Another reason why I LOVE my wife!

[ryan]

Hi guys, I need some input. 

My wonderful wife said she wants me to spend some money on new tools.  I told her that what I really wanted was a little expensive, how much did she think I should spend?  Her figure was much higher than I planned to spend, soooo ;D ;D!

An opportunity like this doesn't present itself very often so I'd like to make the most of it.  I plan on building some built-in bookcases and new kitchen cabinets, a mantle for some friends and I'll be installing hardwood floors in my house (not all at once, of course.)  I'm not a pro but I love finish carpentry and have been doing a little work on the side of my chosen profession.  I'm thinking about this set up:

TS 55
CT 22
OF 1400
MFT/3
Domino Joiner

The Domino is the big question for me.  Do you think it would be better to swap that out for some "less glamorous" but very useful accessories like a longer guide rail, the mfs 700 or the LR 32-SYS and guide rail?  Looking for you combined experience and good advice-

Kind regards,
Ryan

 

[billybokay]

As far as I am concerned you listed the festools in the correct order. Except perhaps the mft should be ahead of the router. The domino is not used as much as the saw, vac, rail, mft and router, but when it is, Oh boy is it nice to use.

 

[Ned]

Ryan--

Lucky devil.

Whether now or later, you will be buying more guide rails.  If you haven't seen this thread, take a look:  Never buy the same size rail.

Welcome aboard.

Ned

 

[Fred West]

Ryan, welcome aboard and never ever get rid of your wonderful wife. I would absolutely jump on getting the Domino but that is just me. I use it constantly and it is a very, very impressive and useful tool. Fred

 

[poto]

Hi Ryan,

You're heading in exactly the same direction I went as I slid the slippery slope. The only difference is that I don't have the Domino. On the other hand, I have two Festool sanders (RO125 and RTS400) - I think you're going to find that they're indispensable.

Welcome to the Festool family. You're going to love your tools!

Poto

P.S. My wife also "makes" me buy Festools. Apparently last week I needed the 50th anniversary Rotex watch as well...

 

[John Langevin]

Ryan, before I make any suggestions, a few questions;:
  1. Where will you do the bulk of the work; in a shop or on site?
  2. If in a shop can you describe the amount of space available etc.?
  3. What other existing tools do you have?
  4. What type of joinery do you plan to use in the bookcases and cabinets?
  5. Will you be 'making' your own flooring or simply installing commercial flooring?

P.S. I am blessed with a wife like yours and I wouldn't trade her for all the Festools on earth!

 

[mhch]

Ryan--

Lucky devil.

Whether now or later, you will be buying more guide rails.  If you haven't seen this thread, take a look:  Never buy the same size rail.

Welcome aboard.

Ned

One exception though:  You may decide to buy two 1400mm (55?') rails to be joined together when cutting sheets.
instead of buying the super long rails.

 

[dirtydeeds]

im sure lots of guys here

would like your wife to have words with their wives  ;D

 

[ryan]

Thanks for the input guys.

John great questions.  Let me see...

1. Probably mostly in the shop, but I'd like to keep things as portable as possible.  One of the reasons festool looks so appealing is the possibility of being nearly as productive outside the shop.  I'm not a pro but I'm doing more and more work for friends and family.

2.  My shop is as big as my 2 car garage (which my wife also says is all mine ;D)

3.  I have in it: an old craftsman table saw, a crappy craftsman 12" band saw, an awesome dewalt planer, cheap-o miter saw, Freud biscut joiner and some very decent hand tools.

4.  I was thinking about using a combination of dadoes, rabbits and or biscut/domino joints for most of the casework.

5.  Factory made.

I think if I get the domino I'll have to pass, for now, on the LR 32-sys, the mfs and the longer guide rail.  I'd like the know if any of you think the combination of these accessories are actually more handy than the domino. 

 

[semenza]

Hi,

      Well you've got a good Festool list. Cutting, routing, work bench, and joining.  If something has togo to make room for stuff you don't have then I guess it would be the Domino, since you can use your bisquit joiner, and screws of course.  Do you have a cordless drill?    How about sanders?
      I would add a Festool finish sander to the list. And either one long guide rail or an additional one to be able to make 8' cuts. You can certainly get away without the hole drilling system.  If you want a lower cost but very useful joining tool in addition to the bisquit joiner  I would suggest the Kreg pocket hole system.  The Domino would be great to have , but eats up a lot of your alloted money. I think other things would take presedence since you have the joiner.

