Are there specific router bits recommended for making my own Dominoes

[Bill Wyko]

I want to make some Dominoes out of some hardwoods for decorative applications. Are there any bits that work better than others? I need all the sizes for the project. Thanks.

 

[Dave Rudy]

Bill,

Do some searching and you will find a number of threads discussing making dominos -- especially from our friends down under.  IIRC, Tezzer posted on this subject.  There also has been discussion about whether to just chamfer corners or to use roundover bits to approximate the radiused corners of different sized dominos.

HTH

 

[John Stegall]

I agree with Dave. Lignum posts about this very subject on ubeaut.com.au but I wonder if it (chamfering) would work for your decorative application. I would think that the procedure would be to use a round over bit that is 1/2 of the thickness of your slot. If you are cutting a 10 mm slot then you would need a 5 mm round over bit. I assume you are going to have them show.

john

 

[tvgordon]

When I was making my own 6mm white oak dominoes, I used a 1/8" round over bit.  6mm is very close to 1/4" so the exposed dominoes fit and looked nice.

I haven't made any for the other sizes but you may have to use a metric round over bit to get a perfect fit.

Tom.

 

[greg mann]

5mm-use 3/32 rad. (If you can find them in each case)
6mm      1/8
8mm      5/32
10mm    3/16 
12mm    1/4
16mm    5/16

Oops! Too far!  : :-[

 

[ROb McGilp]

Bill,

Do some searching and you will find a number of threads discussing making dominos -- especially from our friends down under.  IIRC, Tezzer posted on this subject.  There also has been discussion about whether to just chamfer corners or to use roundover bits to approximate the radiused corners of different sized dominos.

HTH

Hi,
Tezzer does talk about chamfering and its the best way to make tenons for joining where the domino won't be seen.For making dominos that will be seen on the finished piece, I use a Dremel and the world's smallest router table. This you can get from Dremel as well as a set of 5 different router bits including: round over, bead,chamfer and a couple of straight bits
You can use either the round over bit or a bead bit, depending on whether you want a groove for the glue to squeeze out of.
The little router table is fairly cheap.

I have added some pics of a 10 x 32mm domino blank made using this method. Takes minutes, pretty safe, makes any size you want and is quite fun. I have used different sized domis prepared this way for drawer sides to fronts and for filling erroneous placements of mortises.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Rob