Thread: DIY Furniture: Dowelmax or Festool Domino?

Originally Posted by US-Oz

but a lot of what I have heard here (especially from you, my dear chap) has been prejudice, hearsay and old wives tales.

And can you point out the, prejudice, hearsay and old wives tales?

The old wives tales is a crack up

I wonder if you took the time to look at them

If I hadn't, I wouldn't have known that the M&T was made by a local cabinet maker, would I? I still don't think you can assert anything about the glue.

People said exactly the same thing about acrylic paints when they were invented.

Your statement is no more a proof than mine is

It is unknowable. I'm not saying they wont turn out to last for a million years, just musing on the fact that people put so much faith in them.

prejudice, hearsay and old wives tales

I think that if you take the time to read some of the texts, you'll find that the majority of what has been discussed here is in fact well-documented and common practice.

You have to accept that claims such as those made by Dowelmax are going to be met with scepticism. If they turn out to be true, well and good. I'll await my new copy of the Encyclopedia of Woodworking with the updated section on dowels.

So,
You tried M&Ts, but they didn't work, you bought a cheap biscuit jointer, but that didn't work, you say time is no problem, but you don't get enough workshop time and you use a Kreg system for all your joints.

No wonder dowels appeal to you. But the time factor has be stumped, you must take forever to make something, not that that matters.
Why didn't you look at the Leigh FMT, gives you dowels, M&T at angles or straight in a range of metric sizes and it is as fast or faster than doweling?
You have made too many contradictory statements and have been pretty good at the personal attacks as well.
There seems no point in anyone offering advice or opinion to you when you claim its all old wives tales. I regard that as an insult to the people who have bothered to respond to your "request for information."

Leigh FMT is a pricier option (3x the price with shipping), LGS, but a worthy one.
SilentC, I think we agree to disagree, but I understand your POV.
Lignum, I think you are mainly trying to belittle me, so I'm tuning out.

On the glues front, seems a lot of guys overseas are using glues like Titebond III, the "ultimate" wood glue, a mixture of aliphatic and PU:

What does "Ultimate" Really Mean?
Titebond® III is the most advanced wood glue available today. It combines the strength, sandability, ease of use and water cleanup of PVAs (aliphatic resins) with the durability, open time and water-resistance of polyurethanes.

Personally, I see very little point in using Titebond III and don't understand why a lot of woodworkers bother with it. There may be some applications for it, but not many for cabinetmakers.

Groggy

the only advantage I know of is the longer open assembly time with the III or is it IV?

you can get even longer assembly with UF, but then the glue line can be very noticable.


ian

It's good when you need it to be waterproof, for chopping boards or outdoor things apparently. Probably little advantage for normal cabinet making as you say. Haven't used it myself.

Titebond 111 is a great glue, but far from the ultimate glue.

Anyone here used it on their Blackwood

Chopping boards is a good application for it, what else though? I've seen it used on a bunch of furniture and can't see why they don't use plain white or aliphatic. For outdoor use wouldn't it normally be within a mortise, domino or dowel and not exposed to the elements, with added protection of a spar varnish or paint.

I dunno, I just don't see why it is needed so much, greatly over hyped for 95% of uses.

I snuck out into the shed while this storm was raging and did 2219 joints with my Domino in 58 minutes.

Only joking.

I have the Leigh FMT, a Porter Cable biscuit jointer, a cheapie dowel jig (which gives strength "as good as you get" from a dowel joint), plus a HD morticing table on my Minimax CU 300.

That's not boasting, only saying that I've tried most of the competition - and for smallish jobs you just can't beat the Domino. Screws with a Kreg might be just as strong, but I won't go that low on a project that has screw holes in the back of what I'm making.

You gotta draw the line somewhere and dowels just don't do it for me anymore. (not since I bought the Domino).

regards Jeff

Originally Posted by Groggy

Chopping boards is a good application for it, what else though? I've seen it used on a bunch of furniture and can't see why they don't use plain white or aliphatic. For outdoor use wouldn't it normally be within a mortise, domino or dowel and not exposed to the elements, with added protection of a spar varnish or paint.

I dunno, I just don't see why it is needed so much, greatly over hyped for 95% of uses.

Groggy, I used it for the outdoor table I made (with dominoes) primarily because I used Intergrain Natural Turpentine as the finish. For normal furniture apps I use TB II. Gives adequate time for construction and seems to hold everything together.

Ah. Refreshing night's sleep. Let's see where we are.

I use Titebond II for nearly everything, but like LGS I use III for outdoor stuff. For more open time, Titebond makes a II-Extend which is handy for complex glue-ups.

Poly glue is OK for rough work or where you don't care what the end result looks like. Handy for workshop projects. But I still don't like its handling characteristics and it has a short shelf life.

Originally Posted by Lignum

The old wives tales is a crack up

Only if they is standing on they's head.

US-Oz, you mentioned buying compressed dowels from Rockler ... do they have metric dowels? All I saw were imperial. Don't forget that you have metric guides.