Thread: FESTOOL DOMINO Experience - by those who have used one.

Hi all,
Seems to be something I mentioned way back, including using waste material. I don't find rounding any piece of a timber to be a problem and have shown 5mm rounded "species specific" dominos made of RG used as through joiners complementing pine on a small drawer made for a spice rack.
Lignum, with a TS75 saw, creating the size of domino you want is an easy matter and you can produce any length you want up to the length of rail you have available. An easy matter of adjusting the cut angle to 45 degrees ( or less) will provide you with very clean ready to use chamfered domino blanks. I seriously believe now ( as one who cuts domino lengths on a LS1214!!) that using a guillotine, such as would be used for trimming mitres on a picture frame (should you need it) would speed up the process of cutting to length after preparing the blanks. This way, blanks can be made as required, then stored, then quickly cut to length when needed.
Since you can cut timber on the TS75 from depths up to 70mm, why stop at 32mm? We know the Domi is happy to cut any size mortise.

Regards,

Rob

Originally Posted by Rocker

Lignum,

I agree that champhering the corners of the tenons will be fine for hidden floating tenons, but it is not that hard to round the corners over, if the tenons are going to be showing.

Rock i see what you mean, but if i ever do through mortices i always square up the mortice as i dont like the look of round through tenons.

And the home made ones i think are heaps stronger than the bought ones because the flat end compresses into the round of the mortice and makes it harder to get out than the domi but still good enough not to starve it of glue as the pic below shows. Blue arrow escape for glue, red arrow shows how the flat end squashes in as opposed to the snug fit of the normal tenon.


And Rob, i was thinking about the TS75 for the job. Thicknessing a 2mt x 150 x 25 down to 23mm and Festripping 11 or 12mm strips (because i want to thickness for the perfect fit) would be super quick and gang docking on the SCMS could get these down to probably 500 per hour. Sure beats forking out $120.

Lignum,

It surprised me how easy it was to make heaps of perfect floating tenons in short order. Never could figure out why the domi dudes kept buying them.

This is a great thread, by the way.

Tex

Originally Posted by Flowboy

Hi all,
Seems to be something I mentioned way back, including using waste material. I don't find rounding any piece of a timber to be a problem and have shown 5mm rounded "species specific" dominos made of RG used as through joiners complementing pine on a small drawer made for a spice rack.
Lignum, with a TS75 saw, creating the size of domino you want is an easy matter and you can produce any length you want up to the length of rail you have available. An easy matter of adjusting the cut angle to 45 degrees ( or less) will provide you with very clean ready to use chamfered domino blanks. I seriously believe now ( as one who cuts domino lengths on a LS1214!!) that using a guillotine, such as would be used for trimming mitres on a picture frame (should you need it) would speed up the process of cutting to length after preparing the blanks. This way, blanks can be made as required, then stored, then quickly cut to length when needed.
Since you can cut timber on the TS75 from depths up to 70mm, why stop at 32mm? We know the Domi is happy to cut any size mortise.

Regards,

Rob

So would the sequence be:
Vertical cut-move rail-45° cutto outer edge-flip timber-45° cut to outside edge -move rail- vertical cut....

Errm, how do you cut the 45° on the opposite face

A demo please? Sounds fiddly again.

Hi Tassie,

Pretty much yes as you say and it does sound fiddly. But no matter what, apart for routing, it will be the same. Even using the Jointer, you still need to cut, flip, cut, rotate, cut, flip and rotate as it too only cuts 45 degrees one way. to give four chamfered edges.I round all the dominos I make on a Dremel router table, which gives me enough for what I require. If I get to needing 10x50mm dominos, I'm more inclined to use the FMT and make full M&t's, any depth, any width, any angle to 33 degrees.
Once you've used the TS75, setting up and cutting becomes quite simple. In addition, I have some ideas that will provide the TS75 with the capabilities of any 75mm blade TS. (But they probably won't show up for general viewing).
Anyway the "fiddly" bit is why I would make stock and store it. The cleanliness and accuracy of cut just make it worthwhile to me, though I'm not making production levels of furniture and probably never will. The standard of cut you get with a TS75 makes those I get from my TS look like I used an ax. Once through and nothing else to do. Purchasing a Table Saw with the capabilities that the system I use can provide is, in my situation and opinion, excessive. I think I'd probably buy a Kipax before a TS of the same price, though even that would need to show significant advantage over the consistency and reliability of my Makita LS1214.
Ultimately mate, its horses for courses I guess.

