Festool Domino advice Please

[Aled Dafis]

Thanks Steve.

I'm quite familiar with your level of impartiality, and trust your opinions, regardles of the fact that you've managed to wangle a shedload of the best woodworking gear out there.

Please Jim can you fix it for me to be "Steve Maskery, International Woodworking Superstar" just for a day?

Do you have any Domino reviews published that you could link to on the web? or any other Domino related jiggery?

Thanks

Aled

 

[Steve Maskery]

Actually, most of my Festool kit was acquired the traditional way of handing over shedloads of money in exchange for some of the best woodworking gear out there.
If that helps

Sorry, I don't know of any online material.

Cheers
Steve

 

[p111dom]

I have one and the jury's still out for me. Its ergonomically flawed in lots of ways. It's effectively just a slot morticer but the fact that it waggles means that the mortices don't have parallell sides which in some circumstanses can be a pain. The dust extraction hose is slightly too close to the main body for comfort for me and the connection is a funny size. On one side there are standard depth setting whcih bare no relation to the material sizes anyone would use and they show full material thickness. However the fence you set to half the thickness of the material you are joining so the mix of the two half and full sizes can be confussing. There's a seperate depth switch which is fiddly and again shows the actual depth of the mortice to be cut. So this is half the Domino size you'll use. But it doesn't even cut to that setting, it goes a little beyond that persumably to account for glue. So if you have it on a 15mm setting and the material is 16mm the bit will just blow out the other side. My main gripes are that it all feets a bit flimsy to me. The dust port has loads of flex so you feel if you just caught it the wrong way it would snap off. It's all well made but does feel delicate and certainly not up to the Industrial abuse it would get if used in that environment. Certainly not for sight use. The Dominos in geraral are too short and small giving the tool a much smaller scope than I'd hoped for. Don't expect to be making tables are anything with it. To joint boards together a biscuit joiner is still a better proposition. That means it's relegated to face frames and smaller items which I don't tent to make. At £500 plus it's scope is too limited to justify the price. Mine may be destined for ebay.

 

[Oryxdesign]

I have one and the jury's still out for me. Its ergonomically flawed in lots of ways. It's effectively just a slot morticer but the fact that it waggles means that the mortices don't have parallell sides which in some circumstanses can be a pain. The dust extraction hose is slightly too close to the main body for comfort for me and the connection is a funny size. On one side there are standard depth setting whcih bare no relation to the material sizes anyone would use and they show full material thickness. However the fence you set to half the thickness of the material you are joining so the mix of the two half and full sizes can be confussing. There's a seperate depth switch which is fiddly and again shows the actual depth of the mortice to be cut. So this is half the Domino size you'll use. But it doesn't even cut to that setting, it goes a little beyond that persumably to account for glue. So if you have it on a 15mm setting and the material is 16mm the bit will just blow out the other side. My main gripes are that it all feets a bit flimsy to me. The dust port has loads of flex so you feel if you just caught it the wrong way it would snap off. It's all well made but does feel delicate and certainly not up to the Industrial abuse it would get if used in that environment. Certainly not for sight use. The Dominos in geraral are too short and small giving the tool a much smaller scope than I'd hoped for. Don't expect to be making tables are anything with it. To joint boards together a biscuit joiner is still a better proposition. That means it's relegated to face frames and smaller items which I don't tent to make. At £500 plus it's scope is too limited to justify the price. Mine may be destined for ebay.

I have been using one regularly since they came out, it did take a while to understand the nuances of the tool but I haven't had the same experince as you. Incidently the domino doesn't need to be in the centre of the joint so as long as you use a consistent datum face the material thickness setting doesn't need to be spot on (eg when using 19mm veneered MDF I use the 20mm preset). The extraction port is sized to accept the hose from Festools own extractor, I don't have one of those and keep meaning to buy one of their hoses as an adaptor for my extractor but they are quite dear and as it doesn't cause me too much trouble I haven't bothered. I don't own a biscuit jointer so I can't compare but I have found it to be great for me.

