored for many years thinking that I might have a few biscuits. I wanted to know because I was planning on going out and buying a biscuit joiner tonight and wanted to see what size biscuits I might already have. Well, I found them. They were stored inside a box that had a biscuit joiner kit that I bought at a auction about 15 years ago and had long forgotten about. I bought it and never used it. It is an attachment for my router. Not as handy as a regular unit but it seems to work just fine.
I have my first panel glued up and now cutting the next. I assume that I should let the glued, clamped up panel set up overnight? I thought I had two sets of clamps but it turns out I only have one. So I guess this will be a slow process as I wait for each panel to dry.

Tom
 
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Tom Baugues said:
I went looking through all my old woodworking supplies that I have had stored for many years thinking that I might have a few biscuits. I wanted to know because I was planning on going out and buying a biscuit joiner tonight and wanted to see what size biscuits I might already have. Well, I found them. They were stored inside a box that had a biscuit joiner kit that I bought at a auction about 15 years ago and had long forgotten about. I bought it and never used it. It is an attachment for my router. Not as handy as a regular unit but it seems to work just fine.
I have my first panel glued up and now cutting the next. I assume that I should let the glued, clamped up panel set up overnight? I thought I had two sets of clamps but it turns out I only have one. So I guess this will be a slow process as I wait for each panel to dry.

Tom
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Take your time, no hurry is there?? I know when I first got started I didn't have enough tools to do much at all. So what if you only have two clamps, heck it's fun just watchin the glue dry.:p Now I've got no tellin how much invested in my shop. Watch it cause a shop can be a money pit, I turned mine into a FULL TIME job and even have an employee. Both of us work a 40 hour week and right now we have plenty to do.
 
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