Domino 500 depth guage not correct

[tadge]

Hi All,  I have recently purchased a DF 500, my first Festool tool (apart from a couple of dust extractors).  After all of the reviews I have seen regarding accuracy, I am somewhat disappointed/unsure as to the actual accuracy.

I have attached 2 photos, the wood is 12mm thick, so I set the height manually to achieve a centre cut of 6mm (6mm on the tool gauge).  However, the cut was not center on the wood. I ended up achieving 6mm centre of wood by using a ruler and moving the fence to suit, but the gauge on the tool read 3mm.  I'm correct thatthe guage should read accurate to center of cutter?  I did not expect to need to use my ruler and manually set up when there are gauges on the tool.  The guage is accurete on thicker materials just not thinner, which is strange.[attachimg=1][attachimg=2]

I do like the tool but as I mentioned, I was expecting greater accuracy.  Are the issues I have discussed common and this is just how the tool is or is there a problem with the tool?  Festool siad they wold take back to repair, but I dont know what they could do as the guage is correct on thicker material, just not thinner. 

Not a massive drama as I can just take more time to set up but a shame I cant use the guage accurately.

Thanks

 

[squall_line]

There is a minimum thickness of material you can work with if you are working horizontally with the material flat on a work surface.  You need to overhang the work surface if you want to work on thin material.

Your images show a setting of 6mm on the height gauge and a mortise that is 6mm o.c. from the top of the work piece.  This looks correct to me.

Do you have pictures of a "failed" setting and cut?  That would make it easier for a remote armchair diagnosis.

 

[tadge]

dont have photos of failed setting unfortunately.  The guage is in increments of 2 so its reading just over 2 (or 3 [smile]).  Definately not 6, thanks

 

[xedos]

One of us is confused, and it very well might be me.

The 500's depth gauge in your picture is set to 6.5mm.  Your cut looks to be centered in your board at 6mm.  Close enuf fo government work, but you could loosen that torx screw and dial in the gauge to absolute 6mm if you want.

The DF500's gauge only reads to 5mm (not 3mm ! ) and the effective minimum center of cut is only 6mm because of the machine's fence limit.  Based on your pics, your domino looks like it's pretty darn close to accurate.

 

[rmhinden]

dont have photos of failed setting unfortunately.  The guage is in increments of 2 so its reading just over 2 (or 3 [smile]).  Definately not 6, thanks

The gauge reads in units of 1mm, not 2mm.    Count the number of units between 10 and 20. 

As [member=67935]xedos[/member], said the units on the gauge does not go down to zero.

Bob

 

[tadge]

aaaahhhhhh.  [eek] I have just realised that the first 5mm increments are not displayed, so I was reading from 5mm when I thought this was 0 mm, didnt even notice the increments fron 10mm onwards.  doh!  So its accurate enough for me now [smile].

cheers all

 

[Cheese]

I started out wanting to absolutely center the Dominos in the wood but quickly realized that "absolutely centered" really means within .004"-.008". That resulted in boards not being perfectly flush with each other if I wasn't extremely careful when I assembled the boards. 

I find it better when the Dominos are "close to centered", say within a mm or so. That way when I assemble the boards I can immediately ascertain if I accidentally flipped one over because the resulting misalignment is obvious.

Just food for thought... [smile]

 

[luvmytoolz]

For most projects I rarely if ever go to the trouble of accurately centering the mortise as it makes subsequent slots difficult to get bang on if you have changed the settings.

I just use the setting gauge as appropriate and reference off the top of the wood and choose a domino as close to 1/3rd of the thickness of the wood as possible. That way I never have to worry about recording exact settings, and then trying to set it back to do another of the same exact setting.

If it ends up 5mm above the mortise and 7mm below the mortise or vice versa, it's good enough for me.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

The gauge shows half, so you set it to 10 for 20mm material.
6 for 12mm ply looks right to me.
As the others have said, do sweat trying to get it exactly centered. The main thing is keeping your reference faces/orientation correct.

 

[Ebuwan]

For most projects I rarely if ever go to the trouble of accurately centering the mortise as it makes subsequent slots difficult to get bang on if you have changed the settings.

I just use the setting gauge as appropriate and reference off the top of the wood and choose a domino as close to 1/3rd of the thickness of the wood as possible. That way I never have to worry about recording exact settings, and then trying to set it back to do another of the same exact setting.

If it ends up 5mm above the mortise and 7mm below the mortise or vice versa, it's good enough for me.

Same here; I used to sit there trying to center, then realized its silly, just always reference the same face when making the mortises.

 

[pixelated]

One of the first “real” projects I did with my Domino was building a small spice cabinet out of 1/2 in material. Centering was important because I needed accurate placement of all the sections. I made a gauge block for setting the fence rather than relying on the scale. But, as others have said, most of the time, precise centering isn’t needed, and may work against you.

 

[Ebuwan]

One of the first “real” projects I did with my Domino was building a small spice cabinet out of 1/2 in material. Centering was important because I needed accurate placement of all the sections. I made a gauge block for setting the fence rather than relying on the scale. But, as others have said, most of the time, precise centering isn’t needed, and may work against you.

Good point; it mattered when i made a railing at the top of the stairs on the second floor as well.

 

[afish]

Sometimes there is a need or want to center dominos/dowels sometimes not.  For those times when you do this is the best way.  You can also use a combo square and caliper.  Use the depth rod on the caliper to set a combo square and then use the combo square to set the fence.  The pic shows the dial caliper and holder on a DDF40 but it works the same on the domino.  you just need to subtract the distance from the bottom to center of the the bit which is 10mm this gets me super accurate centered dominos.

 

[rmhinden]

The way I adjust the fence to center the mortice is that I first mark the center on an off cut using my Bridge City CS-3 CenterScribe.  Then adjust the domino fence until the center mark on my DF700 is aligned with the scribed line.  That works well without any measuring or reading the scale on the domino.

That said, I am still careful to always use the same surfaces of the material I am putting the dominos into get consistent results. 

Bob

 

[ChuckM]

The only time I bother to try to center my mortises is when working with 5mm or 6mm thick materials (4mm dia. cutter), using the same approach (with a regular pencil) as Bob's.

[attachimg=1]

Registering the machine's fence against the board's registration face is good practice no matter how accurate the fence is set to center, because the thickness of the materials can vary so slightly among boards/batches.

 

[Coen]

You should reference from the same face, then it doesn't matter that the scale is 0.0.... off. Your material is probably not 100% same thickness anyway.

 

[Lbob131]

When the fence  on my  DF500  bottoms  out, it reads  6mm on  the scale.
On  12mm plywood  using a  6mm  cutter  it  produces  3.36mm  on  one  side  and  3.32mm  on  the  other.
Exceptionally  accurate  I  would say.