YorkshireMartin
Established Member
Like many of you, I've seen many mentions of the Domino on this forum and elsewhere over the years.
The first time I saw it discussed I thought it sounded very useful, so off I went to google. My research was quickly ended, along with the working life of my computer keyboard, when I saw the price and spat my cup of tea all over the desk. In the two years since, I've been working on developing a basic level of skill with hand tools and learning to construct simple joints, particularly mortice and tenon, by hand. One point of note, I don't like using metal fasteners in my projects and if it's possible to avoid it by any means, I will. It's just a personal preference which I initially intended as a personal goal, that I may or may not now be regretting :lol:
After a career break I'd decided to pursue woodworking as an alternative path. I set aside a significant portion of my savings to pursue the subject, so I would not feel like I had to work to a tight budget, which I felt may have added pressure to an already difficult scenario. I'd never done anything like woodwork before, so I decided to put ambition ahead of finance. But I did want to do this for an income eventually, that was and always has been, my goal. I realised I had to walk before I could run. In fact, when it came to it, I found that woodworking was more a case of being able to roll over, then crawl, then walk and then run! I think I'm still at the crawling stage.
My hand tool journey has gone reasonably well, but has been an eye opener. Cutting a mortice and tenon with the precision that I've since found out they inherently require, is one heck of a challenge for me, as a beginner. I had no idea so many different skills would come into play. I accomplished it eventually, with some degree of precision on my 5ft bench. It fitted together, anyway. Cutting 16 large M&T's had taken me several days using a chisel, mallet and saw, which I'm sure isn't abnormal for a complete beginner, but left me feeling like if I was ever going to try to produce pieces commercially, as per my ambition, I either needed to invest a couple of years doing nothing but cutting joints by hand for practice, or find an alternative route. I wish an apprenticeship had been an option for me, but sadly it was never to be. Maybe in the next life.
About a month ago I started to browse the newly delivered Festool catalog and up pops the domino. This time, the larger and meaner XL version. "Now we're talking" I thought to myself. It seemed like my work bench could have been made in a few hours, rather than a few days, with joints of almost equal stature to those cut by hand.
The thought of it kept nagging at me. I did have a budget, which at least was something, but could I really justify such an expensive tool at such an early stage in my learning? Was it even appropriate for me? More importantly, was I shirking the learning phase? Well, yes, yes and yes. It felt like a fit to me, but perhaps I would be compromising myself and my goals in some ways too.
I visited Axminster in Warrington and bought the domino XL and some boxes of dominos. It set me back just over £1000, all told. As I was loading the car, a chap approached me and instantly clocked me for the aspiration hobbyist I was, saying "oh, splashing the cash buddy". A mild insult perhaps, but I don't exactly look like a joiner and to be fair, Festool are oft regarded as perhaps the tools a 1980's yuppie would have chosen whereas "real" tradesmen probably go for Makita ,Dewalt of Bosch. Who knows, maybe I misunderstood? In any case, I'm not one to simply throw cash at a problem and hope to get away with it, so in a way, the encounter made me more determined than ever to make my investment pay off. I have to prove myself, to myself.
A couple of days later I had the time to sit down and look at the Domino itself. It's a big, beefy machine but as with most Festool products, an silly person could use it. Lucky for me then. :lol:
The machine feels weighty, it's fair to say, but at the same time it's ergonomic. The body consists of the usual Festool blue nylon, which has a reasonable quality feel, although if I'm honest, the best feeling plastic bodies I've encountered belong to the Makita professional range (not the B&Q SKU's, generally). I'd be mostly unconcerned if I was to drop a Makita but I'm always on edge slightly if I use a Festool, although this may be due to the not-insignificant price premium. As a point of note, on the TS55 track saw, Festool use a weaker ABS plastic on the motor housing cover to act as a "crumple zone" in the event of a drop, so that is perhaps the case on the Domino? I'm not sure and I'd have to tear it apart to tell, still, it's an interesting approach to tackling the problem of site durability.
The front handle makes it easy to maneuver into position and you never feel as though you're wrestling the fence onto the workpiece. As with (almost) all Festools, the calibration is close to perfect out of the box. They seem to have solved the issue with the alignment of the magnifying acrylic window being out of line with the calibration marks on the base plate, previously the first thing that a buyer would have had to tackle. The spring loaded pins on the working face are intended for lateral alignment of the mortices themselves and are graduated, but also provide a nice positive indication that you have located the machine correctly on the face of the stock to be morticed. They locate with a soft "click", which it's fair to say is almost as satisfying as popping bubble wrap.
