Calibrating Domino

[Jeff Wright]

I am unable to accurately calibrate the Domino's sight glass used to mortise freehand. I have tried moving the sight glass left and right with no success. I did 8 test cuts where I drew a line between two adjoining pieces of wood (as if you were doing a rail and style build). All 8 cuts had the upper pencil line on the right versus the line on the bottom piece, showing that the error was not in my technique. Do you have any secrets about how best to adjust the sight line precisely? My only current solution is to not use the tight setting at all when doing freehand but instead set it to the middle setting for the slot size and manually adjust the alignment of the wood pieces. Thanks.

 

[forbesdog]

Jeff I am having the same problem.  No matter how much (or how little) I adjust the sight glass, it seems that the lines are always a bit off.  I can't believe we are the only ones.

Ed

 

[Jeff Wright]

Ed,

Pete Brown, a guy who's comments I respect, is experiencing the same issues. He posted elsewhere (the thread about Jerry Work's manual for the Domino) his concerns. I have sent a message to Bob M to see if he has any suggestions. At this point, I feel I can't use the sight glass with any confidence unless one mortise side is cut tight and the other using the looser setting.

 

[Jeff Wright]

OK, I got it! For anyone else challenged with this adjustment, here is how I did it. I ran a test cut to determine which direction the plastic gauge had to be moved. Note: Be sure to look at the gauge in the same direction as shown in Jerry's preliminary instructions; don't make the same initial mistake I made by looking at it from the other direction and as a result I moved the sight gauge the wrong direction.

I then loosened the two screws but not enough to allow the plastic sight gauge to slide freely. This allowed me to insert a thin razor knife blade between the one end of the site gauge piece and the metal housing. I then carefully twisted the knife blade to push the sight gauge to the desired direction, but only slightly. I then tightened the screws, made a test cut, made another adjustment, and it was spot on.

 

[Les]

Jeff,

Be sure to look at the gauge in the same direction as shown in Jerry's preliminary instructions; don't make the same initial mistake I made by looking at it from the other direction and as a result I moved the sight gauge the wrong direction.

Has Jerry's Domino manual been released or was it Rick's preliminary manual you made reference to? ???

 

[ejantny]

I'm thinking the same thing. I do not think Jerry's manual has been released yet. Probably a mix up. Would be nice if it was released.

 

[Jeff Wright]

Has Jerry's Domino manual been released or was it Rick's preliminary manual you made reference to? ???

My mistake . . . I meant to say Rick's preliminary manual.

 

[Dave Rudy]

I have come up with a method for calibrating the sight line that seems to work well:

1.  Draw a line perpendicular to the face of a small piece of stock.
2.  Lower the fence to 90 degrees, adjust for height of a square piece of stock
3.  Clamp the fence (on top of the stock) to the MFT top so that the line is exactly aligned with the sight line.
4.  Loosen screws
5.  Adjust plastic piece to desired extent.  Hold the plastic against the stock securely using a pencil lead through hole in plastic, or a pencil eraser on the flat surface of plastic.
6.  Holding plastic firmly against stock as described, tighten screws.

This method protects against movement of the plastic while the screws are being tightened, and seems to work fine.

HOWEVER, I am having a different problem which I will start a new thread on.

Dave

 

[CCRT]

I know this is an old thread but I'm a new Domino owner and I'm having a problem calibrating the horizontal sight gauge.

Using the method in Rick's manual (draw a line across the two pieces and check for drawn line alignment) I consistently get an error indicating the guides center line needs to be moved to the right .012.  The lines are mis-matched a total of .024. 

The problem….there is not enough adjustment if the plastic guide and its screw clearences to achieve this offset.  It is maxed out to the right.

Has anyone modified the plastic guide?

Where can I get the part number of a replacement guide?

Thanks

--Dave

 

[ajones]

Dave I am sure there was a thread about this a while ago,and if I remember correctly a new part was supplied by festool which solved the problem.

 

[Alan m]

[welcome] to the fog

did you check the allignment of the slot with the other marks on the base. there are some on the bottom and i think a v groove in the center near the clear part. it might not be the clear part at all . if it is the clear part (or any other part) i would ring festoll . they will help you diognose the problem

 

[CCRT]

[welcome] to the fog

did you check the allignment of the slot with the other marks on the base. there are some on the bottom and i think a v groove in the center near the clear part. it might not be the clear part at all . if it is the clear part (or any other part) i would ring festoll . they will help you diognose the problem

Yes,  When using the scribed line on the base the slot is centered within .006

Does anyone have the part number or info of the new plastic piece mentioned above?

 

[Brice Burrell]

Give Festool a call, they will take care of you.

 

[CCRT]

Called Festool--

They suggest chucking the two screws (for the plastic guide) in a drill and removing some material from the head to allow more clearance.  The fact that my Domino cutter is centered between the paddles and in line with the bottom plates scribe line prompted the Festool service tech to say ("It's in good shape")

I took the screws out completely and still cannot move the plastic guide to the right.  I'm having Festool send me another plastic site guide.  My next step is to remove a slight amount of material from the guide where it  contacts the fence.  I only need .012.

I found this thread that exhibits the same condition: http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tools-accessories/minor-domino-problem/msg17479/

I must admit after shelling out $850 I was having a little buyers remorse about this quality issue........  ???

That was until I put the Domino to use last night using the guide stops.  A truly impressive tool that will change the way I work. ;D

I was also able to achieve perfect results by skewing the site guide line one pencil mark thickness to the right.  I'm confident I'll resolve the site guide issue in the near future.

Sorry for the long post.......  just trying to shed some info on a problem that others may have.

--Dave

 

[RONWEN]

Christian Oltzscher wrote:
"There should never be the need to calibrate a tool you are buying from Festool. If it doesn't work out of the box,
return it. In no case there should be a need to enlarge screw holes or do similar alterations.
Each tool is calibrated in the
factory and is quality checked several times. In case of the Domino, they are doing test cuts with every
machine in a piece of wood and measure
the mortise. They keep that piece of wood and mark it with the serial no. of the Domino, so they can go back and
check the mortise in case of a complaint. They also have several other calibration stations for the Domino. Everything is done to make sure
you are getting a Domino that works out of the box."  

 

[CCRT]

Ron--

I saw that qoute from the 2007 post............  Apparently something is flawed in the process  [sad]

 

[Imolas3]

I have tried Rick's calibration method and cannot get it even close on the plastic scale as I run out of movement.

I tried using the line on the base plate and the resulting joints are 0.4mm out!!!!  Quality control???? Not noticing any of that here.

The machine is only a couple of months old and this I accuracy is very upsetting to me.

Anyone know how to adjust the domino against the base plate markings?

Thanks

 

[Guy Ashley]

Have a look at this by Paul-Marcel

Festool Domino Calibration

 

[ajones]

Hi

Really the best thing to do is phone festool UK (dont bother emailing as you probably will not get a response) and let them sort it out it should work out of the box.
It will take about a week or less for them to sort it and get it back to you.

 

[RONWEN]

I played with Paul's method Saturday since it was a lousy, snowy day -- with just one adjustment pass the sight cursor came out dead nuts, I couldn't feel where one piece stopped & the next started without looking.