Hello, I'm Jamie and was looking to purchase a biscuit jointer and was wondering if the grizzly biscuit jointer is worth fooling with?

Don’t have any experience with that particular model. Mine’s a PC555 and have had it forever. Works great. 

Thanks for your comment.

Welcome aboard Jamie, glad to have you here.

Can't help with your Griz question, like Lew I have a different brand (yellow).

I have the Porter Cable 557 (I upgraded from the 555).  Some of its advantages

• Miters done with captured joint (i.e., it fits in an enclosed area)
• Miter angles adjustable, so you can do more than just 45s
• Plate to add on so you can do double biscuit slot or for narrow stock
• Depth gauge dialed in, not just slid into position and screwed down, so it stays parallel to blade
• Separate blade to use FF (Face Frame), a smaller biscuit size.
• Dust collection port hooks up to shop vacuum
• Depth setting for S, D,and Max (that I've never used)

Thanks for your response, I have actually been looking at the porter cable too. The grizzly is a lot cheaper, but then again sometimes you only get what you pay for so I was just trying to see if some one may had some experience with a grizzly. Thanks

9 hours ago, Cal said:

Welcome aboard Jamie, glad to have you here.

Can't help with your Griz question, like Lew I have a different brand (yellow).

Thanks!

Thanks!

You might look at the used market for a PC or DeWalt  It seems a lot of people buy a biscuit joiner then don't use it much

 

Here is a review of a few models

Just as an add-on. 

 

I have gotten several brands of biscuits.   Lamello seems to be to the best that I've used.  Very nice grain and uniform.  Porter-Cable is acceptable, but there is a small percentage of rejects (1-2%, roughly).   I have also gotten some locally from Atlas Dowel (AKA Midwest Dowel and home of McFeeley's).   They are nice and uniform but made from a fine plywood (sort of like baltic birch).   I have only used them for non-critical stress applications because since I don't know their strength.

Lamello also makes a premium biscuit/plate joiner and was the original developer.  I think they were the only game in town until their patents expired.  But they are like 2x as expensive as PC and DeWalt.   If you can nab a used one cheap, I'd go for it.

 

I want to echo Keith's opinion on Lamello biscuits. Someone over at Woodnet actually counted the losses of some brand, and then bought Lamello. He claimed that despite the premium price of the Lamello they were cheaper to use after you allow for the unuseable biscuits in te cheaper ones.

As i had a crew that did composite decks, we were using the bisquit cutters long before the manuf. started making concealed fasteners and grooving material, 

used a small co. in north carolina that made us synthetic fasteners, sure was a nice finish, no screws ect.

we used bosch, pc, and always had a harbor freight one of two units for stand by, some of the early composites had staples and misc. metal in it, and boy could it dull a cutter. Have to say, all were reliable, only difference for the boys and gals in field was the stops, some were extremely positive and others well lets say, a few unkind words filled the air on occasion. I have a bosch in shop just in case, smaller unit, but only used twice on a couple connections, no issues and nice clean mortise.

 

rj in az