There are two levers around the fence, one allows you to alter the fence angle, which is self explanatory, and the other, the height as measured from the fence (top face of the work piece) to the centre of the bit. I think I'd prefer it if the levers felt a little more substantial, I keep thinking I will twist them off or break them. On my tool, the height adjustment handle is a bit stiff, but I think it's because it's new. If it doesn't wear in, I'll probably fire off an email to customer services.
The height gauge is easy to adjust, simplicity itself. It works by using a stepped plastic insert to support the fence at a given height and is marked in graduations of 5mm, 10mm being the minimum height on the Domino XL. You can also set the height manually in graduations of 1mm, which on such a big machine is a little faffy, but you do get the feeling that once you set it, it will stay there, so time to set up not really a major issue as users of this tool will be making repetitive cuts.
The plunge depth is set by means of a gauge under the main handle near the base of the machine on the left side. It is locked by default and needs to be released by using a simple pinch grip. You then slide it to the desired plunge depth, which ordinarily of course, is going to be half the length of the domino you are using. The maximum depth of plunge is 70mm. This will be more than adequate for almost any joinery I would think.
An additional lever is present on the left side of the machine, just below the power button. It is important, as it sets tolerance for the mortices. There are two settings, let's call them tight and loose. On tight setting, dry fitted domino's are so tight in the mortices that it takes considerable effort to remove by hand. On the loose setting, they are rather sloppy, surprisingly so, actually. For alignment of say, a table top, you'd probably want to index using a tight mortice, then follow up with loose, to allow for any compound inaccuracies. This does work very well and is a simple feature to make use of.
Regarding the power button itself. I have short thumbs, yet it is easy to reach. I have one criticism here and that is that it is a simple on/off switch. I would have liked to have seen an additional safety feature in the form of a secondary button. I'm not a health and safety anorak, but I do view any type of router as a dangerous tool, perhaps more dangerous than a saw. The bits are small, incredibly sharp and plunging. I realise this decision was probably taken with production speed in mind, as that is what the domino is designed to enhance, but still, it takes very little effort to activate a double power switch really.
I've handled the Domino 500 and between that and the 700 (XL) I'd say the XL is better balanced. Yes it's heavier and more laborious to position, but once it's there, it doesn't feel as though it's going anywhere, even on narrow stock or with the tool upended using the supplied brace. This has implications though, if you rely on manually holding the stock in place and using the domino single handed. This would be difficult to accomplish with the XL.
Dust collection is absolutely flawless. Not a single speck was to be seen anywhere during my test cuts. This is an area Festool are particularly known for and they did not disappoint with the XL.
The mortices are flawless, theres really not much else to say. Tearout is virtually non-existent but I have found that it's better to plunge slightly slower, especially into black walnut which I always find to be rather brittle. As someone said on another post somewhere, count to 4 during the cut.
So, on to my practical test. Does it work for a beginner?
I wanted to make something as a real test, so late one evening I went to Wickes to buy some "whitewood" that I could ruin with reckless abandon and not really worry about the cost too much. My wife suggested that our son needed a basic little desk for his room to do his colouring on, so that was my challenge.
From not even having read the instructions, how fast can I make a childs desk using the domino?
Well, the answer is as follows. 1.5 hours after arriving home with 2 x 2.4m lengths of natures' "curly wurly" I had a fully dry assembled desk. This included resawing the sections for the table top with my newly reconditioned bandsaw, for my first attempt at book matching and hand planing the top. I think the marking up and actual domino joinery took 30 minutes, for a beginner, with no real project plan. It was almost too easy. I can honestly say I did not feel the same sense of achievement that I did when I completed my bench by hand.
I'm finding it difficult, in my position as an inspirational amateur, to recommend the Domino. It's so effective and simple, that it draws your attention away from what woodworking may be about for a lot of us amateurs, the physical aspect of working the wood. It creates a production line out of a craftsman. I know how this sounds, given my aspirations and generally positive view of the tool, but I think these days, in the age of convenience, availability and instant gratification, those of us that started working with this wonderful and varied natural product to feel perhaps that little bit different, to relax, to have our time as craftsmen, might find it detrimental to their own goals as an individual.
This is the microwave meal of woodworking, a convenience which we know is detrimental to us, but which we accept in order to achieve balance with our overall objectives in life. This is about nothing more than time. It was never intended as anything else of course, and providing that is kept in mind, the Domino is a very good tool, in fact it is superb. It is innovative, well made, balanced, powerful and, when combined with some adapters from Seneca Woodworking, extremely versatile. I cannot fault it as a tool really, either functionally or aesthetically.
