Freud JS102 Biscuit Joiner

[Richard Kagen]

Alright it was only $120 (Amazon), but this is a very unimpressive tool, and that is real money in my book for a simple tool.

My issues:
- the torx screw that hold the dust collection nozzle stripped out of the soft cast aluminium base housing the first time I used it. I replaced with with a brass screw to better match the metal hardness and it seems to be holding OK
- dust collection bad is useless. The dust collection port clogs on the first cut and the bag does not inflate as there is a 1/8+ gap in the housing under the collection port.
- manual says that it comes pre-adjusted for all biscuit sizes, but was way off.

Multiple Choice question:
1) I got a lemon
2) It is a poorly designed tool.
3) You get what you pay for
4) All of the above

RANT: I will never understand why things get designed and produced this way. Come on, how much harder is it to make something right?

[Hoa Dinh]

Richard,

Return it.

Go to Woodnet Tool Swap N' Sell forum. A poster by the name of skizzo is selling his almost new DW682K for $125 shipped. You may be able to negotiate a bit.

I know skizzo personally. He would not sell junk to you.

[glenn bradley]

All of the above IMHO. When I decided I needed a bicuit joiner I did major research and ended up with a PC557 which is a wonderful tool at $200. I was very careful about getting a type-3 and avoiding all the fence problems of the type-2 brought on by the DeWalt lawsuit. Two blades, quick and fine fence adjustments, etc. I don't use it near as much as I thought I would. I've placed about a dozen bicuits with it. If the shipping to Boston isn't rediculous, who knows, maybe we could make a deal.

[Jim Becker]

I own one (JS-102) and never have experienced a real problem outside of some clogging of the chip port. (I do not use the bag and either us vacuum or let the chips fly) But then again, I don't use it very often... If I were going to do alot of biscuit work, I'd probably want something with more features/flexiblity like the PC that Glenn mentions.