Domino Trick

[Matt Meiser]

On the island for my parents' kitchen I needed to attach a skirt board around a pullout work surface made that is a maple glue-up. Since its been moving like crazy since I got it I knew I'd have to account for that in my design. I used 5x20 Dominos for alignment, with the front one on the "just fits" setting and the middle and back on the widest setting. Then for mounting I used the Domino to cut slots for screws.

First, I marked where each screw should go and from the back side I cut a Domino slot on the 10mm depth setting and the "just fits" setting for width.

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Next, I installed the 10mm cutter, left all the other settings the same, and cut a slot from the other side.

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That slot holds a pan head screw perfectly.

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A 10mm Domino fills the slot and gets cut off and sanded flush.

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[Bill Borchardt]

I like it!

Good thinking & good tip.

Thanks . . .

Billbo
Smyrna GA

[John Keeton]

One more of the million ways to use a Domino!! Pretty slick.

[Greg Hines, MD]

That is a smooth way to do it.

In a related topic, I remember someone suggesting that if you might be needing to screw into particle board or Melamine, that a Domino in the right place would give you good purchase for screws and such.

Doc

[Alex Leslie]

That might have been me. I used dominos as cross-dowels in MDF and Melamine sheet goods to catch screws coming in from a perpendicular panel. In Melamine, I cut blind domino slots from inside the cabinet and cut the dominos flush, covering them with a strip of Fastcap edge band tape.

Using the domino as a cross-dowel, you have a larger target to hit than a traditional round dowel and from and engineering standpoint, it also spreads the pulling force of the screw over a larger area on the edge of the sheeet. I have never had one fail.