Contrary to my points above, there is the opposing argument for someone who needs to make a living, that actually, perhaps the act of creating a mortice and tenon by hand isn't really what is important when you've done it 5,000 times. Assuming a competent level of skill in joinery, the Domino frees up the craftsman to spend more time on innovation. Does the customer actually care how the joints were physically made, as long as they were by the hands of a craftsman and not as a consequence mass production? Probably not, design and the feeling of a custom piece is what sells I would think. The intangibles are what become important once quality is assured.
I envy the more experienced craftsmen who can concentrate on the creativity in their work. It must be so liberating to know that anything you visualise, you can make. What a thing to achieve! One day I will make it to that point, until then, I must content myself with each joint in itself, being my best efforts at a work of art.
I think if, like me, you're at the stage when you're still learning how to cut mortice and tenons by hand and learning joinery in general, the domino is something to set aside or at least use sparingly until you've enjoyed the learning experience. For the more experienced among us, who earn their living by designing and crafting furniture or cabinetry, I'd argue that the Domino is an almost essential tool, if for no other reason than efficiency. If you have the work, it would make you easy money, it's as simple as that.
It all comes down to what you want from your woodworking journey. As for me, I plan to continue learning with hand tools and where I feel confident I would be able to cut the required joints by hand, time being the only constraint, then I will use the domino. If not, I will cut it by hand. My own version of a self taught apprenticeship and a means of ensuring I don't miss out on learning. There might be a happy medium elsewhere for some craftsmen, such as tenoning on a bandsaw or with a router jig, it becomes personal preference.
I love what I do, perhaps more so when I've failed a few times and the domino virtually eliminates that possibility in "simple" M&T joinery. For me, this is the only negative.
I've attached a picture of the "30 minute" desk. It needs finishing but frankly the wood is so poor Im not sure I'll go too far, tearout on this cheap wood is awful. I might treat it to a chamfer if it's lucky. It's not been anywhere near a planer/thicknesser, so I think I'm lucky to even get close to something acceptable. The top has already started to cup, before I've had the chance to make internal cauls. :lol: After morticing the wrong side of one of the slats, I decided to add mortices to each side as a reminder that this was my first domino mistake. They might also contrast quite nicely.
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
PS. With this little desk I also learned something about clamping during glue ups. Can anyone spot what it might be?
The first time I saw it discussed I thought it sounded very useful, so off I went to google. My research was quickly ended, along with the working life of my computer keyboard, when I saw the price and spat my cup of tea all over the desk. In the two years since, I've been working on developing a basic level of skill with hand tools and learning to construct simple joints, particularly mortice and tenon, by hand. One point of note, I don't like using metal fasteners in my projects and if it's possible to avoid it by any means, I will. It's just a personal preference which I initially intended as a personal goal, that I may or may not now be regretting :lol:
After a career break I'd decided to pursue woodworking as an alternative path. I set aside a significant portion of my savings to pursue the subject, so I would not feel like I had to work to a tight budget, which I felt may have added pressure to an already difficult scenario. I'd never done anything like woodwork before, so I decided to put ambition ahead of finance. But I did want to do this for an income eventually, that was and always has been, my goal. I realised I had to walk before I could run. In fact, when it came to it, I found that woodworking was more a case of being able to roll over, then crawl, then walk and then run! I think I'm still at the crawling stage.
My hand tool journey has gone reasonably well, but has been an eye opener. Cutting a mortice and tenon with the precision that I've since found out they inherently require, is one heck of a challenge for me, as a beginner. I had no idea so many different skills would come into play. I accomplished it eventually, with some degree of precision on my 5ft bench. It fitted together, anyway. Cutting 16 large M&T's had taken me several days using a chisel, mallet and saw, which I'm sure isn't abnormal for a complete beginner, but left me feeling like if I was ever going to try to produce pieces commercially, as per my ambition, I either needed to invest a couple of years doing nothing but cutting joints by hand for practice, or find an alternative route. I wish an apprenticeship had been an option for me, but sadly it was never to be. Maybe in the next life.
About a month ago I started to browse the newly delivered Festool catalog and up pops the domino. This time, the larger and meaner XL version. "Now we're talking" I thought to myself. It seemed like my work bench could have been made in a few hours, rather than a few days, with joints of almost equal stature to those cut by hand.
The thought of it kept nagging at me. I did have a budget, which at least was something, but could I really justify such an expensive tool at such an early stage in my learning? Was it even appropriate for me? More importantly, was I shirking the learning phase? Well, yes, yes and yes. It felt like a fit to me, but perhaps I would be compromising myself and my goals in some ways too.
