Fe$tool Domnino Joiner

[Ray Newman]

Colleagues: may have a project in the making that might entail some through mortise and tenon joinery to hold some shelves.

Is it possible -- with backing material to prevent split out -- to cut through mortises with the Domino?

[Jamie Buxton]

Yes, it is completely possible.
The Domino's hole cross section is oval, not rectangular.

[Jerry Miner]

Yes. Easily done. In fact, if you're not careful about setting the depth, you can cut through mortises without intending to! DAMHIKT :D

[Gregory Stahl]

The few times I have accidentally cut through I did not experience any tear out!

[Chris Padilla]

The few times I have accidentally cut through I did not experience any tear out!

Murphy's Law! If you wanted a clean cut on the exit hole and you didn't back it up, it would tear out! :D

But, yes, easily cuts through mortises as the others have echoed.

[Tom Ewell]

I've done it quite often to align single side book case modules using through mortises on the single side and dominos in the fixed shelves in the subsequent module.

Tear out is minimal but didn't care much because it was hidden.

Agree with Jerry, yes sometimes they can poke through all on their own. :)

[Chris Merriam]

You'll probably end up with hairline gaps around some of the perimeter, particularly on the sides of the domino where they taper down to a fine point. Also I think this is the whole reason why they actually sell dominoes in different species, I think there's a brown (mahogany? sapele?) domino for sale.

[Ray Newman]

Gents: thanks for the info! Might need to re-think this. Again, thanks.

[Jim German]

You can always make your own dominos if you want them to perfectly fill the hole for a through mortise. They'll be a little harder to install and might be insignificantly less strong since the glue might get all pushed out. Should work just fine though.

[Bill McDermott]

Ray, When I have done this, I put two small kerfs in the domino so that I could drive wedges into the dominoes from the outside of the piece. This solves the gap issue Jim mentioned above. I found that wedges toward the outside of the domino, where the flat becomes a curve, looks nice and works well. Bill

[Mike Henderson]

The few times I have accidentally cut through I did not experience any tear out!

LOL, me too!

Mike