Festool Domino

[Les Spencer]

Dennis,

Wow all those tenons in 2hrs. Beautiful design and build. What kind of timber was used?

[David Dundas]

Here is another project that is well suited to the Domino joiner. I found the design for this blanket chest in Fine Woodworking #129, and adapted it to use dominoes instead of mortise-and-tenon joinery. The Domino version of the design has 48 mortises, which were cut in an hour or so.

David Dundas

[Rick Potter]

John,

I have read all the posts on this thread, as well as following some of your reviews and demos on the Domino, although I havn't had time to finish them all yet. One alternative for the hobbyist not mentioned is the Beadlock, which also got favorable reviews on your site.

I gravitate towards making cabinets and case-type furniture using mostly Kreg Jig and biscuit joints. I have long thought moving up to mostly M/T and have done some work using loose tenons with a router.

I could probably come up with the bucks for the Domino, but I wonder if, in my situation, it is the best use of my tool money.

For a hobbyist like me, who is not a pro where time=money, and since you have used both, I wonder if you could comment on the Beadlock Vs. the Domino.

Rick Potter

PS: Other's comments invited also.

[Peter Pedisich]

Rick,

I'm not John but have used the Beadlock on three projects.

pros:
-produces a well fitting, strong joint.
-ability to make a nice deep mortise with a long drill bit.
-can also be used as dowel jig

cons:
-I got rough side walls in softwood even with new high quality twist drill bit.
-you can imagine the time all the drilling takes, small project no problem.
-router bits to make your own tenon stock are expensive.
-unique shape to tenon stock can be a problem, if you run low on a sunday...

Good Luck,

Pete

[Dennis O'Leary]

...but the Domino would fit your work like a glove. When you do a dry assembly, you're tempted to leave it like that and not bother with glue as the piece is solid, square and... perfect. After having to force dry joins apart and pulling out lots of domis with pliers, I set aside a special 'dry assembly' set that have been sanded slightly smaller. I think that Jack Dyer has pretty much given up on worrying with dry assembly, as his confidence in the fit is 100% now.

Although purists won't appreciate it much - and yes I too get a kick from a nicely finished M&T - the replacement of a joint that is generally invisible in the finished piece coupled with the speed and accuracy of assembly makes this one a no brainer for you - IMHO.

[John Russell]

Here is another project that is well suited to the Domino joiner. ... David Dundas

Seeing some of the applications for using loose tenons is very helpful ... keep posting the pictures!

[Rick Christopherson]

I've never made a video before, but last weekend I decided to try it as a possible extra for the contruction blog for my expanding round table. Last night I managed to convert it to mpeg and upload it to YouTube, which is another thing I haven't tried before.

I don't know what you will think of this, but it shows me using the Domino to mortise one side of the edging on one of the table leaves, and then dry fitting the pieces. Don't be too harsh. Keep in mind I had to be the camera man, director, producer, and actor all at the same time. On top of that, it was taken with the movie function from my still camera.

Domino Video

[Gary Eneberg]

Nice job on the vid. The more I see the domino in use, the more I think I need one.

Gary

[Jim Dailey]

Rick,

Your killing me....

In the time it would take to download your video with my 26k dial up.... I could walk from Rochester to where your at faster....

Then again it probably faster then the 2 month wait for the Domi

Based on your AFT 55, TS 55, & OF 1400 it will be worth the wait to read your new Domino manual.

jim

[Art Mann]

The Domino will never have a large share of the hobby joinery equipment market for precisely the same reason that Mercedes Benz will never have a large share of the automobile market. There are numerous alternatives that will do the job, albeit less elegantly, in either case. To continue my analogy further, if a Japanese manufacturer manages to produce a machine that works almost as well for half the price, as they have done with the car market, it will take the hobby woodworking market by storm.

JMNSHO

[David Dundas]

The Domino will never have a large share of the hobby joinery equipment market for precisely the same reason that Mercedes Benz will never have a large share of the automobile market. There are numerous alternatives that will do the job, albeit less elegantly, in either case. To continue my analogy further, if a Japanese manufacturer manages to produce a machine that works almost as well for half the price, as they have done with the car market, it will take the hobby woodworking market by storm.

