Biscuit Time!

So far, I have only been using a mortise and tenon joint to put together my desk. On Sunday, I learned about and used a new joint called the biscuit joint.

These are biscuits.

In a biscuit joint, you first use a biscuit machine to punch a half cresent shape into a piece of wood. 

This is me using a biscuit machine. 

This is what the half cresent holes look like. I punched these holes into the two pieces I was connecting so that when you put the pieces together, the holes line up and form an oval shaped hole.

To join the two pieces, I spread glue in one 

of the cresent shaped holes and then put 

a biscuit (the first picture) in one 

of the sides of wood. Then I spread glue over the biscuit and 

in the corresponding cresent hole and

push the two pieces together.

The two pieces come together and you have wood joined by biscuits.