I visited Axminster in Warrington and bought the domino XL and some boxes of dominos. It set me back just over £1000, all told. As I was loading the car, a chap approached me and instantly clocked me for the aspiration hobbyist I was, saying "oh, splashing the cash buddy". A mild insult perhaps, but I don't exactly look like a joiner and to be fair, Festool are oft regarded as perhaps the tools a 1980's yuppie would have chosen whereas "real" tradesmen probably go for Makita ,Dewalt of Bosch. Who knows, maybe I misunderstood? In any case, I'm not one to simply throw cash at a problem and hope to get away with it, so in a way, the encounter made me more determined than ever to make my investment pay off. I have to prove myself, to myself.
A couple of days later I had the time to sit down and look at the Domino itself. It's a big, beefy machine but as with most Festool products, an silly person could use it. Lucky for me then. :lol:
The machine feels weighty, it's fair to say, but at the same time it's ergonomic. The body consists of the usual Festool blue nylon, which has a reasonable quality feel, although if I'm honest, the best feeling plastic bodies I've encountered belong to the Makita professional range (not the B&Q SKU's, generally). I'd be mostly unconcerned if I was to drop a Makita but I'm always on edge slightly if I use a Festool, although this may be due to the not-insignificant price premium. As a point of note, on the TS55 track saw, Festool use a weaker ABS plastic on the motor housing cover to act as a "crumple zone" in the event of a drop, so that is perhaps the case on the Domino? I'm not sure and I'd have to tear it apart to tell, still, it's an interesting approach to tackling the problem of site durability.
The front handle makes it easy to maneuver into position and you never feel as though you're wrestling the fence onto the workpiece. As with (almost) all Festools, the calibration is close to perfect out of the box. They seem to have solved the issue with the alignment of the magnifying acrylic window being out of line with the calibration marks on the base plate, previously the first thing that a buyer would have had to tackle. The spring loaded pins on the working face are intended for lateral alignment of the mortices themselves and are graduated, but also provide a nice positive indication that you have located the machine correctly on the face of the stock to be morticed. They locate with a soft "click", which it's fair to say is almost as satisfying as popping bubble wrap.
There are two levers around the fence, one allows you to alter the fence angle, which is self explanatory, and the other, the height as measured from the fence (top face of the work piece) to the centre of the bit. I think I'd prefer it if the levers felt a little more substantial, I keep thinking I will twist them off or break them. On my tool, the height adjustment handle is a bit stiff, but I think it's because it's new. If it doesn't wear in, I'll probably fire off an email to customer services.
The height gauge is easy to adjust, simplicity itself. It works by using a stepped plastic insert to support the fence at a given height and is marked in graduations of 5mm, 10mm being the minimum height on the Domino XL. You can also set the height manually in graduations of 1mm, which on such a big machine is a little faffy, but you do get the feeling that once you set it, it will stay there, so time to set up not really a major issue as users of this tool will be making repetitive cuts.
The plunge depth is set by means of a gauge under the main handle near the base of the machine on the left side. It is locked by default and needs to be released by using a simple pinch grip. You then slide it to the desired plunge depth, which ordinarily of course, is going to be half the length of the domino you are using. The maximum depth of plunge is 70mm. This will be more than adequate for almost any joinery I would think.
An additional lever is present on the left side of the machine, just below the power button. It is important, as it sets tolerance for the mortices. There are two settings, let's call them tight and loose. On tight setting, dry fitted domino's are so tight in the mortices that it takes considerable effort to remove by hand. On the loose setting, they are rather sloppy, surprisingly so, actually. For alignment of say, a table top, you'd probably want to index using a tight mortice, then follow up with loose, to allow for any compound inaccuracies. This does work very well and is a simple feature to make use of.
Regarding the power button itself. I have short thumbs, yet it is easy to reach. I have one criticism here and that is that it is a simple on/off switch. I would have liked to have seen an additional safety feature in the form of a secondary button. I'm not a health and safety anorak, but I do view any type of router as a dangerous tool, perhaps more dangerous than a saw. The bits are small, incredibly sharp and plunging. I realise this decision was probably taken with production speed in mind, as that is what the domino is designed to enhance, but still, it takes very little effort to activate a double power switch really.
I've handled the Domino 500 and between that and the 700 (XL) I'd say the XL is better balanced. Yes it's heavier and more laborious to position, but once it's there, it doesn't feel as though it's going anywhere, even on narrow stock or with the tool upended using the supplied brace. This has implications though, if you rely on manually holding the stock in place and using the domino single handed. This would be difficult to accomplish with the XL.
