Domino vs Pocket Holes

[Mike Holbrook]

I am about to embark on quite a few cabinet making projects. I'm talking hard use cabinets for my shop, basement and dog park/training business. I realize that it may not be fair to compare the Domino to Pocket Hole joinery but this is a construction method decision I am trying to make. I have a good supply of 1/2" ply, on sale form the Depot. I have been thinking about buying some hard pine or oak finished boards and using them for edging, frames around plywood doors & tops. I am wondering if the Domino would be a reasonable way to do the edge/frame joinery vs pocket holes? I do not think edge banding will give me a solid enough end product. I would rather not deal with MDF.

My Shop
My shop is (14' x 20'), in the basement I finished a few years ago. I have a 15' x 12' room off the shop room, with solid metal shelving & wall mounted steel wood supports. I use the smaller room for storage of wood, parts... In the shop I have a Drill Press, Small 2HP General Table Saw, the smaller INCA band saw, small Hammer workbench, wall hanging board (like peg board but much stronger), a decent assortment of powered and hand tools, clamps, measuring devices, work support.. I had the shop wired for 120/240 with its own breaker box. I have an old Dewalt 12" chop/mitre saw & stand- 14 years old & has seen much better days.

Festools: MFT/3, TS 55 EQ, OF 1400 EQ Router, CT 22 Mobile dust Extractor, a few clamps, hoses, guides, accessories... I also made a cutting table with: 3/4 plywood, solid wood edge frame (to place clamps on), foam board cover, removable water pipe base ( not as easy to move around as I had hoped ;-) ).

Thanks for your thoughts.

[frank shic]

it depends on how much time you want to spend and what the final customer is looking for. dominos are slower than pocket screws because you have to bore both the frame and the plywood as well as glue up the entire thing and clamping it but result in an invisible joint whereas pocket screws are much faster since you only have to bore the case and once the screws are driven in your joinery is finished but the pocket screw holes are ugly to look at on the outside of the case.

[Leo Graywacz]

If you are making joints that will be stressed then the domino will probably be a better choice. But since you are just building a cabinet, and if you glue everything to everything else then the dominos are just going to be wasted time. I put cabinets together with pocket screws on the FF and the rest is dadoed and glued with backs that are stapled on. Stiff as all get out and will last for decades.

[Jamie Buxton]

I'm not clear on what you're considering. You seem to talk about edgebanding with a domino, which doesn't make much sense. If you're edgebanding plywood, just butt-glue it on, and trim it flush to the plywood. If you're talking about fastening a face frame to a plywood box, again glue does a fine job. Some folks like to throw a few biscuits in there to help with alignment during the glue-up, but they're not structurally necessary.

If you're talking about the corners of the cabinet box, glue works just fine. Again, biscuits may help in alignment during the glue-up. Screws -- either pocket screws or screws straight through from the outside -- can stand in for pipe clamps during glue-up. But it is the glue that really holds the box together.

There's not a lot of reason to make these things more complex than need be. They're shop cabinets.

[johnny means]

IMO Domino joinery is overkill for faceframes. Faceframes on a well built cabinet wont be subjected to much in the way of racking forces. Pocket holes on the other hand offer plenty of strength and eliminate clamping time.

[Prashun Patel]

The Domino will allow you to construct the carcasses as well.

Pocket holes remain visible on one side and are weaker than Dominos.

If funds are unlimited, I think the Domino is a more robust long term choice.

The two reasons to choose pocket holes are speed and price.

[Brad Gobble]

everything else just speeds it up or aids in alignment.

Pocket screws, appropriate dados, and Tightbond2 is fast, efficient, strong.

Edgebanding vs. faceframe (euro vs. traditional, right?): if you have the edgebanding equipment it leaves a clean look, but don't forget the cost. Ripping down 1/4" stirps to be gluded to the edge takes a little longer but is more resiliant in the shop. For traditional, pocket screwed face frame (with glue) is strong, fast, and looks great.

domino is a waste of time / $ / effort for what you're doing. Yes, I CAN work, but why bother? A long, glued edge is 10x stronger.

The last set of cabs I built were actually rolling carts for a sewing room. I used pre-finished cabinet grade birch ply, zero fasteners, and Tightbond2, and lock miter edges with a dado'd back. Edge-banded exposed edges. Downside: you need lots of clamps. upside: ZERO finish work except for water based poly over the edge banding. No filled nail holes (personal pet peeve).

About to start add'l shop cabs out of the same material, but will not use edge-banding due to durability issues - I am just too hard on them. I'll be glueing 1/4" maple strips to front edge, pocket screws, stapled backs, and lots of glue.j

Oh yeah, and use a gluebot by fastcap for applying glue ... love those things!

[Mike Holbrook]

Thanks for the great replies,
My reference to edge banding (using the thin strips of veneer on plywood edges) was just to mention that I had eliminated that construction alternative as not being sturdy enough.

I thought that using the Domino might take more time but not having used one... I was also wondering about the strength of the two construction methods. My dog training/housing building sees some very hard use. We plan to put down a rubber floor soon so we can train bite work & OB in the room... 75 -100 lb dogs running full speed leaping in the air & making bites on people also in motion can generate considerable force against a cabinet. Of course, we plan not to work close to any cabinets, but the police officers want to do building searches and one can not always stop a flying German Shepherd at an exact calculated spot. 10 -15 large dogs rough housing near where the cabinets will be will occur almost every day.

Dog food, dog working equipment etc. are heavy. Our dogs are trained to locate lots of scents, if some attractive scent happens to be in a cabinet.. Many of these dogs figure out how to open house doors on their own and they may just feel that my cabinets are another interesting challenge.

I'm still leaning towards pocket holes but sturdiness is a major concern.

[Byron Trantham]

Oh yeah, and use a gluebot by fastcap for applying glue ... love those things!

+999 for the gluebot! :-)

[Mike Heidrick]

1/2" ply seems to be the weak link against dogs of that caliber I would think.

[frank shic]

i gotta fill that gluebot up one of these days lol

[Jay Allen]

+999 for the gluebot! :-)

Me too. I have 3 of them (with different types of glue) and I wouldn't know what to do w/o them.