Seth

 

[JJ Wavra]

Great list,

I would only add that somewhere in there you should get a sander.  If you are going to make some cabinets, festool sanders are great.  I think that, in combinastion with the vac, the sanders made by festool are my favorite in the whole line.  What I mean by this is they work so much more efficiently than any other sander I have used.  The dust that is not collected is very minimal.  To give you an idea I purchased the rotex first then the DTS-400 and the ETS 150/3.  I have been very pleased with this combination.

Enjoy your new tools when you get them!

JJ

 

[Tom Cowie]

Hi guys, I need some input. 

My wonderful wife said she wants me to spend some money on new tools.  I told her that what I really wanted was a little expensive, how much did she think I should spend?  Her figure was much higher than I planned to spend, soooo ;D ;D!

An opportunity like this doesn't present itself very often so I'd like to make the most of it.  I plan on building some built-in bookcases and new kitchen cabinets, a mantle for some friends and I'll be installing hardwood floors in my house (not all at once, of course.)  I'm not a pro but I love finish carpentry and have been doing a little work on the side of my chosen profession.  I'm thinking about this set up:

TS 55
CT 22
OF 1400
MFT/3
Domino Joiner

The Domino is the big question for me.  Do you think it would be better to swap that out for some "less glamorous" but very useful accessories like a longer guide rail, the mfs 700 or the LR 32-SYS and guide rail?  Looking for you combined experience and good advice-

Kind regards,
Ryan

  Hi Ryan

    I got me one of those wonderful wives myself!!

Last year it was a TS-75 and extra rail a Rotex 150, the Guide rail accessory kit, lots of sandpaper

This year it 's the Domino plus and domino's ( kit), CT-33 and extra bags, RS2E and lots more sandpaper and a couple of quick clamps.

    Boy do I love her

Tom

 

[Dan Lyke]

The Domino is the big question for me.  Do you think it would be better to swap that out for some "less glamorous" but very useful accessories like a longer guide rail, the mfs 700 or the LR 32-SYS and guide rail?  Looking for you combined experience and good advice-

I too have such a wife, in fact we've been together for years and have referred to each other as "partner", only recently got married (mostly for tax reasons), and the only time I refer to her as "wife" rather than "partner" is when I'm bragging about her influence on woodworking tool acquisitions (last month she said "we need to go to Woodcraft this evening to get a Domino" and we walked out with a DeWalt 735 too, I think a Triton router for the router table will be in the offing as soon as we get to the raised panels for the kitchen cabinets), but...

Your needs are your own, and, as the troll who was saying "glorified biscuit joiner" recently made painfully clear, everyone has needs which give different tools different priorities and values. I have the MFS 400, which has been handy a number of times and certainly shortened the time I'd have otherwise spent building a jig to do roughly the same thing, and makes a quick square for ripping thin material on the MFT, but the Domino is a completely different way of working for me.

So the MFS lets me cut a little less plywood, the Domino lets me put together a chair in an evening or two. The MFS lets me do things that I was already going to do faster, the Domino lets me do things I wouldn't otherwise attempt.

 

[festeringtool]

It's very strange don't you think how some people just love the domino and so many of us just consider it a bit gimmicky and glamorous as posted a couple above and don't see the need for it!

 

[dirtydeeds]

buy it

you'll find its no gimick

 

[festeringtool]

I'm sure it's great for mdf....

