I am starting to design a shoe rack for my parents and this time I want to learn some new techniques: this time I’ll use a biscuit joiner which is a pretty simple power tool but comes very handy especially in cabinetry because helps to align the panels and adds a little bit of strength to the joints. I find it also very useful as it helps to assemble and dry fit all the parts before gluing and screwing everything up.

As usual my budget is modest and I found this cheap solution on Amazon (here is the link). I bought it for around 50 € and here is my review after some days of use.

This is how you get the package:

You get a tool box which I will probably through in the bin as its quality is horrible and I will never take this tool away from my shop where I will always use it. The content is made out of the joiner itself, a plastic plane and a dust extraction bag (this is useful).

I have to be honest, the quality of the parts is not the best I ever seen, but hey, you get what you pay for. I payed for a Chinese quality and I got that.. I have to tell though that unlike other cheap joiner this one has the aligning jig made out of aluminum which it makes it a bit sturdier and probably more precise for the alignment operations. Like all the other joiner you can set the plunge depth in order to use different size biscuits. The height of the tilting plane can be adjusted with a well made knob on the top and this plane is solidly guided by two parallel guides which makes this machine quite precise.

You can also set the angle of the plan with the miter gauge on the right side of the joiner, but to be honest I don’t think I’ll ever use this feature in my life.. But who knows.. This feature is well made though.

Last but not least, the blade. This is the weakness of this machine: that blade doesn’t cut at all. The teeth aren’t sharp and once you try to plunge into the wood it starts to burn!! So that need to be changed right away! No way you can use this junk blade.

I then decided to buy this CMT brand replacement blade (here is the link) and this thing changes dramatically the way the joiner works. Now the cuts are clean, you can cut quickly with no problem at all. I highly recommend you to buy a new blade like this one before starting a new project with your new Matrix Biscuit Joiner.

Hope you’ll find this useful!

Stay tuned

Max