Mortiser on your JP or a Domino?

[Julie Moriarty]

Not that I'm in the market but I was on Felder's E-Shop looking at table extensions when, out of curiosity, I wanted to see what their mortiser attachment cost. It was $890. That's less than the small Domino. So I looked at the videos and it seemed to me the mortiser would be the better choice... if I was in the market.



Thoughts?

[Greg Parrish]

Looks nice but my concern is where to store it when not in use, and having to take it on and off all the time. Jointer looks like it would be difficult to use with this in place.

[Charles P. Wright]

I don't have a mortiser for my Minimax FS41, but I do have a DF500 with an MFT3. So keep in mind that I am only informed half way.

Looking at that video, clamping and moving the workpiece around seems like it is going to take much more effort than with my domino. I can edge glue boards using dominos for alignment very quickly; without the need to move the clamp. I can also do butt joints like demonstrated in the beginning of the video with dowels quickly; with minimal clamping.

The other thing is that the domino has excellent dust collection; I don't see how to do that properly with the mortising attachment.

What I could not do with my domino are the hinges that they are demonstrating, but I have never had any project which has called for them.

What is your intended use case?

[Julie Moriarty]

It's nothing but curiosity right now, Charles. There have been times I considered a Domino but the price and the fact you have to forever buy Festool's pricey dominos kept me from pulling the trigger.

As for dust collection, another video showed connecting a dust hose to the bottom of the unit but I don't know how that would work. I think it was in the same video they showed the guy installing the mortiser by himself in a few minutes.

[Jim Becker]

I never opted for the mortiser for my J/P, largely because of space issues...on my particular unit, it would have come off the back side and that just wouldn't work given my space constraints. I do have the Domino 700XL and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the tool. I'm sorry I waited so long to buy one. It's also not confined to one spot in my shop which I find to be a plus.

BTW, I did have the opportunity to play with the mortiser on the late Mark Singer's FS-41 Elite a number of years ago and as some folks will indicate, these mortising systems on J/Ps do very nice work and are generally smooth to operate.

[Robert LaPlaca]

Julie, I guess I am in the minority here, I have the mortiser for my MM FS-41 Elite vintage 2004.

The mortiser hangs off the back of my machine and does a wonderful job excavating mortises using birdsmouth bits. I bought the mortiser when the Domino was only a glimmer in Festools eye. The downside is the mortiser is not portable and depending on the J/p sometimes the mortiser is in the way of either jointing or planning, thankfully that’s not the case with my machine.

Also have to confess, I build super traditional 18th century furniture and seldom use loose tendons which the slot mortiser excels at, as does the the Domino..

[Joe Hendershott]

I can only comment on the Domino and like Jim I love it and now cannot understand how I went so long without one. A superb tool in every way.

[David Kumm]

A horizontal mortiser is only as good as how stout it is built. Any vibration or weakness in either the table or slides will create inconsistencies. Some small cuts in soft wood can be great but large hardwood cuts, especially if matching end grain and long grain can be a problem. I have an FD 250 and it good stand a little a little more heft. Dave

[Dan Friedrichs]

I had the same conundrum, and bought the Domino. Domino is portable, better dust collection, holds re-sale value better, more useful (IMHO), and quicker to setup/use. If the mortiser were much cheaper, I'd have to think about it, but given that they're roughly the same price, the answer seems obvious (to me).

Julie, FYI - you don't have to buy Festool dominos - you can easily make your own stock. But at ~$0.10/ea, it's hard to justify.

[John TenEyck]

I have a mortiser on the back of my older FS-35, which I got as part of the deal when I bought the machine, used. It's great for the 5/8" x 3+" deep mortises I make in door stiles/rails. But it's not nearly as easy or fast as my shop made horizontal router mortiser and that's my first choice for anything 1/2" or smaller. If I didn't have the horizontal router mortiser, I would want a Domino as that tool is far easier and faster to use than my slot mortiser. As an aside, you can just as easily make your own Dominos as I make loose tenons for my mortisers; there's no need to buy them. But bear in mind that a slot mortiser can make much wider and much deeper mortises than a Domino. For most furniture and cabinet work that is of no consequence, but it is if you want to make exterior doors, etc. If I were faced with buying one or the other I'd buy the Domino, w/o hesitation.

John

[Prashun Patel]

Julie, I have not bought the loose tenons for my Domino. I make them myself from the inevitable scrap on any project.

The domino is genius for reasons that non users won’t appreciate. Layout is fast because you typically just strike off both sides of the joint, drill a mortise on one side, then flip a switch to widen the swing a few mm and drill the other side. This makes it possible to A large amount of perfectly fitting mortises extremely fast.

The only negative of the domino is the perception that it is cheating.

The cutting action is very stable. This means even making cuts in the middle of a board face with the unit vertical is easy to control from wandering.

[johnny means]

The Domino machine is much easier to use and more flexible. The slot mortiser would be better suited for a high production situation.

[Warren Lake]

think slot mortisers are slow for production stuff. The Maka Joe has and chain mortisers will be faster and those itallian ones that are automatic. Cant remember the name.

[Brian Holcombe]

I have not used a Domino.

I can only speak from the slot mortiser that I have, which is an FD-250, it has a pretty big range, it's quick to move from mortise to mortise and it's practically silent in operation. I don't know if the machine mounted mortisers are similar in their range, so you'll have to check on that.

I cut with 'mortising' type router bits, so I can get around 4"-4.5" max depth.

The mortiser can also be a line-boring machine, so it can cut pockets for door hinges and act as a horizontal drill press with an accurate depth stop and ease of repeatability.

I layout with a knife on the first mortise, set my stops to those marks, set my height and I'm off. I can position stops for a range of about 4', so I can set stops for door stiles and larger furniture pieces without making room in my layout for positioning errors.

The Domino XL is $1400, cuts .563" wide by 2.75" deep max and produces 94 Db. The standard Domino cuts a max of .375" wide, and a max depth of 1.060" deep.

Festool does resell, I resold my Kapex at a loss of $450, but it does resell

[Brian Holcombe]

think slot mortisers are slow for production stuff. The Maka Joe has and chain mortisers will be faster and those itallian ones that are automatic. Cant remember the name.

Balestrini? I've seen it quoted that they can do 700 mortises/hour.

The slot mortiser varies greatly because they're not automatic, but I'm probably cutting a mortise in 20-30 seconds with the slot mortiser and a bit that excavates quickly. The changeover between parts is longer with my setup but with air clamps you could be moving pretty quickly.

I dont think the slot mortiser is really a production machine, at least not a competitive one. It's for short-runs, IMO.