 

[Terp]

Fester,
 I understand your point.  The Domino in my shop has quickly become the tool I prefer over the biscuit joiner for alot of tasks.  It is so much like a biscuit joiner only the cut is deeper & the dominoe itself offers the strength of a dowel in a carcass glue up.  Prior to applying the back to a cabinet box that is biscuit joined there is no lateral strength.  Not so with the domino, so that even the largest carcass is easier to assemble & stronger.  
 Also, for face frame glue ups where the rails are narrow biscuits tend to be too large.  The slot cuts are usually exposed in the inner corners of the frame.  As well, the face frame dry assembled is quite strong with the dominoes, not so with biscuits.  The cuts from the biscuits in hardwoods lend themselves to splits, along the edge that is not end grain, with the biscuits.  I am currently working a project with many lineal feet of corridor handrails.  They are of 2" x 6" Oak, & some lengths need to run up to 30'.  The sections are dry joined in the shop with two or three dominoes each.  In the field they are assembled on the wall as they are hung.  The joints are remaining perfectly flush on the walls.  Biscuits tend to flex in thes joints once the rails are tightened to the walls.  These walls are hospital walls of steel stud construction & are not flat planes, so the dominoes are a drastic improvement.  Biscuits also tend to vary from a tight fit to a loose fit in dry field joints, not always ideal for this.    
 Prior to the Domino, I used the biscuit, as it was the easiest, best choice.  Not so now that the Domino is in the shop.  It's far superior for this joint.  I won't reach for the biscuit to cut this type of joint ever again.
 On the other hand, the biscuit is still better for a lot of operations itself.  For instance, I had a 5 mm blade made for my tablesaw, a unisaw.  I use it to rip a kerf in the back face of countertop hardwood edging.  I then use the biscuit joiner to randomly apply biscuits to the edge of the counter substrate.  This way I don't need to fuss with the alignment of the biscuits.  This is very fast when doing a couple hundred feet of office counters.  The biscuit is also better for aligning two large panels edge to edge for glue up.  If something is not flush during a dry fit a biscuit can always be flattened to provide slack.  The glue will be absorbed after clamping & the biscuit distorts inside the slots as it expands.  That can't be done with a domino.
 So, in my shop both machines have found they're own niches.  

BTW, I would have to compare the Domino, quality wise, to the Lamello Top Ten.  It's quite expensive for a biscuit joiner, they also claim to be the first to manufacture it.  For many years now the price never dropped on those though, & they don't sell it at Home Depot.  It is a professional machine, & I think it still sells for about $600.00.  It's cost that much for as long as I can remember too.  Compare the domino to that & the price is not outlandish.  It is a groundbreaking design.
 I've thrown out a few Dewalt & Virutex biscuit joiners, but my buddies Lamello top ten machine is still going, for almost twenty years now.  I think he got the bargain in the end.

 

[colotimber]

I am going to weigh in on the Domino issue, on the side for the Domino however, I think that the Domino is possibly a tool for different users.  What I mean is take someone like Terp, an obvious professional that utilizes his tools to make a living as I do.  There are many here in this forum that are strictly hobbyists. I think that if I was a hobbyist, it would have to be a well funded hobby or I am not sure that I could justify the Domino, where I could justify for instance a C22 and the sanders, a 55 and a MFT.  The Domino fills a niche in my shop that no other tool can, including a biscuit.  It provides me with the strength of a dowel and the alignment of a biscuit and speed that the dowel jig cannot provide.  When justifying a substantial tool investment it must pass the cost benefit test, simply, does the benefit out weigh the price?  I do not have the luxury of purchasing tools just because I want one, in business it must pay for itself, either in that it is unique or plainly superior to other alternatives. In both of these categories the Domino met the criteria. Just one tradesmans opinion.

Dan 

 

[semenza]

Hi,

        The Domino is on my short list.  And certainly does more than a bisquit joiner. I do not feel it is gimmicky in any way.  But since Ryan has at least one joining option, and there are other areas that he seems to be lacking in .  I would think he should consider the lacking areas first.  I would definetly say longer  (or additional) guide rail, sander (unless you have one) then Domino. 

Seth

 

[dltflt]

Hello Ryan,
Welcome to the slippery slope.  I am also very lucky to have a wonderful wife that supports my addiction to fine tools.  Two years ago we went to the WOODWORKING SHOW and I was planning on picking up few things not more that $750.00 but I walked out with $3000.00 worth of tools some of which she found for me.  Like I really need help finding tools to buy.  A couple of weeks ago we went to Woodcraft to drop an entry form to win a $1000.00.  Again I walked out with the Domino and a CT33 because I explained what it did and that the price was going up so she said go ahead and get it.  You gotta love em.