Thread: Festool Domino Frustration

Hi Darren trust me your not the only one!

A couple of times I have cut my mortices on the wronging side of the board. I have always had issues using the indexing pin in a domino hole to make a string of holes along the edge of a board.

When you say they didnt line up do you mean on the edges or on the faces of the boards? Usually when that happens to me its becuase I domino'd a few boards the wrong side up...

joez

Darren, the best thing about dominos is they are self repairing (glue, trim, repeat)

Dunno how many times I've mixed up the faces and had mismatched joins

There have been some good threads on techniques, one of them quite recent, I'll try and find it for you.

Here is one

I had one of those days on a project once. I just had to leave the garage and come back refreshed.

I had a look at some of your work, you make some excellent pieces , your name is familar from the AWR mag/bungendore gallery.

Good luck,

Andy

I have attached a pic of how the butt joints came out. I know I was to blame for the way it came out, I just dont understand how I do this when I am holding the fence down flat onto both pieces of timber.

Darren, how thick is the timber?
What was the setting on the domino for depth and what was the mis-alignment error (roughly)
Were you working quickly (pushing in fairly fast, like under 3 seconds per plunge)

Timber was Tassy Oak and was 18mm thick. I set the depth on the Domino to 20mm as there is no 18mm setting. I only had 14 to do so was in no rush but was amazing that not one lined up. I turned them up side down incase I had them the wrong way and they were even more out of alignment. As I said this does happen to me on the odd occasion and it is very frustrating. Most of the time though I do get perfect fits with the Domino.

Darren

Darren,

I suspect that if you are like me you suffer from the occasional brain pfhart and your method of referencing goes wrong. That, or you need to check the alignment of the pins and the window (covered in the links provided).

Here are some links which may help:

http://www.shopnotes.com/files/issue...ool-domino.pdf

http://www.festoolusa.com/media/pdf/...no_machine.pdf

Gary Katz Online: Festool Domino

http://www.festoolusa.com/media/pdf/domino_df_500.pdf

It may also be that the depth is just at that point when the base is also touching the bench while the fence is just a milli-pfhart from the workpiece but I'll need to have a look at mine over the weekend.

Not knowing what a Domino was I looked at some of the links.
Sure seems to be a handy tool for the dedicated woodworker.

Hi Darren
you say the missalignment problem only occurs occassionally

could it be that you are inadvertently cutting the styles by referencing off the face side and the rails referencing off the rear side

could it be that the domino is actually referencing off the bench for some cuts and off teh material for others?

Darren, there was a problem mentioned a while ago in these forums of the fence slipping. It is fixed by removing the lock handle and moving it around a little so it grips tighter. Try locking the handle and pushing the fence to see if it moves.

Will have alook at the lock, but I'm pretty sure its just me thats doing it. Had a very successfull day on monday with my Domino. Made about two dozen joints with everyone of them lining up beautifully.

Darren,

I've been there.
if you've got time could you answer these q's please:

Are the stile and rails the same thickness?
What setting do you have the domino on- exact, middle or plenty of movement?
Are you resting the timber on your bench or a board?
How do you mark where the Domino will bore?
When you are boring, do you have that front plate down on the piece you are working on?

(I have to admit- although it doesn't help you much, that when marking out these dominoes I just put a pencil mark, use a board on top of my router table for protection and use the router fence as a backing. haven't had a problem except when I've done them upside down like some of the others here.)

Graham

Originally Posted by Darren Oates

Will have alook at the lock, but I'm pretty sure its just me thats doing it. Had a very successfull day on monday with my Domino. Made about two dozen joints with everyone of them lining up beautifully.

Darren
I've had your Domino problem with a biscuit jointer
eventually traced the problem to inconsistent referencing -- sometimes when I though I was referencing off the stock, I was actually referencing off the uneven bench.
Problem hasn't reoccured (apart from stuff-ups related to having parts upside down )since I made sure I always used a clean MDF board under the stock being cut