Dust collection is absolutely flawless. Not a single speck was to be seen anywhere during my test cuts. This is an area Festool are particularly known for and they did not disappoint with the XL.
The mortices are flawless, theres really not much else to say. Tearout is virtually non-existent but I have found that it's better to plunge slightly slower, especially into black walnut which I always find to be rather brittle. As someone said on another post somewhere, count to 4 during the cut.
So, on to my practical test. Does it work for a beginner?
I wanted to make something as a real test, so late one evening I went to Wickes to buy some "whitewood" that I could ruin with reckless abandon and not really worry about the cost too much. My wife suggested that our son needed a basic little desk for his room to do his colouring on, so that was my challenge.
From not even having read the instructions, how fast can I make a childs desk using the domino?
Well, the answer is as follows. 1.5 hours after arriving home with 2 x 2.4m lengths of natures' "curly wurly" I had a fully dry assembled desk. This included resawing the sections for the table top with my newly reconditioned bandsaw, for my first attempt at book matching and hand planing the top. I think the marking up and actual domino joinery took 30 minutes, for a beginner, with no real project plan. It was almost too easy. I can honestly say I did not feel the same sense of achievement that I did when I completed my bench by hand.
I'm finding it difficult, in my position as an inspirational amateur, to recommend the Domino. It's so effective and simple, that it draws your attention away from what woodworking may be about for a lot of us amateurs, the physical aspect of working the wood. It creates a production line out of a craftsman. I know how this sounds, given my aspirations and generally positive view of the tool, but I think these days, in the age of convenience, availability and instant gratification, those of us that started working with this wonderful and varied natural product to feel perhaps that little bit different, to relax, to have our time as craftsmen, might find it detrimental to their own goals as an individual.
This is the microwave meal of woodworking, a convenience which we know is detrimental to us, but which we accept in order to achieve balance with our overall objectives in life. This is about nothing more than time. It was never intended as anything else of course, and providing that is kept in mind, the Domino is a very good tool, in fact it is superb. It is innovative, well made, balanced, powerful and, when combined with some adapters from Seneca Woodworking, extremely versatile. I cannot fault it as a tool really, either functionally or aesthetically.
Contrary to my points above, there is the opposing argument for someone who needs to make a living, that actually, perhaps the act of creating a mortice and tenon by hand isn't really what is important when you've done it 5,000 times. Assuming a competent level of skill in joinery, the Domino frees up the craftsman to spend more time on innovation. Does the customer actually care how the joints were physically made, as long as they were by the hands of a craftsman and not as a consequence mass production? Probably not, design and the feeling of a custom piece is what sells I would think. The intangibles are what become important once quality is assured.
I envy the more experienced craftsmen who can concentrate on the creativity in their work. It must be so liberating to know that anything you visualise, you can make. What a thing to achieve! One day I will make it to that point, until then, I must content myself with each joint in itself, being my best efforts at a work of art.
I think if, like me, you're at the stage when you're still learning how to cut mortice and tenons by hand and learning joinery in general, the domino is something to set aside or at least use sparingly until you've enjoyed the learning experience. For the more experienced among us, who earn their living by designing and crafting furniture or cabinetry, I'd argue that the Domino is an almost essential tool, if for no other reason than efficiency. If you have the work, it would make you easy money, it's as simple as that.
It all comes down to what you want from your woodworking journey. As for me, I plan to continue learning with hand tools and where I feel confident I would be able to cut the required joints by hand, time being the only constraint, then I will use the domino. If not, I will cut it by hand. My own version of a self taught apprenticeship and a means of ensuring I don't miss out on learning. There might be a happy medium elsewhere for some craftsmen, such as tenoning on a bandsaw or with a router jig, it becomes personal preference.
I love what I do, perhaps more so when I've failed a few times and the domino virtually eliminates that possibility in "simple" M&T joinery. For me, this is the only negative.
I've attached a picture of the "30 minute" desk. It needs finishing but frankly the wood is so poor Im not sure I'll go too far, tearout on this cheap wood is awful. I might treat it to a chamfer if it's lucky. It's not been anywhere near a planer/thicknesser, so I think I'm lucky to even get close to something acceptable. The top has already started to cup, before I've had the chance to make internal cauls. :lol: After morticing the wrong side of one of the slats, I decided to add mortices to each side as a reminder that this was my first domino mistake. They might also contrast quite nicely.
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
PS. With this little desk I also learned something about clamping during glue ups. Can anyone spot what it might be?
