Question for Domino Owners

[Glen Blanchard]

I bought my Domino when they had an introductory price for it, and I love this thing. I have a question about its use for the experienced Domino users here, however.

Scribing pencil lines over both boards to be joined vs. using the integral pins in the Domino for placement. Are these methods equally accurate or does using the pins yield a more accurate mortise placement?

[Bob Michaels]

Dr. Glen, as you know, you can set the width of the mortise slot in either of 3 settings : exact size of tenon (domino), a little wider than the domino, or a lot wider than the domino. I use the middle setting for all cases, except in the instance when I need to use the domino for alignment, in which case I only cut one mortise to be exact size and allow the others to allow for ease of glue up. I have never used the widest setting as I have never found a need, thus far. To answer your question, I find either method (scribing lines or using the integral pins) to be sufficiently accurate. I think operator proficiency will really be the key to accuracy in either case. I've experienced some people trying to scribe an accurate line with a dull thick carpenter's pencil and a loosey-goosey old square. On the other hand, if you use the indexing pins and don't hold the fence square to the workpiece, error creeps in there, too. It may make an interesting experiment by producing 10 joints using each method and determine which one is the best solution for your personal work habits, which I am sure are spot on. Hope this helps.

[Glen Blanchard]

I use the middle setting for all cases, except in the instance when I need to use the domino for alignment, in which case I only cut one mortise to be exact size and allow the others to allow for ease of glue up.

Thanks Bob. Let's say you were making a table and were using the Dominoes to attach the legs to the aprons. Are you saying that you would use the middle setting on the Domino and make the appropriate leg-apron adjustment at glue-up?

[Bob Michaels]

Glen, in that situation I would use a minimum of 2 dominos. one would have an exact mortise cut for perfect alignment and the second would be cut with the middle size for ease of fit. Eventhough the larger mortise doesn't make a glue bond on the thickness edges of the dominos, it is nonetheless a sufficiently strong joint and eliminates the fiddling at time of glue-up of dealing with 2 absolutely exact size mortise/tenons. In practice I'm finding a very minor difference, due to moisture content or whatever, in the thickness of the dominos. I usually try to dry prefit the dominos. The real over tight ones I need to extract with a Vise-Grip. Sometimes I'll take a whisker off by a fast swipe on a sandpaper block. Hope this helps. Bob :)

[Jeff Wright]

Glen, in that situation I would use a minimum of 2 dominos. one would have an exact mortise cut for perfect alignment and the second would be cut with the middle size for ease of fit. Eventhough the larger mortise doesn't make a glue bond on the thickness edges of the dominos, it is nonetheless a sufficiently strong joint and eliminates the fiddling at time of glue-up of dealing with 2 absolutely exact size mortise/tenons. In practice I'm finding a very minor difference, due to moisture content or whatever, in the thickness of the dominos. I usually try to dry prefit the dominos. The real over tight ones I need to extract with a Vise-Grip. Sometimes I'll take a whisker off by a fast swipe on a sandpaper block. Hope this helps. Bob :)

I stopped dry fitting the tenons because most often I cannot get them out even using a pair of vise grips. I have had good results using the indexing pins versus making a pencil mark on both pieces, for example when assembling face frames. The stiles and rails come out spot on.

[Brice Burrell]

I've sanded a few tenons a little then marked them with a sharpie as "dry-fit" dominos only.

[Jeff Wright]

Now that makes some sense!

[Steve Jenkins]

Don't forget to calibrate your domino. When I received mine I just started using it and found that both the plastic marker and the pins were not centered on the mortice. If they aren't set correctly you will not get a flush fit on our rail to leg joint since you are indexing off opposite sides of the tool.

[Glen Blanchard]

Don't forget to calibrate your domino. When I received mine I just started using it and found that both the plastic marker and the pins were not centered on the mortice. If they aren't set correctly you will not get a flush fit on our rail to leg joint since you are indexing off opposite sides of the tool.

Yeah, I've centered the plastic marker, but can't get the one pin nut loose to re-set the pin distance. That thing is tight. Might have to send it in and have the service dept do it for me.

[Jesse Cloud]

There's been a lot of discussion on several boards about this. It seems to be a matter of personal choice/temperament.

Personally, I find less chance for error in centering on a pencil mark. There are lots of things that can go wrong with the other method, e.g. not getting the pin exactly on the edge of the previous mortise, starting from the wrong side on the matching piece, etc.

I use the tight fit setting on the first mortise and the medium setting on the others.