Festool: Domino

[Mandell Mann]

Who loves their Domino Festool and why?

[Chris Rosenberger]

I have had my Domino about a month. So far I am very happy with it. I keep finding different uses for it. It will not completely replace my biscuit jointer, but it has taken over several of the jobs I had been using the biscuit jointer for. I have made a couple of face frames with it & it worked out very well. It very well could take the place of a hollow chisel mortiser. I have also used dominos to replace dowels when I make cabinet doors with glass inserts. I always had problems getting the dowel holes to line up. I do not have that problem with the Domino.

[Dan Lautner]

I love my Domino because it turns precise joinery into childs play. Best grand I have spent in a long time.

Dan

[Hans Braul]

Just got mine and it's truly a wonderful machine. Yet to be used in a full project but the tests I have done so far are very precise and it's easy to use, even the first time. I plan to make a set of dining room chairs and I feel the Domino will allow me to build a more durable product than I could do cutting M&T joints. I'm just not that good. Looking forward to many years of satisfaction

Hans

[William Nimmo]

I don't use it as much as I thought I would, but when I do use it, I am quite pleased and I wonder how I got by without it.

[Eric Larsen]

Only here a day, and already hijacking threads...;)


Those of you who have one -- Is it worth the coin necessary to get one?

Would you rather: a) Spend roughly $1,000 on the tool and a box of beech tenons; or b) Spend $1,000 on wood, some of which you make into loose tenons on a router table, and continue cutting mortices on a drill press?

[Suanne Lippman]

Only here a day, and already hijacking threads...;)


Those of you who have one -- Is it worth the coin necessary to get one?

Would you rather: a) Spend roughly $1,000 on the tool and a box of beech tenons; or b) Spend $1,000 on wood, some of which you make into loose tenons on a router table, and continue cutting mortices on a drill press?

Neither, I bought mine used for $700 and got $300 worth of wood!

You could ask the same thing about a jointer, planer, drum sander, etc.
Its a nice tool. Whether it is worth $1,000 is a personal decision; obviously it isn't to you.

[Brad Olson]

Is it worth it?

It is a tough question. I just got one not too long ago.

With a project with lots of M&T joinery it will easily shave 20-50% of the time off the project. More time savings when you understand the basic concepts of the tool and have confidence in how to use its stops.

For example. I have built a whole slew of side tables for people my wife work with. I can tap these out in about 2h of construction time versus 4-6 hours before.

So yes, if you have $985 available to buy one and have a genuine desire to speed up M&T time it is definitely worth it.

However, if you tool budget is stretched, this is definitely a luxury item and can be done without. A drill press is useful, however, the rest of the tools needed for M&T work are not cheap and way more of a pain to use than the domino.

But to put it quite plainly, I won't be giving up my domino anytime soon.

I sold my biscuit joiner and don't miss it in the least. The small dominoes can replace it for my needs

[Gary Keedwell]

Personally, Ill take the wood.:)
Gary

[Pete Brown]

I've been very happy with mine (purchased from Bob through a pre-order). I often use it like a biscuit joiner with the holes set a step wide (good for joining face frames to the cabinet), and also use it for all sorts of other normal M&T joinery.

In my kitchen project, I originally used tongue & groove and dado joinery to assemble the cabinets and face frames. It worked well, but it was time-consuming and involved too many setups. If I had a router table separate from my table saw, this would have been a much easier process.

For the remaining cabinets, I've been using the domino. That work has gone much faster. My wife was surprised at how much quicker I could assemble a cabinet using that. FWIW, I don't use the domino for everything - pocket screws do a great job with the carcase itself (this is a kitchen, not fine furniture <g>). I use dominos to assemble the face frame, to make the doors and to attach the face frame to the carcase.

Some nits after using the domino for a while:

Those little metal locating pins in the front get in the way more often than not. I have yet to do any joinery which would use them in a helpful way. However, they can often get caught on an edge or cause other problems, especially if where you want to place the cut has the pin half on the end of your piece. Early on, I messed up some boards because of those things. I'll give them some more time to see if I can make peace with them, but I'm strongly leaning towards finding some way to remove them completely.
The line in the glass in the front isn't quite aligned properly, and it is at the extent of its adjustment travel. This hasn't turned out to be much of a problem in practice, though.
Tenons are often way too tight. I keep them out of moisture so it isn't that. This can really cause issues with dry fitting as the tenons fit so tightly that I need vise grips to pull them out. If it were a normal m&t joint, I'd say that I had to trim the tenon a bit. The grooves seem to allow for adequate glue surface (so no obvious issues with strenth after assembly), but the tightness is an irritant especially during dry fitting.
When centered on 3/4" stock, the base of the joiner can sit on the workbench, fouling the cut. Instead, to make sure I always reference off of the fence, I have to let the board overhang the edge of the bench or prop it up on a second board. This isn't a big deal, but you need to keep it in mind.For my kitchen remodel, I've completely depleted two of the sizes of tenons in the assortment (8x40 and 6x40, IIRC), and have purchased two other full boxes of those. I've also started in on on the 8x50 size for door assembly (which works very well, btw).

As an aside, unless you have a good vac, you're looking at more than the 1k. When I bought mine, I purcased the large CT vac, the domino and the cutter/tenon assortment. Do not run the domino without hooking it up to a good vac. Oh, and with that CT33, even after using it with my RO sander and all those domino cuts, the bag isn't even half full. That thing has some serious capacity.

Pete

[Mick Zelaska]

Eric,
I'm an "Old Dog" and mortise and tenon joinery is a "New Trick" for me. I wish I had the time and energy to learn traditional M&Ts and I envy those who are proficient at it, but the Domino gets me into the game.