Thread: Domino style loose tenon mortiser (Work in progress)

Good work
plenty of testing and trying
please keep us posted on progress

well it's been over a year since I started designing this thing, and >6 months since I posted the above.

Finally got around to ordering the hardware to get this thing going
- MGN9 linear rails and 4 * carriages
- 8mm machined stainless rod
- 6mm and 8mm upcut router bits
- a 10mm bike skewer (!?)
- a couple of bearings
- a heap of nuts, bolts, washers
- a few bronze bushes
- some more filament
- and very tempted by a new 3d printer. will save up for that one. You really realise how slow old printers are when a single part can takes 12 hours to print!!! Something like a Bambu lab should reduce that to 5 hours.

I'm printing in PLA+, which is the most rigid of the common filaments (vs say PETG and ASA). It is also the easiest to print and be dimensionally accurate. The problem with PLA is its low temperature resistance. It will start to deform at around 60°C, which shouldn't be a problem if you don't leave the tool in your car.

Aanyway, I've been stupid and trusted my design/printer, and started printing before receiving hardware, so didn't take into account clearances for bolts etc (3d printers don't do small holes well!). So am onto third iteration of prints now! Not to mention the fact that I printed the base with the holes to mount the linear rails placed incorrectly twice. so that's 24 hours of print time wasted! In hindsight I should have printed a small test block to work out clearance holes for all the hardware. but where is the fun in that?

Should have some pics soon.

Is it a 3d printer you have or a CNC?.

Thanks for update, interesting mix of materials but at least you can do it your self and have control over manufacturing.
I guess there is some frustration when things don’t go as planned but that’s prototyping.
Edison's quote “ I didn’t fail a 1000 times , the light bulb had 1000 steps.
Ta ke care and please keep us updated

ugh purchasing that bambulabs P1C is looking like a goer!

Stepper motor cable failed, and having usb disconnect issues, in my infinite wisdom I decided to change the printer firmware to klipper from marlin as I thought this my help with the usb disconnects (it didn't). New clean klipper install and hours and hours of tuning, it is printing ~ok again and not yet had a usb disconnect.

EagerBeaver - it's an old Artillery Sidewinder X1 printer. it's not bad, but the ribbon cables fail as they went with aesthetics over function. They run reasonable current through them, and vibrations, and they fail. Luckily they provide a couple of spare in the kit when you buy the printer. So they knew it was a failure point from the get-go.

Originally Posted by minidriver

Should have some pics soon.

Been watching with interest.

It will be really nice to see photos of the evolving project. Don't worry about dead ends - we have all been there - when you have run out of mistakes then the project is finished.

Also copies of your drawings as your design ideas evolve and are refined.

So I'd done some test prints in magenta, the only colour I had. Got most of my clearance holes worked out for that filament.

Now after the printer "upgrade", and new red filament, all my clearance holes need refining. a little tight. but a 6 or 8mm drill bit where required cleans the holes up perfectly.

This is the router mount and swivel component. the pivot point is the m6 bolt on the left (of pic 3), and the swivel amount is determined by the bolt in the slot in te middle, which mates with a triangle in the part which actually swivels. you can see the 4 rectangles for the linear rail carriages (now undersized with new red filament ) At the rear is a furniture bolt (Chicago bolt??) which keeps the back of the swivelly bit from lifting up. I have a piece of 1mm formica to put between the swivelly bit and its base piece because it is perfectly smooth. If you just want to do dowels, you can lock it so there is no swivelly-ness. The last photo shows the router swivelled to the left to its full extent.

It's actually quite rigid where it needs to be. Would it be easier to make one out of wood? Probably when you take out the time taken to dial in the prints. This is the build that gave me the inspiration to do this. Homemade Handheld Mortiser with Amazing Dust Collection (youtube.com)



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Anyway, off to try and force the linear carriages into their homes.

so here it is on its rails. hopefully makes it clear how it works!

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so these are the first parts I've printed in a long while which need to be dimensionally accurate. turns out my printer Y-axis is not square to the X-axis, so all the parts have come out skewed. Probably half a mm over 250mm. The printer firmware allows for a skew correction, so if I can't physically adjust the printer square, then I'll let the firmware correct it! So have to pretty much start the printing again. ho hum. Of course I realised this while I was 3/4 of the way through reprinting the base - the largest part that takes 13 hours!

so printer is now all square and printing reliably, I'd say it was out of square from factory. luckly it's easy to adjust, loosen of some bolts, square up the rail for the Y axis to the X axis, and tight bolts.

If I want to make multiples of this tool I'm going to need a new, faster printer, the print times are just too long!

I've reprinted the base, slide, swivel and router mount, and they're all square too eachother. Still refining the designs. One annoying thing about working with 3d prints vs wood or metal, is you can't modify the part. eg want to drill a hole somewhere? There's basically nothing on the inside, so no go. So have to adjust design, reprint. There's another 6 - 12 hours!

Printing out the sides and rear now, as I'm keen to get onto the front fence assembly and see how that all operates. I really want to try out the dust collection!

I'm now considering designing one with automatic wiggle. Thinking a pankcake stepper motor and an offset shaft with a bearing, mounted underneath. maybe make a battery interface which goes between the router and its battery.

ok a post with some substance.

this thing is starting to look like the renders now!

fence feels solid. It height adjusts quite nicely, but it does need checking for square left to right. Would love to design a rack and pinion type system like dewalt biscuit joiners... v2.0

the angle adjust works great. needs some thumb screws.

this shows the dust extraction tube in the front face mid-print. the support material came out easier than expected. you need a pretty well dialled in printer though.

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and as it stands now...

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currently weights in at 2.5kg. sans battery. aiming for less than the DF 500 domino tool.

will print the vacuum attachment bits now so it can all be tested.

it should also suit the makita trim routers. might take the jig down to total tools on the weekend to confirm, but it should be ok. the 240v one fits as I found an accurate 3d model of that.

will need a roll of this:

first test cut done. Just a little 6mm hole. The aliexpress cutter went in like butter.

it's a bit wonky as the fence height wasn't locked as I don't want to screw directly against the stainless rod, need to come up with some protection for it. Trying to find some nylon or copper tipped thumb screws but hard to come by in Australia. Also, the router slide wasn't bolted to the linear rail carriages at all. oops.

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The jig now has a return spring as well, so it feels really nice to use.

and the most important bit (to me anyway) - the dust collection worked absolutely perfectly. Not a spec of sawdust made it through the fence onto the linear rails and base etc.

I am assuming that you maybe thinking of selling these once you have perfected it, looking promising