Id like to make my own biscuits for my biscuit jointer. Any advice on wood and or the process of making them?
Thanks for your time
Can you make them for less than 10¢ ? You can get a big bag for 6-7¢ ea.
I think most furniture biscuits are Birch or Beech.
The grain needs to cross the joint, not parallel with it.
The biscuit needs to be just a bit smaller than the pocket it fits in to allow a tight joint.
Commercial biscuits are compressed & dried so they assemble easy & expand in the joint.
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I agree with @Tod1d . The commercial ones have a lot of engineering around them. I use biscuits on and off and have quite a few. The key is to keep them in an air tight container. If you leave the container open or is not air tight you can put the biscuits in the microwave for 30 seconds or so and dry them out. Moisture makes them swell up. That is the purpose that when the wet glue gets on them they expand. Now what happens after the glue dries I cannot tell. However I have seen videos that recommend not sanding the joint surface for about a week because if you sand right away later you get a depression where the biscuits are. Biscuits are good for helping align glue joints but structurally I dont think they add much strength. During the milling of the biscuit recess you need to hold your biscuit machine very steady or you get a wallowed out hole. So just holding the biscuit jointer loosely can cause the biscuit to be not aligned at 180 degrees to the surface and be wallowed out. Another trick is to always make your biscuit pocket from the same surface to get proper alignment. What I mean is always cut from the same top of both sides of the material. It is almost impossible to get the biscuit pocket exactly in the center of the material.
If you take a good look at biscuits they are either strands or saw dust and not solid wood. So if you can compress your shavings then just make a mold the shape of a biscuit. Cutting on the CNC out of solid wood would not accomplish the same thing as a commercial biscuit.
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What sort of work are you doing that you need to use a biscuit joiner?
Would cutting the joinery integral to the part using the CNC be an option?
All great points and thank you for the lesson. Such great stuff.
I was looking at joinery and always wondering about using up scraps.
I think the take away is use the regular biscuits but for something special that may be visible there are plenty of joints to choose from.
The wheels are turning 
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