Festool domino - Has anyone made their own?

[Monkey Mark]

Plenty of people on here use festool tools and one of the things that seems to keep cropping up is the Domino. I've watched a few demo and review vids and everyone seems to say how great they are. They do look good and I can see how useful one would be.

However, for the average hobbyist like myself £500+ is way to steep for me.

There's a few vids out there where people have made their own so wondered if anyone on here has made one? If so, how well do you find it works? Was it worth the effort? And if you followed a guide, which one?

Cheers, Mark

 

[SlowSteve]

If anyone was going to make a good one it would be Maithias Wendel.

He posted a blog post somewhere (I can't find it now - i think it was on his personal blog rather than his WoodenGears site) saying he keeps getting asked to make one but he's ruled it out for now as he said it was too hard to do it well - and a lot of effort to do badly and that his panatrouter and slot morticer did everything he needed to do better than a Domino could - and the pantarouter will do matching tenons as well as mortices- although neither are Handheld.

I am working on modifying his Pantarouter XL plans at the moment - they won't fit my specific plunge router - but I'm specifically building it so I can do "no-brain-power-or-measuring" Mortice and Tenon's for stuff like doors - where I was initially thinking of going the loose tenon route.

When it's done I will post an update - and it looks like all the components will work out at a bit less than 1/2 the price of a domino. I think all in I'm going to spend about £140, which isn't cheap, but for being able to gaurentee absolutely perfect mortice and tenons of any size to within 1/1000th without messing about it seems a good deal. As it does box joints and dovetails as well for just the cost of a small piece of plywood, it feels too good not to.

The reason I post this is that I **REALLY** want a Domino - I have tool envy for people with them - Festool stuff is just all around lovely to look at and use - but I just can't see a reason to spend the money when for less money I can get more functionality.

Steve

 

[Rhossydd]

I think a DIY Domino would be almost self defeating.
At the most basic level, the Dominos are just routers with built in jigs.
Where they win is that they are brilliantly engineered to allow very fast and precise set up, plus so well built they'll survive hard professional life. The DIY ones I've seen on the net look clumsy both in operation and set up, so lose all the advantages of precision and speed of the originals.

For the weekend warrior on a tight budget, who won't be faced with different set ups on a daily basis, building simple jigs for routers and using the Festool loose tenons can deliver the same end results without the big investment in kit. There's probably better uses for your time and money than building a plywood third rate copy.

 

[RogerP]

... or you could just do proper mortice and tenon joints.

 

[Jacob]

... or you could just do proper mortice and tenon joints.

Or use nothing at all when edge jointing boards frinstance. Makes a stronger joint too.

 

[OM99]

you could always get a beadlock system such as this

http://www.rutlands.co.uk/pp+woodworkin ... tem+c03100

won't be as fast as domino but a lot cheaper. Seen some review and looks a pretty good alternative though for the home workshop.

Oli

 

[Jmac80]

rutlands
Seen some review and looks a pretty good

Oli

Something fishy with this comment :lol:

 

[Rhossydd]

won't be as fast as domino but a lot cheaper.

The jig may not cost much, but the tenons for it are 70p each! the same size domino tenons are 13p.

 

[SlowSteve]

But.... for the price of a Beadlock you can build a Pantarouter.

Sorry to harp on - I know I'm biased - but it does what a beadlock can do, and all sorts more.

 

[Rhossydd]

Pantarouter.

From what I can see on the web, it really isn't comparable to a Domino.

 

[Zeddedhed]

... or you could just do proper mortice and tenon joints.

Or use nothing at all when edge jointing boards frinstance. Makes a stronger joint too.

Why would using Dominos when jointing boards make the joint any weaker?
Generally curious.

 

[Adam9453]

... or you could just do proper mortice and tenon joints.

Or use nothing at all when edge jointing boards frinstance. Makes a stronger joint too.

Why would using Dominos when jointing boards make the joint any weaker?
Generally curious.

Its preference that makes it stronger the power of opinion can make all the difference to a glued joint!!

FWIW I have a domino and its brilliant, de-skills the work so people with less experience can achieve great results.
You could achieve exactly the same results with a router, home made jig and just buy the domino's themselves. You could make the dominos but i don't think its cost effective based on how little they cost to buy from festool.

 

[Jacob]

... or you could just do proper mortice and tenon joints.

Or use nothing at all when edge jointing boards frinstance. Makes a stronger joint too.

Why would using Dominos when jointing boards make the joint any weaker?
Generally curious.

You get a discontinuity - the domino is where the boards would break under stress. Glue only and the glue is stronger than the wood - the break can be anywhere.
I know this from making table tops with glued and either plain butted or loose tenon/tongued joints - when you've got some trimmed-off cross-grain ends just tap them on a bench and see how they break. If there is a tenon, tongue or domino, generally it'll snap cleanly at the joint i.e. the "engineered" joint is weaker than the plain butted.
But a plain butted joint has to be flooded with glue on both faces otherwise you might get a bit where it hasn't spread by clamping compression, and this will be the break point.

 

[custard]

Why would using Dominos when jointing boards make the joint any weaker?
Generally curious.

Let's say you joint two boards with a series of 40mm Dominos. The boards can shrink and expand across the grain...except in the 40mm band around the Dominos. I've heard some claims that if the boards shrink enough the Dominos can actually act to force the glue joint apart. It's theoretical in that I've never seen these claims supported by any tests or evidence, but none the less it's plausible.

I prefer not to use Dominos for jointing, for this reason and also because it severely limits your options. What happens if the client suddenly decides that instead of a rectangular table they want an oval table? It's happened to me, and with Dominos scattered across the top like ****y traps you can't risk any re-shaping.

However, you have to be pragmatic. There may be circumstances where I need to joint up five or more boards in one go into a long table top. If I'm working alone and under the cosh in time terms then I may choose to use just one or two biscuits or Dominos per joint in order to help with alignment. But given more time and more hands then I'd almost never use Dominos or anything else.

 

[Jacob]

.......
Let's say you joint two boards with a series of 40mm Dominos. The boards can shrink and expand across the grain...except in the 40mm band around the Dominos. I've heard some claims that if the boards shrink enough the Dominos can actually act to force the glue joint apart. It's theoretical in that I've never seen these claims supported by any tests or evidence, but none the less it's plausible.......

Not theoretical it's a simple fact. This can happen with a normal wedged mortice and tenon. Ideally the glue and the wedge pressure should all be at the "root" i.e. close to the join, and any differential movement will be seen at the tenon end where it doesn't matter, not at the joint itself, which should stay tight.
It follows that a domino or loose tenon should only be glued adjacent to the joint not the full length.
Similarly with pinned dry loose tenons joining boards in table tops and other similar constructions - the pins should be close to the joint.

 

[mouppe]

... or you could just do proper mortice and tenon joints.

Or use nothing at all when edge jointing boards frinstance. Makes a stronger joint too.

Why would using Dominos when jointing boards make the joint any weaker?
Generally curious.

You use dominos in this case not for strength but to align the boards and make levelling the panel easier. I use the smallest possible dominos-the 4mm ones- when joining panels. The strength of the glue joint comes from properly matching the edges. Don't rely on the dominos for strength here.

It's a fantastic tool. I use mine all the time.

 

[custard]

You're absolutely right Mouppe, when jointing boards Dominos are for alignment only. Use as few as needed for the job, use the smallest Dominos you've got, and the other thing I'd add is don't apply glue to the Domino or to the mortice, in other words let them float. Given that the Domino automatically cuts a mortice that's 2 or 3mm deeper than the tenon, those steps would pretty much remove any potential problem.