Festool Domino Dowels

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi all

I've been looking at the Festool Domino system and I just don't understand why it oscillates. Surely, it could just be routed? What I see is a floating tenon, which Festool are calling a Domino dowel.

Can anyone please enlighten me, here is the link.

Cheers
Neil

 

[Chris Knight]

Neil,

I don't really know but I suspect it has something to do with routing into end grain with a hand-held tool or the ability to cut variable width slots.

I can see that this tool will be a very versatile thing and a delight for working pros. Imagine being able to joint on site using loose tenons for example.

 

[Neil]

My guess is that because they want it to work like a biscuit jointer (i.e. held against the work and then plunged with no sideways movement) they had to use an oscillation - imagine how hard it would be to design a mechanism which plunges the bit to full depth and then moves it sideways, all driven by a simple plunging motion by the user. Its a pretty impressive piece of engineering IMO.

Neil

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Neil

My guess is that because they want it to work like a biscuit jointer (i.e. held against the work and then plunged with no sideways movement) they had to use an oscillation - imagine how hard it would be to design a mechanism which plunges the bit to full depth and then moves it sideways, all driven by a simple plunging motion by the user. Its a pretty impressive piece of engineering IMO.

Neil

Thank you for the explanation. It must have been too early in the morning as I hadn't picked up on the plunge and hold, even though I'd watched the video.

Thanks
Neil

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Chris

I can see that this tool will be a very versatile thing and a delight for working pros. Imagine being able to joint on site using loose tenons for example.

Thanks for your reply. It certainly looks to be a very impressive piece of kit, which should find a niche market.

Thanks
Neil