Center your Domino height easily

[Bill]

Here is a tip we developed at Japan Woodworker.

Use your Domino fence and height guage to measure the thickness of your wood, then add 10 mm.
(The distance between the "floor plate" of your Domino and the cutter center line is 10 mm.)

Now set your board thickness guage to the number you calculated, and lock your fence to that.

You should now be morticing into the center of your board thickness.

Bill

 

[ejfud]

Excellent idea!

Gary

 

[bill-e]

Bill, That doesn't seem like it will work to me.  Please explain differently if you can so I can get it

 

[greg mann]

This is what I think Bill is saying. The height gage measures the distance from the fence to the center of the cutter. So if you had a reading of 16mm you would have a 26mm board. Find 26mm on your board thickness gage and use that setting.

 

[Dave Rudy]

Deleted to protect the innocent from unnecessary confusion.

;D   

 

[Bill]

Hello Everyone,

Yes, that is what I am saying. As long as the Domino "floor plate", and the bottom of your board are on the same flat surface and you lower your fence angle to 90 degrees, allowing the fence face to rest upon the top of your board.

Bill

 

[Dave Rudy]

Deleted from the same good motive that caused the last deletion.

 

[Bill]

Hi Greg,

For the sake of clarity, we are speaking about two different gauges on the Domino.

The height gauge measures from the face of your lowered fence to the centerline of the cutter.  At 90 degrees, the lowest the fence will seat measures 7mm from the cutters centerline.  However, what no one else seem to have written about is the remaining distance measurement from the cutter centerline to the floor plate is an additional 10mm.

So, you have to add 10mm to the reading on the height gauge to get your total board thickness.

The other gauge, the board thickness gauge, takes the actual thickness of the board you have entered to center the cutter for you.

So, a height gauge reading of 15mm will need to have 10mm added to it for a total board thickness of 25mm.  Enter that 25mm board thickness into the board thickness gauge and the Domino will automatically center your cutter to plunge a mortice into the center of your boards thickness.

Bill

 

[Bill]

One more thing.

The whole reason for the post was to show a fast, convenient and easy way to center your Domino mortice height using the gauges provided on your Domino machine without using measuring tapes or rules.

Bill

 

[greg mann]

Hi Greg,

For the sake of clarity, we are speaking about two different gauges on the Domino.

The height gauge measures from the face of your lowered fence to the centerline of the cutter.  At 90 degrees, the lowest the fence will seat measures 7mm from the cutters centerline.  However, what no one else seem to have written about is the remaining distance measurement from the cutter centerline to the floor plate is an additional 10mm.

So, you have to add 10mm to the reading on the height gauge to get your total board thickness.

The other gauge, the board thickness gauge, takes the actual thickness of the board you have entered to center the cutter for you.

So, a height gauge reading of 15mm will need to have 10mm added to it for a total board thickness of 25mm.  Enter that 25mm board thickness into the board thickness gauge and the Domino will automatically center your cutter to plunge a mortice into the center of your boards thickness.

Bill

Bill,

I think you and I are talking the same language. In fact, if you go back and read my post you will see that I used [16mm + 10mm = 26mm] in my example. You used [15mm + 10mm = 25mm] in yours. Same, same. Mind you, I posted without the Domino in front of me, and it still isn't, so I made an example up. Could be there is no 26mm setting on the board thickness gauge, but the math is still the same in your example and mine.

 

[mastercabman]

don't you still need to divide by 2 to get the center of the board? i tried it.if i take 1x stock (3/4')it's about 19mm.i get a reading of 9mm.so then i add 10mm witch gives me 19mm.so far so good for what you are saying.but when i set the fence at 19mm my cutter is dead on the bottom edge of the board!!!!!!!!!! 

 

[bill-e]

Ok, I understand what you are saying...what wasn't registering to me (while thinking about it from a hotel room after a few beers) was if the resultant x+10 falls in between one of the steps (16,20,22,25,28,36,40) then you have to divide by 2 and set the fence using the fence height scale.

