10x50 Domino strength?

[jaykojc]

Hey all, I'm building some glass paneled doors for a wine cellar.  My initial plan was to use 2 10x50 dominoes in each of he four joints (each door will be 4 pieces of 4" x 1 3/8" African mahogany, with a 1/4" sheet of glass ~19" x 72" in a 1/2" deep dado, given a final dimension of around 27" x 80".  The DF500 defaults to roughly 1" mortises spaced 1" apart, so I couldn't use the built in stops for two mortises given the dimensions I'm going for (IE it would be pushing the full 4").

I assume the stops are what they are because it leaves a sufficient amount of material to support the tenon.  This makes me think that forcing the issue and putting two tenons in the 4" space is probably not a great idea.  Would you imagine that one 10 x 50 tenon in each of the 4 corners would be sufficient to support the weight?  I imagine the finished weight of the door would likely be roughly 48 lbs.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[flair woodworks]

I think that the tenons are a little short for the door. I'd like to see tenons at least 100 mm long.

Regarding spacing, you can install the right angle support bracket and flip through the pivoting stops to make mortises closer to the edge.

One last note: use rabbets and a nailed moulding to hold the glass in place in case it ever needs to be replaced.

 

[jaykojc]

That seems like a lot of tenon, particularly given my lack of the 'uge Domino.

I may have to rethink this.  Maybe drawbored traditional tenons.

 

[jaykojc]

What about two 10x50 in each joint, but referencing the front and back surfaces instead of in line?  More of a traditional double tenon?  Or 4...back to back AND inline?

 

[ear3]

I would definitely not do a door with just a single 10mm tenon in each joint. You can fit in two tenon comfortably side by side on a 4" board. Just use pencil marks, preferably drawn on both boards with the end of a combo square or some sort of measuring tool like the incra flex ruler to ensure they line up.

 

[HarveyWildes]

I would definitely not do a door with just a single 10mm tenon in each joint. You can fit in two tenon comfortably side by side on a 4" board. Just use pencil marks, preferably drawn on both boards with the end of a combo square or some sort of measuring tool like the incra flex ruler to ensure they line up.

I can't comment on the strength part of the questions, but I'll second the pencil marks comments.  I haven't used the spacer pegs at all.  I've done everything with carefully marked center lines matched to the centerline marks on the Domino fences.  After may 100-150 dominos that needed to be lined up, I've had to widen two Domino mortises, and one was because I just plain missed the line.  If you custom make Dominos for an exact fit, it might be a little more difficult, but Festool dominos have a little bit of a 'v' on the ends that seem to give a bit to accommodate maybe .01"-.02" of variation, which should be within what you can do visually with fine pencil lines.

 

[tjbnwi]

10x50's used on this door.

Tom

 

[w802h]

I built a screen door using 10x50 dominos - brown painted pine facing south - and had some issues with the door warping.  I think a longer domino would have provided more resistance to cupping.  I used a track saw to take apart the badly cupped edge and replaced it with mahogany and deeper mortises under warranty.  The next door I used a drill bit to deepen the domino mortises - no problems - pine screen door again.  Then I bought a long mortise bit for my router off Ebay.  That worked well too, but eventually I bought the Domino XL to compliment the smaller machine.  I don't use the XL enough to justify it's purchase, but when I get to use it it's aways a fun project!  Built some fir doors this winter, including a 42" wide x 84.25" tall shaker 3 panel door!

 

[RussellS]

Commenting on what was written about just using pencil marks to line up the mortises where you want them.  If you use the exact fit mortise, instead of the wider ones.  You can take a piece of sandpaper and make the Domino a little bit narrower to make it fit if you get the holes a tiny bit misaligned.  Or take a handplane and narrow the Domino down a bit to allow you to line everything up or move things around a millimeter or so.

 

[jaykojc]

Thanks, everybody for the help.  I've done the pencil line thing, and never had any problems with it.  Just figured there might be some magic to the spacing of the stops, particularly when the tenon will be load baring.  I'm going to do two 10x50's with epoxy in each joint and I think I should be good.