How to Cut Grooves With a Biscuit Joiner

Woodworkers use biscuit joiners to join sheets of wood with biscuit joints. This power tool makes small oval cuts into a piece of wood, which you then fill with an oval-shaped piece of wood called a "biscuit." In a pinch, you can also use them to cut grooves. In very little time, you can make a jig that guides your cut from a piece of scrap wood you may already have in your workshop.

Safety goggles
Dust mask
Biscuit joiner
T-square, 24 inches
Straight edge, 24 inches
Dimensional lumber, 1 inch X 2 inches x 48 inches
2 adjustable clamps, 4 inches

Instructions

- 1
  Put on your safety goggles and dust mask. Mark the position and length of the groove on the wood with a pencil, using the straight edge to make sure it is perfectly straight. Use the T-square, if the groove needs to be perpendicular to the edge.
- 2
  Place the edge of the biscuit joiner against the pencil line. Mark the joiner's edge with your pencil. Measure the distance between the mark and the pencil line. Place a corresponding pencil mark on the wood's opposite edge. Draw a line -- with a straight edge -- parallel to the one marking your groove.
- 3
  Place your dimensional lumber on the wood so that it is flush with the parallel line. Fasten each end to the wood with the adjustable clamps. This is your jig.
- 4
  Place the biscuit joiner against the jig to ensure the edge of the blade lines up with first pencil line. Adjust the jig if necessary.
- 5
  Set the biscuit joiner's blade to the groove's depth. Keeping the biscuit joiner against the jig, make your cut in a single, fluid motion.

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