 

[Len Coleman]

Could someone please throw in one more equation so that can I move from confused to totally confused! Could also be that beer factor that Bill mentioned.  ;D

 

[mastercabman]

after reading bill's reply,i see what you are saying now.but the only thing is that the number have to fall within the gauge(16 20 22 etc...) if you are using 3/4" the 20 mm setting would be the closest, but not dead center!  3/4"=19.05mm .i know it's only 1mm. i keep a conversion table with me all the time now since i got into the festool.i hi lighted the most common size 1/4  3/8 1/2  etc...  to get a quick reference.    and a metric tape!

 

[Bill]

First; Sorry Greg, I meant to address the other guy, yes, you were correct.

Second; I guess I assumed board thickness you all would be working with would fall into the catagories listed on the thickness gauge.  I guess I shouldnt assume.

Third; Yes, if the height gauge reading + 10mm does not equal a preset measure on the board thickness gauge, then you'll have to divide by 2 and set the height gauge to your calculated center.

Fourth; I still think this is easier than looking for your tape measure.

Bill

 

[Dave Rudy]

First; Sorry Greg, I meant to address the other guy, yes, you were correct.

Bill

The other guy apologizes for the confusion (caused by now-deleted posts).  Bill & Greg, you are correct -- shows you the danger of having this conversation without the tool in front of me.

The fence gauge reads the distance from the fence to center of mortise minus 10mm.

don't you still need to divide by 2 to get the center of the board? i tried it.if i take 1x stock (3/4')it's about 19mm.i get a reading of 9mm.so then i add 10mm witch gives me 19mm.so far so good for what you are saying.but when i set the fence at 19mm my cutter is dead on the bottom edge of the board!!!!!!!!!! 

Mastercabman:  I'm afraid I contributed to your confusion as well.  The fence gauge reads 10mm less than the distance from the fence to the center of the mortise -- if you want a mortise centered 17mm down from the top (where the fence is), set the height gauge for 7.  For 27, set it for 17, etc.

The board thickness gauge, on the other hand, is set for the exact thickness of the stock and will place a mortise exactly in the center of that setting.  If you set it for 28mm, the center of the mortise will be 14mm down from the fence.  etc.

Sorry to inflict my confusion on the board.  (I'm actually doing fine as long as I have the tool in front of me, but havent had the time to master the various methods of setting yet).

Dave

 

[bill-e]

Second; I guess I assumed board thickness you all would be working with would fall into the catagories listed on the thickness gauge.  I guess I shouldnt assume.

Bill

Bill, this is a good idea, I was just confused for a bit.  As far as board thickness, since I always start from rough sometimes I will plane a set of boards as little as possible to achieve the thickest board I can.  Often times the exact thickness isn't important, but the piece needs to be thicker or thinner to achieve the desired look.  Example:  I like the table tops thicker than 3/4" but depending on the particular set of boards being planed, I plane them all to the thinnest piece.  Or a piece may warp and again the thickness isn't as important as just having all the pieces the same thickness so I might have to take a little more off to get the board rignt.

So for me it is not unusual to use odd or off thickness wood.

 

[mastercabman]

i was confuse at first,i didn't realize that bill was talking about the board gauge. 

 

[Tinker]

You guys are forcing my hand.  I was going to wait for a bit of financial adjustments to come along before sliding further down the slope.  now, with all of this talk about guages, thicknesss, half and halfs, etc, etc, I am totally confused and the only way i will have the slightest inkling of what you are talking about is to head on down to the toy store and pick up the object of all this confusion.  And I am not even on my second cup of coffee (early morning and time to go to work). I doubt a second cup will come close to helping.  :-\
Tinker the Confused

 

[Dave Rudy]

Tinker,

I was just waiting for that.  We need someone with a clear head to straighten all this out, but he has to own the tool to do it.

I'm looking forward to the education.
;D

Dave