The Best Biscuit Joiners

It’s hard to beat a good biscuit joint in the world of woodworking. Sure, you can go for a Kreg jig and make pocket holes all day, but nothing beats the strength of a wood biscuit along with some quality wood glue.

When searching for a biscuit joiner, you’ve got to be looking at quality first. Choose a biscuit joiner made by a big name brand and not a Chinese knockoff if you want the thing to last more than a few projects. After all, if you’re going to be using it for work or even for more than a couple of projects at home, it’s going to pay for itself.

For this post, we take a look at what we found were the best biscuit joiners on the market. We evaluated them on everything including power, price and ease of use.

Let’s dive right into our list of the best biscuit joiners below:

Festool 574432 Domino Joiner DF 500 Q Set

This ain’t your dad’s biscuit joiner, and technically, it isn’t for traditional biscuits at all, but it’s more than worth mentioning here in case you are looking to step up your game in the woodworking world.

While technically a mortising machine, Festool offers “tenons” that look more like rectangular biscuits, and fill the same niche, while the machine is capable of so much more.

Get a stronger connection between pieces while using the same technique that you would with traditional biscuits. And if you do decide to make some dedicated tenoned pieces for chairs or framing, it’s easy to cut the mortises without digging with hand tools for hours and hours.

Festool has started a revolution in joining pieces that is bound to have lasting effects. The machine is super high quality, allowing precise measurement for your cuts, and the pivoting fence has positive stops at the most common angles of 22.5, 45, and 67.5 degrees, so you will have the proper placement for most any job you can think of.

The plunging router design makes digging mortises faster than ever before. Your joints will be stronger and your customers will be happier. Plus every other wood shop in town will be jealous.

This machine is a bit on the pricey side, but take one look at the reviews and you’ll see that it’s worth every penny.

DEWALT DW682K 6.5 Amp Plate Joiner

For a more traditional handheld biscuit joiner, at a much lower price, you should take a look at this from DeWALT. High durability and backed with DeWALT’s three year warranty, one-year service contract, and 90 day money back guarantee, you really can’t go wrong.

The integrated fence ensures top-notch accuracy. The 6.5 amp motor easily powers through even the toughest jobs with ease, and at 6.6 pounds, it’s light enough to use all day without problems. Setup is straightforward, and there are depth presets for the most common biscuit sizes.

The blade spins at a blazing 10,000 RPMs for cuts that are both fast and clean, to ensure good surface contact with the biscuit. The shoe is made from heavy-duty alluminum, so it won’t get marred up or bent over time.

The joiner comes with a carbide blade, dust bag, vac adapter, Torx key, wrench, and kit box, so you can keep it clean and ready to run when you need it, without searching for accessories. For a balance between price and performance, this biscuit joiner is just the ticket.

Makita PJ7000 Biscuit Joiner

Another top-notch notcher, this one from Makita. The fence and base are constructed from cast aluminum, and the 5.6 amp motor spins the blade at 11,000 RPMs, trading a bit of torque for higher speed.

The fence is a rack-and-pinion setup for accurate adjustment, and has positive stops at 0, 45, and 90. While a 22.5 would be nice, the accurate adjustment makes it easy to dial in. For that trade-off, you get six depth settings, for just about any biscuit size on the market.

The cam is large and easy to operate, so you can focus on accuracy and let the tool do the rest of the work. Blade changes are quick an tool-less, and the kit comes with an angle guide, carbide blade, dust bag, set plate, wrench, and tool case.

Ergonomics is a key feature in detail work, and the machine is easy to hold for stability while making your cuts. The dust collector could be better, but in the price range, your choice in a quality machine really boils down to either this joiner or the DeWALT previously mentioned.

More depth stops and versatility will be the advantage if you go with this one, if you don’t mind tossing out the positive stop at 22.5.