Lines of dominoes: Cross-stop or scribe-and-align-with-cursor?

[lowell holmes]

I thought butterfly's and domino's were for alignment with the strength of the joint being derived from glue.
What am I missing?

[Jim Morgan]

I thought butterfly's and domino's were for alignment with the strength of the joint being derived from glue.
What am I missing?

Lowell, biscuits provide (some) alignment while adding little or no strength to joints. The domino joint is a different story - it is really two complementary mortises joined with a slip tenon. In a traditional M&T joint, the tenon does more that just align the joint for glue-up. Good M&T joints fit snugly, both along the cheeks that provide the gluing surface and along the edges, to combat racking. In it's narrow setting, the Domino cuts mortises that fit snugly all the way around. In the wider settings, the mortise is snug along the faces, but loose along the edges, so the mechanical resistance to racking is lost.

[Cary Falk]

biscuits provide (some) alignment while adding little or no strength to joints. .

Depending on the joint they add a lot of strength.

[Jim Morgan]

Depending on the joint they add a lot of strength.

Cary, that depends on the biscuit as well - I've been seeing more and more that are so thin that, even when swollen, they fail to make firm contact with the sides of the slot.

[mreza Salav]

Don't understand why you insist on having your mortises tight side-ways. Just cut them a little bigger and there won't be any issues.
Have used thousands of dominos and always worked fine.

[Prashun Patel]

I have never used the cross stop.

On cross grain joints, I prefer to use the exact fitting setting. I strike lines across the joint and use the cursor.

If there is an alignment issue - which happens rarely, I will take a shaving off the edges of the domino on one side.

For cross-grain joints, I'm rarely using a huge row of dominos. I use rows on edge-edge joints where the only function of the dominos is alignment; so I don't mind using the wider setting here.

[Brian Kincaid]

I don't use the cross stops unless I'm using it for edge reference.

For glue-joints I just align the boards on a workbench then scribe a pencil line across the joints then use the cursor to cut each joint on the 'tight' setting.

I only use the loose settings when putting together a floating joint where one side is cut 'tight' and the other side is cut loose, and assembled without glue on the loose side. Good example of this is a breadboard end.

-Brian

[Jim Morgan]

I only use the loose settings when putting together a floating joint where one side is cut 'tight' and the other side is cut loose, and assembled without glue on the loose side. Good example of this is a breadboard end.

-Brian

Great idea on an easy way to make breadboard ends - glue in one or two dominoes in the middle and let the others float in over-sized mortises. Paired with a sprung joint, should be just the ticket.