Mike Goetzke
Member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2008
- Messages
- 1,133
I picked up a Seneca Dock Plate XL and Domiplate for my Domino 500 when they were on special a little while back. This past weekend I used them while making a couple of dog gates with slats.
Dock Plate XL: Used this to mortise the 2" wide slats. First, I don't see how to precisely center this on the jointer. It does have scales on it for stops so would think it should have a reference line in the center to align with the jointer (Seneca says they are working on a solution for this)? I ended up just marked my 1st piece at center and used the witness line on the bottom of the jointer to set the stops. Maybe the etched in scales are not necessary? After this the tool worked flawlessly. Second issue was for some reason in error I thought I could quickly use the Dock Plate for the slats and then the Domiplate for the stiles they would attach too. The Dock Plate seems to maybe be a metric size plate that fastens to the jointer fence. This required a couple of trial cuts to dial it in to match the Domoplate mortise position. Maybe I'm missing something but the time it took to set the depth of the Dock Plate I could have marked center on all my 16 slats and just used the jointers fence for the slats and kept the same reference for the stiles. (Think I found a solution. After mortising the slats take off the Kreg clamp and stops and mortise the mating part off of the Dock Plate itself.)
Domiplate: Years ago, I was one of the first to purchase a Domino 500 but it had terrible fence drift even after sending it to Festool for repair. I did try one of the first Domiplates back then but still lost confidence in the tool so sold it. Due to need I bought my new 500 just a few years back and the fence is much more stable but I still bought the Domiplate because for some reason I like using the tool up-side-down. What I don't like about this new Domiplate is the thumb screw retention. They turned down the threads at the top of the screw and threaded the plate so you screw the thumb screw in the plate until it spins free where the threads were machined off - retaining the screw. But when you go to remove or apply the plate you need to constantly go back/forth between the screws or else they will try back threading into the plate. I have seen other tools (like TSO's) that use a counterbore and o-ring to retain the fastener.
The Seneca tools are very high quality and functional just wish the few final fine details were addressed. Also, I know some small businesses the workers/owners are very busy and take on several roles but would be nice to get response to submitted questions or at least acknowledgement they were received.
Speaking of TSO, I had a chance to use their TDS-10 Dog Stops for the first time and they are unbelievably useful in a variety of ways. They look so simple of a design but are quite ingenious.
Dock Plate XL: Used this to mortise the 2" wide slats. First, I don't see how to precisely center this on the jointer. It does have scales on it for stops so would think it should have a reference line in the center to align with the jointer (Seneca says they are working on a solution for this)? I ended up just marked my 1st piece at center and used the witness line on the bottom of the jointer to set the stops. Maybe the etched in scales are not necessary? After this the tool worked flawlessly. Second issue was for some reason in error I thought I could quickly use the Dock Plate for the slats and then the Domiplate for the stiles they would attach too. The Dock Plate seems to maybe be a metric size plate that fastens to the jointer fence. This required a couple of trial cuts to dial it in to match the Domoplate mortise position. Maybe I'm missing something but the time it took to set the depth of the Dock Plate I could have marked center on all my 16 slats and just used the jointers fence for the slats and kept the same reference for the stiles. (Think I found a solution. After mortising the slats take off the Kreg clamp and stops and mortise the mating part off of the Dock Plate itself.)
Domiplate: Years ago, I was one of the first to purchase a Domino 500 but it had terrible fence drift even after sending it to Festool for repair. I did try one of the first Domiplates back then but still lost confidence in the tool so sold it. Due to need I bought my new 500 just a few years back and the fence is much more stable but I still bought the Domiplate because for some reason I like using the tool up-side-down. What I don't like about this new Domiplate is the thumb screw retention. They turned down the threads at the top of the screw and threaded the plate so you screw the thumb screw in the plate until it spins free where the threads were machined off - retaining the screw. But when you go to remove or apply the plate you need to constantly go back/forth between the screws or else they will try back threading into the plate. I have seen other tools (like TSO's) that use a counterbore and o-ring to retain the fastener.
The Seneca tools are very high quality and functional just wish the few final fine details were addressed. Also, I know some small businesses the workers/owners are very busy and take on several roles but would be nice to get response to submitted questions or at least acknowledgement they were received.
Speaking of TSO, I had a chance to use their TDS-10 Dog Stops for the first time and they are unbelievably useful in a variety of ways. They look so simple of a design but are quite ingenious.
