Knock down Domino joinery. Great idea?

[Essex Barn Workshop]

I have just watched this video, stick with it because initially I thought 'looks great, but why bother?' and then the actual idea comes out.

To me, it looks like a great idea for furniture when you might need to disassemble at some point, or even make it for easy transportation and then fix at final assembly.

Whatever, surely worth a look?

 

[ChaiLatte]

In the screenshot, the hole is extremely near the end of the Domino. That would appear to be a weak point.

The hole also appears to consume roughly 1/3 the vertical dimension. Is that also a concern?

 

[bp122]

Festool sell a metal-and-plastic knock down domino that you can secure with a screw. If disassembly is really key, I'd just use that, despite the cost as it's less hassle.

 

[Spectric]

If doing this then use a 6mm dowel, but would it not be just as easy to take the parts to the destination and then assemble ?

 

[Essex Barn Workshop]

Please bear in mind that part of her thought process was the look of the joint, and the above points aren't obviously taking that into account. I agree, for pure ease of takeapartability (new word!) there are other options, and I would use a slimmer dowel but look at it as an overall idea and I think it has uses.

 

[HOJ]

Used a similar principal in the past, however I just put a screw in, rather than a dowel, inside the cabinet, and not seen.

 

[mark w]

Sorry to be negative but someone has to say it, it's crap, both visually and structurally.

 

[Sideways]

Visually it's a nightmare.
Holes everywhere.

If the disassembly is going to involve drilling out a glued dowel, and the dominos themselves are through drilled, why not make fully glued blind joints as normal and if you ever need to disassemble it, just use the domino jointer itself to drill through and mill out the domino ?
The end result will still be neater and stronger than the way she's done it.

The one thing the domino is especially good at is indexing from an outside edge to position the domino centred 37mm in from an edge. As long as you note the setting you used for the big hinging fence when first assembling, you should be able to line up very accurately on the concealed domino and 40mm plunge should be enough to punch through most boards and separate the joint.
A second plunge will clear out the partial domino left in the mating piece.

If you expect to do knockdown regularly, buy the festool connectors.
If you get caught out and need to disassemble something just the once, milling out the domino gives you an option. All you need to do is start making notes on your pieces of what domino settings you used when you made it.

 

[Fitzroy]

The mortices and tenons on my workbench are effectively the same design as they are drawbored without glue, i just couldn't decide what glue to use so I didn't, it also means I can drive out the pegs if I should ever need/want to. However my joinery is considerably more chunky, 125mm legs, 35mm mortices, a 2mm hole offset, and 13mm oak pegs.

 

[HamsterJam]

If I was going for knock-down furniture I’d be tempted to try the Peanut from Intelligent Fixings.
They look like they should be ideal for this kind of thing - anyone tried them or use them regularly? I’d be interested whether they have any shortcomings.

 

[XTiffy]

In my view knock down fittings are really only for a "one off" assembly. I would always design desks as modular where gravity hold the sections together. In cabinet making we used to specialise in computer desks and bureaus and designed them to be transportable in sections. The one in the photo (made for my wife probably 30 years ago and still in use), is in three sections, the top including the top two false drawers, the lower cabinet and the base frame. The overall length is 1070mm.
We have made large furniture using knock down connectors but purely to be able to get the pieces up stairs etc. No doubt these could always be disasembled with care but not on a regular basis.
As to the Youtube video "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"!

 

[petermillard]

Pegged loose tenons aka the Phoenician joint - it's been around for a while... As for the Peanut 2, yes I've used them a bit. They're not a knock-down connector as such - the fixing bears against the material which will wear over time, depending on the material of course - but it was developed as a less costly alternative to the Lamello Tenso and Clamex fittings for rapid assembly of fitted furniture on-site, whilst also being non-marking. Assuming you're not using a CNC then they can be on the slow side to use and you need to keep your wits about you as to the direction of the keyhole shape, but other than that they're an excellent 'jig & router' option with well priced fixings at ~15p/each, and almost stupidly strong. HTH P