Domino 500 vertical adjustment knob

[Mauri Motti]

Did a search on it and came to a topic where the matter is described but as the topic's subject is design flaw, I'd thought to do a new topic on this.

From time to time I intensively have to use the Domino and ever to often when I don't recheck the vertical adjustment enough I fail having aligned mortises. Right now I'm on a project that requires 340 dominos and I obviously have to plunge twice that number. The the mating wood is Pine on Oak using the 4X20mm Dominos, so a very small bit this time. After every 10 plunges or so, I open the adjustment knob readjust the fence (when necessary and that isn't so often at all but if i miss the moment im screwed... and yes also on this current project it did happen) and cut the next 10 etc. Brice mentions in the other tread to add a point of friction at the mating surfaces and this is what came to my mind but then decided to search the fog to read and learn about your experiences. As this "only" led me to a topic named "design flaw" here I am. I can't seem to be able to crank the adjustment skew down hard at all as is bottoms out before that's even possible. I did take the skew out to see if I could re-position the lever knob but after removal I can't take the knob off. Maybe I'll have to put more afford on this as I didn't want to force it to come off I then figured I'd better not do this... No, I did not call service as I don't think its a flaw but i'd like to improve it though, