Thread: Making your own domino

ye gods, that's a lot of dominos!

Originally Posted by Bernmc

ye gods, that's a lot of dominos!

Yes. a lot of them alright... but wont last too long, maybe 1-2 years.

Originally Posted by Albert

Made some domino over the Labour weekend. Been wanting to do this for awhile, Carbatec NZ confirmed I am the top consumer of the 14mm domino in NZ. given the size of it and they are sold by the weight, I decided to make my own.

Also bought a cheapo Festo router online recently
I do not own a router table, so I decided to make do with what I have.

Obviously I will only make large Domino say the likes of 14mm, because its less fiddly and Festool Domino are sold by the weight. I think making anything less than 10mm you might as well buy them, I have not complete a full price analysis but below are the tally and cost so far,

Buying used timber: $250
Buying second hand router: $150
Time spend transport timber and denail: 8 hours
Time spend ripping, planing, thicknessing: 9 hours
Time spend using router and cutting: 15 hours
Total time spent: 32 hours

dominos made:
100mm: 2121/212.1m
75mm: 2261/169.575m
50mm: 54/2.7m
Total domino made: 4436 pieces, 373m

Total length of timber bought: 208m of 32 x 32(equivalent of 416m of 16 x 32, Dominos are 14 x 28)
Total length of domino made: 373m
Total time taken: 32 hours
Wastage: 8.9%

11.65m (say 11m) of domino made per hour
Carbatec sells 8m of Domino for about $100 NZD, to buy 373m of 14mmx 100mm Domino cost $4600.

I can do 50m worth of 14x28 in 60 minutes using the router setup, If I use the SM it will be quicker, and better finish I believe.

Albert

what is your charge-out rate? i.e. the rate per hour that you charge your customers?

as Carbatec NZ's biggest consumer of 14 mm dominos, you should be able to buy them for considerably less than NZD $100.

Originally Posted by ian

Albert

what is your charge-out rate? i.e. the rate per hour that you charge your customers?

as Carbatec NZ's biggest consumer of 14 mm dominos, you should be able to buy them for considerably less than NZD $100.

Hi Ian.

I dont have a chargeout rate. I know I probably get paid $1 an hour after tax or something ridiculously low
Officially there is no discount given on Festool product in NZ
unofficially it is still cheaper to make domino than buying them. $140-$150 an hour making domino? Its not like I have customers lined up waiting to buy stuff anway...

I could have done them quicker but I wanted to keep a tally so I counted and stacked them while making them. could easily save 3 hours if I didnt count them. i could measure their weight and get the total numbers like how bank measure coins/notes but this is not accurate for Kwila.

Just on the Festool discount thing. I don’t know if it is different over the ditch but here they are allowed to discount consumerables but not the tools.
I have bought blades and sanding disks and been given a discount in the order of 10% from authorised dealers

Originally Posted by ian

what is your charge-out rate? i.e. the rate per hour that you charge your customers?

Originally Posted by Albert

I don't have a chargeout rate. I know I probably get paid $1 an hour after tax or something ridiculously low

Albert
I won't go into charge-out rates, apart from saying your rate should reflect somewhat your cost to operate all that machinery in the double garage.


What I was alluding to was the cost for you to make the domino dowels vs buying them from Carbatec NZ.
Yes, as you have demonstrated, making the dominos yourself was cheaper than buying them from Carbatec, but ...
32 hours is four, 8 hour days -- yes I know you probably spent less than 3 days making the dominos -- but in those 2 or 3 days you could have spent your time touting for additional business, or making a piece of furniture on spec.


you have a very very understanding SWMBO if you are allowed to spend as long as you seem to in your extraordinarily equipped "shed"

Originally Posted by Beardy

Just on the Festool discount thing. I don’t know if it is different over the ditch but here they are allowed to discount consumerables but not the tools.
I have bought blades and sanding disks and been given a discount in the order of 10% from authorised dealers

I suspect this is similar over here...

Originally Posted by ian

Albert
I won't go into charge-out rates, apart from saying your rate should reflect somewhat your cost to operate all that machinery in the double garage.


What I was alluding to was the cost for you to make the domino dowels vs buying them from Carbatec NZ.
Yes, as you have demonstrated, making the dominos yourself was cheaper than buying them from Carbatec, but ...
32 hours is four, 8 hour days -- yes I know you probably spent less than 3 days making the dominos -- but in those 2 or 3 days you could have spent your time touting for additional business, or making a piece of furniture on spec.


you have a very very understanding SWMBO if you are allowed to spend as long as you seem to in your extraordinarily equipped "shed"

I know Ian. I know exactly what you are saying.
a few factors that made me do it:

- I needed the Domino that week. I dont want to spend $100 NZD on a small bag, its $100. I spent close to $10,000 with Carbatec in the last 12 months, consumables only, mostly domino, some sand paper.
- I am not very innovative/creative it takes me months to come up with a new product on my own, usually I make to what my client want.
- I hate setting up machine (especially Spindle moulder) to do different jobs for 1-2 cut only and then have to revert back to whatever setting it was for another blade/cutter, perhaps I am just too lazy.

SWMBO and kids are overseas now due to Covid, currently I spend more time in the workshop/yard than in the house I think! lol

32 hours actually spanned over 7-9 days - still got a day time job.

Geezus!!! You deserve a medal.

Funny enough I had to make some today. I wanted something longer than the standard 48mm (size 10), so I made some 55mm out of some redgum offcuts.

Sorry someone has to say it. YOU are MAD.

Originally Posted by Wongo

Sorry someone has to say it. YOU are MAD.

but at least Albert hasn't resorted to the bottle ...

Originally Posted by Albert

SWMBO and kids are overseas now due to Covid, currently I spend more time in the workshop/yard than in the house I think! lol

explains a great deal ...

I can't believe you didn't just run 3m lengths on the moulder and cut them up after

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

I can't believe you didn't just run 3m lengths on the moulder and cut them up after

As I understand Albert's reasoning ...

he needed the dominos.
he didn't have shaper knives with the right profile.
he had a low cost (2nd hand) Festool router
he just "got on with making them"