Festool domino: benefits + price
- Thread starter Mjward
- Start date
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No you didn't. Maybe I misinterpreted your unnecessarily presumptuous and aggressive tone.
Spot on
How unnecessarily kind of you. I'm humbled by your obvious vastly superior opinion of yourself.
Can we please just be polite when we have a disagreement, as @paulrbarnard pointed out the initial reply was off topic anyway and our language is open to interpretation so we do not always get what we actually mean across, thank you.
It's going to make zero real world difference that the OE stops will be slightly off centre, just as it makes zero real world difference to use the wide setting where appropriate. The temptation to treat everything as requiring precision engineering can lead to other categories of error.
Good point. I apologise for my reaction to a rude response to what I hoped had been a helpful reply about joint strength in response to the OP.
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I really cannot justify buying one of these. I know they're probably very handy for small cabinets, frames and the like, but the pricing is extreme.
2nd hand they're going for 700+. And thats even for 110v
2nd hand they're going for 700+. And thats even for 110v
For the work you want to do, imo, the Lamello is the better tool
I’ve had all three devices, Lamello, Domino, Mafell and the Lamello is quicker to use and you can build furniture in hours, not days.
You still have to use glue with the Domino and if you buy their naff connection system, you’re only remaking the case for the Lamello.
The Lamello snap together clams are so good. You van build and hang a cabinet in minutes.
Also consider the peanut thing from Axminster. Not used it but looks better thatn the Domino. The Domino is great but I sold mine. A simple hole jig, does the same job.
Grab yourself these. Nothing more accurate and fast to use for marking out. Make sure to get a 0.5mm mechanical. pencil to go with them.
https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/incra-rule-set-300mm-metric-including-pencil/
I’ve had all three devices, Lamello, Domino, Mafell and the Lamello is quicker to use and you can build furniture in hours, not days.
You still have to use glue with the Domino and if you buy their naff connection system, you’re only remaking the case for the Lamello.
The Lamello snap together clams are so good. You van build and hang a cabinet in minutes.
Also consider the peanut thing from Axminster. Not used it but looks better thatn the Domino. The Domino is great but I sold mine. A simple hole jig, does the same job.
Grab yourself these. Nothing more accurate and fast to use for marking out. Make sure to get a 0.5mm mechanical. pencil to go with them.
https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/incra-rule-set-300mm-metric-including-pencil/
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I ended up in the same boat but I bought a new/used domino 500 and a new/used sustainer with cutters etc.
I think I paid around £750
Festool warranties are transferrable (double check). You can call to confirm.
I did however sell mine to a friend a couple years later for £700.
They are fun but you really need the big foot base to make it more accurate (depending on what cuts you do.
https://www.axminstertools.com/tso-products-dbf-45-bigfoot-v2-0-base-support-festool-domino-107356
I think there is a place for the 500 but having tried the 700 it is not fantastic, great holes fast but alignment just throws me. The peanut system I think comes across as fiddly and bitty and for me the slower process of dowels just never lets me down. The Lamello looks to be the best solution for knock down cabinets and furniture, probably the better method in MDF as there seems to be a larger contact area without the risk of blow out which can happen with round or oblong dowels.
Those Tenso clams do look great for light sheet cabinet work, I'd only seen the allen key ones which leave the fugly hole. Must be great especially for production work to avoid the need for clamping. Will try them out if I get an excuse if the Mafell LNF will fit the required blade.
Can't see it would replace the domino for most things I use them for though.
I have a peanut jig and use it occasionally mainly for panels I want to be able to detach. I do find it fiddly though.
I hear the debates around dominoes vs dowels and both work really well but the ability to use the loose setting on dominoes with a reference pair on tight makes for very easy assembly.
AJB Temple
Finely figured
I had both, bought s/h. Sold the 700 when it had done the job I bought it for and made £80 profit. I would not be without the 500 - it is super quick, dead on accurate and makes no mess. Superb tool.
Yes I do believe the lighter 500 for cabinet work is a more managable tool, often scaling a good product up does not result in a good product.
Doug71
Established Member
Bought my DF 500 new in 2006, think it cost about £500, it's crazy to think 18 years later I could probably sell it for the same as I paid for it.
Distinterior
Established Member
I bought mine second hand 10 years ago from a member on here for £400.
It was 2 years old at the time & in pretty much new condition and had done minimum work....Never had anything go wrong with it in all those years.
I use it on practically every job I do and would be lost without it.
They certainly seem to hold their value when you look at what they go for second hand nowadays.....not that you see them come up very often!
It was 2 years old at the time & in pretty much new condition and had done minimum work....Never had anything go wrong with it in all those years.
I use it on practically every job I do and would be lost without it.
They certainly seem to hold their value when you look at what they go for second hand nowadays.....not that you see them come up very often!
The shear strength on those snap together Lamello clams is pretty high.
Imagine using a domino to put cabinets together, then having to glue them, clamp them, wait for the glue to dry.