JMNSHO

Art,

It all depends what you mean by 'large'; but I would not be surprised if 10% of American hobbyist woodworkers buy a Domino in the next few years. I got flamed on another thread for expressing the opinion that most American woodworkers could afford to buy a Domino, if they really wanted one. Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but I am pretty sure that a sizeable number will go for the Domino, even though it is possible to rout mortises fairly accurately and easily with a good mortising jig. Hobbyists who are affluent but time-poor will like the Domino because it enables them to achieve a lot in a limited time. Plenty of others will be quite content to spend more time using traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery, and will therefore find no benefit in owning a Domino.

Incidentally, I think there would be a big market among hobbyists for ready-made domino tenons in inch sizes, if they were sold in fairly small packs in a variety of common timbers, such as cherry, walnut, maple, and red and white oak. Hobbyists could then use floating tenon joinery by routing the mortises with a router.

Rick,

That is an impressive video; I have wondered myself about putting woodworking videos on You Tube; but I have never got around to trying it. I am wondering, though whether You Tube might get after you for putting what could be construed as promotional material on there. I promise I won't tell on you; but others might.

David

[John Russell]

I've never made a video before, but last weekend I decided to try it as a possible extra for the contruction blog for my expanding round table. Last night I managed to convert it to mpeg and upload it to YouTube, which is another thing I haven't tried before.

I don't know what you will think of this, but it shows me using the Domino to mortise one side of the edging on one of the table leaves, and then dry fitting the pieces. Don't be too harsh. Keep in mind I had to be the camera man, director, producer, and actor all at the same time. On top of that, it was taken with the movie function from my still camera.

Domino Video

Rick,
This answers several questions and shows the machine working ... it helps. I am a hobbyist and not much time to devote to all the projects I would like ... si time is a critical variable for me... the less time I spend setting up tools and learning how one tool or another works, the better. So, I might spend the money even though I am not in a production envrionment, time is an important variable for me. So, if the Festool way of doing things saves me time and helps me to solve problems and produce products for me, then the cost is worth it for me.

Thanks for the video... good job,

[Dennis O'Leary]

Good job Rick

You should've shown how flush the surfaces are.

I'm wondering why you used the 'tight' setting for all of the Dominoes, and also why you're not using the extension wings for your spacing, to preclude the need for marking out?

John has hit the nail on the head. My main justification for buying was just that - time in the shed. With a young family, and a senior position in the construction industry my shed time is limited and precious. I would love to be able to chip away lovingly with the Bergs and handsaws, making perfect joinery without burning 'lectrons, but my real kick is turning timber into something useful and hopefully beautiful. I know that The Dom will double my output - from two projects a season to 4!
There is something really satisfying about using it as well - whacking the mating piece home to find it perfectly in position, every time, is just great.

[Terry Fogarty]

I'm wondering why you used the 'tight' setting for all of the Dominoes, and also why you're not using the extension wings for your spacing

Mr O`Leary, havnt you worked out yet you carnt use both at the same time

[Rick Christopherson]

I don’t yet have any video editing software, so getting that video converted, compressed, and ready to upload was a major effort. I wasn’t going to make it public, but I thought I would post it buried in this thread to get some feedback on a “first effort”. Pretty much what you see is what came out of the camera, and that includes me walking to and from the camera to hit the shutter button.

Because these were actual workpieces for the table, it was difficult maintaining my concentration on doing the work properly while being cognizant of capturing a worthwhile video. Things go much smoother when the camera is not present. When I take still pictures, those are propped and I take a half-dozen brackets for a single final photo. I don’t have that luxury with video. In other words, the action is unscripted and totally on the fly.

David,
I don’t believe YouTube has any issues with promotional videos (short of advertisements), but more importantly, this isn’t promotional material because I’m not a Festool employee. Nevertheless, the video of Vitus Rommel (the product developer for Domino) is also on YouTube, but Festool didn’t upload it.

I put the video together to try it out as part of my construction blog. I was originally planning on just uploading the video to my own website until I realized that the file size would wipe out my remaining allotted storage space. What’s interesting is that I think I can embed the video directly into my own web pages even though it would still be hosted on YouTube.

Dennis,
I’m just a little anal retentive. I prefer to keep the tenons tight in the mortises. That’s the same reason why I don’t use the outriggers that I showed previously on my blog. It’s just a personal preference, and I can lay out the pencil lines faster than figuring out the best spacing distance of the outriggers.