Regards,

Rob

Hi again, Tassie,

Got off line and thought about this.
Have you ever made your own dominos and if so how?
Do you have a device that will cut and either simultaneously or subsequently perform a 4 way chamfer/roundover?

Its got me intrigued, cos I can't think of any quicker or easier ways other than what's been mentioned by Lig, Rocker and m'self.


Regards,

Rob

Originally Posted by Lignum

Rock i see what you mean, but if i ever do through mortices i always square up the mortice as i dont like the look of round through tenons.

Hmm; I think it depends on the style of furniture; rounded tenons would obviously not suit the Arts & Crafts style, but you don't have a problem with them for your Dominoed drawers and nor do I. If the tenons are designed to be fairly inconspicuous, as in my zigzag chair, I don't think it matters whether they are rounded or square. It is probably only because tenons were always square, until routers were introduced for routing mortices, that rounded tenons seem to be 'wrong'.

Rocker

Originally Posted by Rocker

but you don't have a problem with them for your Dominoed drawers

Got me their Rock i forgot about theat one

And for speed in chamfering, the slap up jig below is what i used. Im going to make propper ones for different widths/thicknesses. But pushing them through is faster than anything i could think of and safe and accurate. And their is a small block in behind that holds it flat on the table

And with the ripping, sorry TS55/75 lovers But my frontline bandsaw jig is 10 times faster because i dont have to reset the fence after each cut

One issue I have never appreciated nor have seen mentioned is safety - it is virtually impossible to injure yourself with this unit - even as novice. Compare this aspect with any other way of making fixed or floating tenons - it is not even an issue touched on by Festool.

Unless you somehow press against the springs with one hand, turn the unit on, and somehow get the other one in the way I do not see how you could hurt yourself.

Making tenons on a table saw/router or even a saw and chiesel or any other machine involves much more ris.k of physical harm

Hi Anthony

I have a Domino, and am very happy with it. If you take the time to get to know the tool, and think about your approach to each joint you can use it in pretty much every project.

Admittedly it is an expensive bit of gear and the dominos themselves are not cheap, but if you are in business and do the sums, it easily pays for itself in a few months. For example, I can joint a table in under an hour with the Domino.

On the cheap knock-off thread, I value my lungs too much to suffer crapola extraction, and would much rather use a good tool each day than a second rate copy that is kind-of-the-same.

Ravi

Originally Posted by Flowboy

Hi again, Tassie,

Got off line and thought about this.
Have you ever made your own dominos and if so how?
Do you have a device that will cut and either simultaneously or subsequently perform a 4 way chamfer/roundover?

Its got me intrigued, cos I can't think of any quicker or easier ways other than what's been mentioned by Lig, Rocker and m'self.


Regards,

Rob

Tassie,

It looks as though you meant to say something, but forgot - I know the feeling.

I want to ask if anyone finds the outrigger arms accessories useful; I have not been able to see any advantage in using them rather than just marking mortice positions, in the same way as is done with biscuit joining. Am I missing something?

Rocker

Originally Posted by Rocker

Tassie,
I want to ask if anyone finds the outrigger arms accessories useful; I have not been able to see any advantage in using them rather than just marking mortice positions, in the same way as is done with biscuit joining. Am I missing something?

Rocker

I have to agree. At first glance it seems a good idea, but in practice you would for example use them on a long run of dowels. The arms rely on the pins indexing in the previous hole, but when doing a long run there is more scope for inaccuracy & thats why you're able to mill a longer slot to counter this. In practice you machine one piece on the tight setting for all the holes, but only the first hole on the meeting piece tight for indexing the two pieces. All the other holes on the second piece are on the looser setting & because this slot is a different lenth to the tight slots, you can't use the indexing pins or the difference will accumulate. I find it easier to just mark it out as you were if using traditional dowels; butt the two meeting faces together, mark out the dowel positions & mark a line across the two pieces, then Domi away. Still very easy. I'd like to hear if anyone has found a good use for the extension arms.

I started out to use them two days ago and then found that the distance between centres was not great enough and so did as outlined above - one index hole, then rest from marks on the timber and at the first second (of the three) width setting. I also wonder why I bought them at this stage as the machine is very accurate as long as your markings are done on the square.