The cam locking clams are very strong and although they leave a hole, they’re a damn sight better and pluggable than the Festool alternative system.
For me, if you’re making sheet good cabinets, boxes etc.. the festool just makes oval shaped tennons, just like a Mafell Dual Dowel’r. They’re the same tool doing the same job. They make floating tennons.
If you want to make doors and more structural work them you need a tennon.
If you want to make cabinets, you need a lamello.
The clams though are very expensive. The expediency doesn’t come cheep.
But think of the costs savings.
You don’t need to buy glue, or clamps, which can turn into hundreds of £’s and the time you save is astronomical.
If we had to put together 10 carcasses, I could cut mine on a saw and assemble them all in a morning.
Yours wouldn’t be ready till the next day and you might have to go out and buy more clamps because you don’t have enough. Off to Axminster or FFX to order some lovely Bessem’s. 24 hour delivery.
So I’m nearly 2 days ahead of you.
Go try a lamello at axminster. Ask for a demo and then decide what’s best.
People say the Lamello is best for “knock down” work but that’s just an added bonus. If you really wanted to slip a bit of glue between two faces and used the snap clams to push the surfaces together, they act like clamps.
You’re still able to work a lightening speed. You have fully glued boards and the snap clams allow you to align, mate and clamp the surfaces as you go.
Here is the truth of it. People prefer the Domino because it’s the tool they get first. It’s the cheapest and most popular one. Plus it’s been around the longest.
I bought the lamello first and it’s my fav. The one you buy first is the one you love the most.
But I built a desk and drawer set in a day for a friend using the lamello. And it’s still in existence working perfectly well. No glue, no holes.
The only time the lamello fails is if for example you want to attach a drawer front (or back) to the side rails. You cut two vertical clam slots at the ends of the rails and two matching cam slots on the drawer face.
When you attatch that front or back to the rails, the panel can move slighlt up or down because the biscuits can move slightly in their slots. You will need to put 1 horizontal biscuit or dowel (aling a mating horizontal face) in order to stop that movement.
That is the only downside.
Persoanlly if I were making cabinets and kitchens etc.. I would use the Lamello and the Mafell DD
If I was making bigger tables and structural, I could lean more on the Maffell.
You have all types of work covered and you don’t need he Domino.
The Mafell wiuld be better for doing shelf holes. You can’t do those with a domino.
Imagine using a domino to put cabinets together, then having to glue them, clamp them, wait for the glue to dry.
The cam locking clams are very strong and although they leave a hole, they’re a damn sight better and pluggable than the Festool alternative system.
For me, if you’re making sheet good cabinets, boxes etc.. the festool just makes oval shaped tennons, just like a Mafell Dual Dowel’r. They’re the same tool doing the same job. They make floating tennons.
If you want to make doors and more structural work them you need a tennon.
If you want to make cabinets, you need a lamello.
The clams though are very expensive. The expediency doesn’t come cheep.
But think of the costs savings.
You don’t need to buy glue, or clamps, which can turn into hundreds of £’s and the time you save is astronomical.
If we had to put together 10 carcasses, I could cut mine on a saw and assemble them all in a morning.
Yours wouldn’t be ready till the next day and you might have to go out and buy more clamps because you don’t have enough. Off to Axminster or FFX to order some lovely Bessem’s. 24 hour delivery.
So I’m nearly 2 days ahead of you.
Go try a lamello at axminster. Ask for a demo and then decide what’s best.
People say the Lamello is best for “knock down” work but that’s just an added bonus. If you really wanted to slip a bit of glue between two faces and used the snap clams to push the surfaces together, they act like clamps.
You’re still able to work a lightening speed. You have fully glued boards and the snap clams allow you to align, mate and clamp the surfaces as you go.
Here is the truth of it. People prefer the Domino because it’s the tool they get first. It’s the cheapest and most popular one. Plus it’s been around the longest.
I bought the lamello first and it’s my fav. The one you buy first is the one you love the most.
But I built a desk and drawer set in a day for a friend using the lamello. And it’s still in existence working perfectly well. No glue, no holes.
The only time the lamello fails is if for example you want to attach a drawer front (or back) to the side rails. You cut two vertical clam slots at the ends of the rails and two matching cam slots on the drawer face.
When you attatch that front or back to the rails, the panel can move slighlt up or down because the biscuits can move slightly in their slots. You will need to put 1 horizontal biscuit or dowel (aling a mating horizontal face) in order to stop that movement.
That is the only downside.
Persoanlly if I were making cabinets and kitchens etc.. I would use the Lamello and the Mafell DD
If I was making bigger tables and structural, I could lean more on the Maffell.
You have all types of work covered and you don’t need he Domino.
The Mafell wiuld be better for doing shelf holes. You can’t do those with a domino.
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Dunno, I had my Mafell LNF for years before a Domino and mostly (but not always) prefer to use the latter.
I see CMT and others do an 8mm biscuit jointer blade which looks like all one would need to use the Tenso clams with my LNF or pretty much any biscuit jointer so might give them a go some time on a suitable project.
