Shaper finger joint cutter, uses

[Bill Dufour]

I see finger joint cutters for sale at reasonable prices from time to time. Are they much use anymore with biscuit joiners. I do have a glue joint cutter and a wedge tongue/groove set.
I thought they were designed for end joining long boards?
Bill

[Darcy Warner]

Handy for segmented arched/round top sashes.

[Jim Becker]

One of the folks I follow on YouTube, Timothy Wilmots, uses a type of wavy "short finger" joint shaper cutter quite frequently to assemble the thick panels I uses for the tops of gold-smithing benches he sells to that industry. Rather than longer "fingers", the profiles are vee shaped I believe. It provides both alignment and glue surface for these edge to edge glue-ups and fast production advantages when clamping since no cauls are required.

Obviously, this form of joinery, regardless of the profile, is visible on the end grain sides of the panels, so it has to be a consideration if that aesthetic might be objectionable.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Bill, on a good shaper with accurate setup and a stock feeder, the accuracy surpasses a biscuit joiner.

They're often used for edge to edge glueing, like a tabletop.

I don't often use them.............Rod.

[Joe Calhoon]

There are a few types of finger joint cutters. For end grain the fingers are longer, usually 10 to 15 mm in length. These make a stronger than you would think joint. We use ours for joining segments of arch window and door heads. A few contractors have had us join 10’ Alder base boards into 20’ lengths. It’s strong, you can run through the moulder and sander without fear of falling apart.
The other type for long grain work have shorter fingers and sometimes as mentioned V cuts. I have used both types on the shaper and they work well. It’s a bit of a fussy setup depending on your shaper. Either the split fence has to be set accurately or use a outboard fence. I find we don’t use it very often on the shaper because we get good results edge gluing panels off the jointer and another step to the shaper is time consuming.

They do do make for accurate panel gluing and in a shop without a wide belt sander or wide planer could be a asset. We have a set of insert glue joint cutters for thick stock for our S4S machine and use those when gluing long and thick table tops and panels. I would also say they are more accurate than biscuits for this type work.

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[Brad Shipton]

I bought one to make perfect base trim joints. I have also used it to make blanks for arch shapes for flooring inlays. If you are using it to glue up scraps, the key is to have a lot of scrap piled up and thicknessed properly so you can blast through stock quickly. They are not very quick to setup unless you have a machine like Joe where it is the click of a button after reading your setup notes.

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As Rod mentions, a finger joint from a cutter like, https://rangate.com/products/adjustable-finger-joint-cutter, is totally different than a biscuit joint. These joints have strength when clamped properly. If I hold a biscuit jointed piece over the edge of a table and hit the unsupported end, I can break that joint fairly easily. If I try the same with a finger jointed piece, I will hurt my hand. The reason this is used in the beam world is the increase in glue surface area and the fact you are gluing parallel to grain.

[Joe Calhoon]

Brad, that is a nice floor! What was your process for building that?

[Brad Shipton]

Thanks Joe, means a lot from you. Yes, that was a progress picture and sadly the floor in the room beside the border did not get finished. I get so annoyed at myself when I look back through old pics like that and see the date.