Thread: No longer wishing

Allan,

When you decide to put a domino in 'freehand' - as in after you have made and glued a large mitred corner on the bottom of a box or cupboard, make sure you know where the cutter is going to cut. I undercut a mitre once like this and took the corner off!

Good luck with the Domino. The time you will save is incredible.

Graham

Good one.

Ask Groggy about where not to put you fingers.

Ahem, thanks for that Cliff

There is a thread started by me somewhere, ugh, here it is...


Note to self: remember to put something 'special' in Cliff's hat

Hi ajw

The Missus gave me one of these for my birthday last year. Best power tool known to man.

First thing to do is calibrate it. There is an "Unreleased Draft" of an extended users manual available to download from http://festool.home.att.net/. I had a look, but the web page doesn't seem to work. It describes how to calibrate and use the domino very well. I have the PDF, but it is 2.1mb which is larger than what is allowed to be uploaded here. Send me a private message with your email address and I will send it to you.

Second thing to do is sort out the dust extraction. I already had a Karcher wet & dry vacuum that I use around the shed and I had to get a bit of plastic tubing to make it fit the domino, but this also makes the whole process better.

I found that when I first started using the machine, I wasn't holding it down tight enough, so I got wonky holes. I would also tend to make one hole with the minimum width and then the matching hole I would click around to the next width. This allowed for a bit of sideways movement so that I could align the 2 pieces together. I am finding now (After a bit of practice) that this is not necessary and just route 2 holes at the matching width and the pieces fit together nice and snug.

Don't try to punch holes too quick, let the machine do the work, nice and even.

Hope this helps.

Rod T

Don’t worry ajw. What happened to Groggy was something very rare.

Enjoy your domino.

Originally Posted by Groggy

....Note to self: remember to put something 'special' in Cliff's hat

Not another bloody finger is it?

Thanks Rod, PM sent.

I've found a document at:
http://www.festoolusa.com/Web_files/...no_Machine.pdf

It's 79 pages and looks like it's got some good info in it. Just reading through it now before going out into the shed.

Wongo - I think I saw a post about a round table that you'd made using the Domino, which I really liked, but I can't find it now. Was it yours? Can you post a link to the post / photo?

I've got a load of Studley's reject hardwood (which is quite good this time - unlike other people's experience), and I'm keen to make something.

Originally Posted by Rod T

There is an "Unreleased Draft" of an extended users manual available to download

Rod,The unreleased manual is now released, but the new version is again unreleased. It actually has gone through legal review, but the only reason it is unreleased is because the new fence with the alignment dogs is not shipping yet.

The content is about the same, but some crappy graphics were improved and it discusses both the pins and dogs.

http://www.waterfront-woods.com/fest...ino_DF_500.pdf

Spent my first afternoon with the Domino, and made good progress on a bench seat for practice. This would have taken me many many hours using mortice and tenon joints, but was very quick with the Domino. All the slats were perfectly positioned, and it came together square and snug without any swear words being needed!

I'm making it out of recycled timber picked up from various front yards during council clean-up times. Mostly made from oregan from rotting pergolas. A couple of passes through the thicknesser and it's right to go.

The stack of timber behind the bench is from Studley's reject hardwood sale - there are a few projects in that lot - just need more shed time.

Allan

Sent the file Allan, but it looks like you have found another one.

I'll go and check it out.

Thanks Powertoolman for your posting, I'll check that one out as well.

That bench looks pretty good Allan. Looks like you have the domino mastered.

Cheers
Rod T

I'm also a proud new Domino owner.....and initial playing has already revealed that the height and centering scales on mine definitely need calibrating. You'd think Mr Festool could get the things set up correctly before they ship.

Thanks for posting that link Powertoolman - I'll download the pdf and see what they say.

Now that I have a few Festool products, I'm also a bit miffed about the quality of the manuals shipped with the tools. Most are pretty hopeless, and you have to go scratching around on the Interweb to find some practical information that is actually useful. For the price, you'd expect better.

I bought the CT Midi vacuum with my Domino, and very happy that I did. My only dust issue now is my ROS, a Hitachi with one of those little cloth baggies to (almost) collect the dust. The bag connects to the ROS via a weird shaped custom snap-on port (NOT round ), so unless Hitachi make an adapter to connect to a vacuum I'm jiggered. Yet another Festool purchase in the offing........

Life is too short to manage without a Domino

I didn't have any problem with the Domino's calibration. It was spot-on, straight out of the box (or Systainer...)

It's good that it can be calibrated if necessary. I recently bought a Metabo SCMS and ended up having to grind the locating lugs on the fence because I couldn't get the blade anywhere close to 90 degrees with the tolerance it had. I had to shave 2.5 mm off one lug to get it to cut 90 degrees! It's now accurate, but I expected better for the money I paid.

I got some more practice with the Domino today, with more of the garden bench seat being constructed. It's so much easier than mortice and tenon joints that I've used before. Much quicker, more accurate (but that probably says more about my skill level with mortice and tenon joints...), and a joy to use.

This is my first Festool purchase. I can see why people rave about the Festool tools. They are very well made, and I think I'd have workshop full of them if they were cheaper. There's lots of clever design in the Domino. You just have to get over the jaw-dropping non-negotiable price, and convince yourself that your hobby is worth the cost.

Allan.

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

I'm also a bit miffed about the quality of the manuals shipped with the tools. Most are pretty hopeless

Unfortunately, the International manual has to be translated into an ungodly number of languages, so the content is kept to virtually nothing. The CEO of Festool USA understands the importance of a good manual and has been aggressively campaigning to get better manuals. The North American manuals have been getting better, and the latest factory manual for Domino is almost entirely plagiarized (Festool owns it so it is not really plagiarism) from the previous version that Rod tried to link to above. They say that imitation is the best form of flattery, so I'm flattered. My manuals are created for the U.S. market, but at least I've heard that Anthony puts a copy in each systainer he sells.

Powertoolman - I had a look through the pdf that you linked on here, and I'm happy to report that it contains more useful information than all of the literature shipped with my Domino put together ! Many thanks - I've printed it out, so that I can have it to hand when working in the shed.

I realise that Festool has to provide instructions in Swedish and Swahili as well as English, but its good to hear that Festool USA at least realises that they have an issue with the quality of the English content.

One thing I can't complain about is the quality of the machine itself, and (like many others) I just wish I had bitten the bullet sooner. Although I had set myself up with all the machines required to obtain accurately dimensioned stock, actually joining the bits of timber together had always been a bit of a weak point for me !

I'm off to practice my domineering....