 

[p111dom]

I've heard that argument before that the domino doesn't needn't be in the centre of the joint which is true but who uses 16, 20 and 22mm material on a regular basis? It just shows a lack of understanding by the designers and a error that should have been sopted early on in R&D. The fact that it wasn't is a little worrying. If all you make are face frames by the dozen then it's a great tool and would save you masses of time but beyond that.......All I know is my mate's makita biscuit jointer gets thrown about on site all the time and doesn't miss a beat. The very fact that it comes in it's own box that clamps the tool in a protective cocoon to prevent it from being damaged IMO is a testiment to how comparatively fragile the tool is. For the money I expect to be able to throw it off the roof, bury it in sand, dip it in water and it still work accurately. Not so with this tools. Perhaps I'm being unfair but if it cost more like £300, it would still be expensive but reasonable value for money. As they are about to put the prices up 10% that will make a new Domino around £551. Way, way way too much for what it does. Espectially since you have to dissasemble the front to change the bit size which takes time and in itself is a bit fiddly. Differing sizes are an on board adjustment on a biscuit jointer. Don't get me wrong it's a good tool but I would give the design concept an A, the execution a C, ergonomics a D, build quality and rugedness a D and an F for value for money.

 

[Oryxdesign]

I haven't found that it is a fragile tool or experienced the other problems you talk about. It is expensive I would agree and I quite like the nice boxes they sell their stuff in.

 

[wizer]

Could you not run batches of dominos out of ply wood? Are the thicknesses similar? I suspect not knowing festool. But this would make the dominoes a much more cost effective option.

 

[Oryxdesign]

They aren't that dear.

 

[Aled Dafis]

They aren't that dear.

Between 3 pence each for the smallest, and 9 pence for the largest - yes I am that sad.

Aled

 

[p111dom]

That's true, individually they are comparatively cheap but they sell them in boxes that cost £50. Four sizes and that's a £200 outlay for all sizes. Justifiavle for pros but most people will stick to one size to save these costs and that limits the tools use futher. Festool say all their products get drop tested. I can't see how the Domino would have passes such a test unless the drop was only 3 inches.

 

[JonnyD]

You can buy them in smaller packs for around £10.

jon

 

[p111dom]

I've seen that on ebay but my local place doesn't stock the small packs. It's imaterial at the moment. I have the sustainer with all the Dominos i and it's still pretty full. Annoyingly I thought I would get used to just one size and use that all the time but I do find I use them all. I've had projects where I've used all four sizes on the same piece.

 

[JonnyD]

An assorted box would be a good idea the same selection as you get in the systainer kit without the cutters and the systainer. I found I used these up pretty much at the same time. One of my suppliers Hafele lists the individual packs at 6.50 each plus vat if you buy 5 packs or more but never seem to have much stock.

jon

 

[Oryxdesign]

I have dropped mine a couple of times with no problems, it didn't even alter the settings, I can asure that the dust port is very strong.
You can also buy dominos in blister packs at the same relative price per domino, I buy mine from hafele and they are all £7.58 per pack, you get 300 5mm or 190 6mm or 130 8mm or 85 10mm, so you can get all the sizes for less than £50.
I hope I'm not coming across as being argumentative with you P111 that is not my aim but I have had a very different experience to you. I am a commercial user and have been using my domino hard for about a year, it did take me some time to get to grips with it. There was a point at the beginning when I thought I had made a mistake buying it, but now I have got to grips with it I think it's great. I can even get my unexperienced apprentice to make accurate joints and he's captain chaos!
Simon

 

[maitland.selwyn]

Thanks Steve.

Do you have any Domino reviews published that you could link to on the web? or any other Domino related jiggery?

Thanks

Aled

I don't know if this has already been mentioned but there's plenty of stuff about the domino here: http://www.festoolownersgroup.com
and here: http://www.talkfestool.com/vb/
I have downloaded a manual in pdf form here: http://www.festoolownersgroup.com/Coppe ... p?album=41
Hope this helps.

 

[Aled Dafis]

Thanks Richard

The Festool owners group link you posted was excellent - lots of magazine reviews in pdf format, including our own Steve Maskrey.

Aled

 

[eggflan]

OOPs






Mic..

 

[Jake]

Oh thanks, I was watching that. I'll take it off now.

 

[Steve Maskery]

The Festool owners group link you posted was excellent - lots of magazine reviews in pdf format, including our own Steve Maskery.

Hmm, I didn't know about that. I don't remember giving permission for my work to be published in that way. Now where did I put the phone number of my lawyer?

S

 

[eggflan]

Oh thanks, I was watching that. I'll take it off now.

So whats the problem then , why dont you make the chap an offer :?