Mortise width is adjustable in three increments with the turn of a knob, and cuts can be overlapped for long mortises. Contents 1 History and description 2 Domino XL 3 Advantages 4 Disadvantages 5 See also 6 References 7 External links History and description edit The idea for this tool came from German master cabinetmaker Vitus Rommel. Self-referencing pins allow the cutting of rows of evenly spaced mortises with no need to measure and mark. The Domino is a loose mortise and tenon joining tool manufactured by the German company Festool. There are five cutter sizes (4 mm, 5 mm, 6 mm, 8 mm and 10 mm) for six different Domino tenon sizes. Each plunge creates a mortise that is sized to accept a Domino loose tenon (a dowel with an oval-shaped cross section), creating joints in stock from 22.2 millimetres (0.87 in) wide.
įirst on the US market in 2007, the Domino tool cuts a full mortise in a single plunge, just like a biscuit joiner does but using instead a drill-like rotating cutter with a spinning bit that also moves sideways to cut a full round-ended mortise in a single plunge. For tenons into the face of 3/4 ply you will need to make the mortise shallower so that you don’t cut all the way through, then make the mortise into the joining edge deeper.The idea for this tool came from German master cabinetmaker Vitus Rommel. Take the time to do test cuts, and think about reference faces and depth of cut before making cuts in your project material. They only sell one length of 5mm tenon(30mm), but you can make longer ones or wider ones yourself to match the ‘wider’ and ‘widest’ settings on the domino. The Woodcraft here only stocks the Q set so that made the decision for me, since I didn’t want to wait for one to be shipped. I bought the Q set and have not yet used either of the attachments it came with. It may be my years of use with that jig that make the Domino so easy to adapt but, I doubt it. If you also work in imperial you will find you can quickly adapt the metric Domino to your needs. The mortises are referenced to a surface very similar to how my Mortise Pal works. I live in an imperial world so I just glued a strip of measuring tape in inches over the Fence Height Gauge. That being said, the Domino makes it easy to leave over sized mortises in strategic positions to allow for movement.
A sloppy fitting Domino suffers from the same strength issues as a sloppy fitting tenon. A little experimentation at the router table and your imperial round-overs will turn out tight fitting Domino stock. These are mortise and tenon joints so a good fit is desired.
I make my own domino stock from scrap, cut them into about 200 mm blanks and store them in a drawer. I added a 4, 6 and 8mm bit from CMT and they perform equally to the Domino bit. Unique, patented cutting action that rotates and oscillates to create perfect, clean, and repeatable mortises every time. "Combination set includes: Domino DF 500-Plus Joiner, DOMINO cutter D 5mm, Support Bracket, Operating Tool, Trim Stop, Cross Stop, Plug-It Power Cord, and T-LOC Systainer #2 storage container."įor about $1k this gets you everything you might need to get started and carry well forward IMHO. My decision was to buy the 500 set which included the following: What size 5mm Tennon,s would be good to start with? I think I can just cut them if they are two long. One last thing please, I think the 5mm bit it comes with is can be used on 3/4 stock.
Do you guys think the Trim Stop or the Cross Stop are something necessary? I also no the Festool vac is the way to go but Im hoping my shop vack and a Boch 16.4 FT 35mm V0C005 that talked about on another thread will work for now.