Porter-Cable 557 Deluxe Plate Joiner Kit
Porter Cable Plate Joiner Review
As much as I enjoy testing, researching, and writing about new tools, there's something to be said for revisiting old favorites. And in this case, the “favorite” I'm speaking about is both a technique and a tool. The technique is biscuit (plate) joinery and the tool is the Porter-Cable 557 Deluxe Plate Joiner Kit.
At the risk of losing readers and spoiling the ending, I'll tell you right now that if you don't have the latter, you may not want to bother with the former. You see, plate joinery is one of those techniques that appears deceptively simple – just cut matching slots in adjoining faces, add glue and a biscuit, then clamp it all up to cure. Alignment is made easy because there's plenty of lateral wiggle room in a biscuit joint – in other words, a biscuit slot is slightly longer than the biscuit itself, so you're able to slide the workpieces into perfect lateral alignment even as you're gluing them up.
So, what could be easier, right? Cut a few slots, slather a little glue, go big with the biscuits, and before you know it, you're a woodworker. Well that's close, but there are a couple of wrinkles. First, although lateral alignment is very forgiving, vertical alignment needs to be precise, otherwise, the faces of the mating pieces will be misaligned. Second, as with any joinery technique, the level of difficulty ramps up pretty quickly when you add angles.
Dealing with those angles is really what the 557 excels at and, above all else, is what has earned this joiner the accolades of many a woodworking and tool writer over the years. The unique fence on this tool adjusts past 90-degrees all the way to 135 degrees which, if you're doing the math, is precisely the proper angle to register the tool for milling spot-on biscuit slots in a 45-degree miter cut.
This is the only tool in its class to actually use the fence to effectively capture the workpiece and make accuracy virtually automatic in these otherwise tricky cuts. Competitive models require a steady hand and leave a lot of room for error when making the very same cut.
Effectively eliminating that margin of error would alone be enough to earn the 557 “best of class” status, but there's a lot more to this tool than just its miter manners. For example, by including pre-set (though still microadjustable) stops for the three standard biscuit sizes (#20, #10, and #0), as well as three additional settings (Max, D, and S) to accommodate various specialty connectors and accessories, Porter Cable has extended the flexibility and usefulness of the tool that much further. Honestly, you might be shocked to learn how many choices you have in specialty connectors, including knockdown hardware and a host of hidden hinge choices.
Of course, there's also the “FF” setting, which stands for “Face Frames.” This is another pioneering feature introduced by Porter Cable on this tool many years ago and now embraced (probably grudgingly) by other tool manufacturer's. Using this setting, you can cut a perfect-sized slot for the almost comically small FF biscuits. These tiny biscuits can be used to join boards as narrow as 1-1/2 inches wide, which makes them ideal for...you guessed it – face frames.
Happily, the overall fit and finish of this tool are as exceptional as the innovative features. The quality of the castings, the smooth plunge action, the truly fine fine adjustments – there just aren't any disappointments in this tool.
Sadly, biscuit joinery has never gained the popularity of other fastener-based techniques. But I can assure you that if you take the time to understand everything you can do with biscuits, and experience the quality, accuracy, and usability of the Porter-Cable 557, you'll be looking for excuses to employ both the technique and the tool.
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For more information on the Porter-Cable 557 Deluxe Plate Joiner Kit: CLICK HERE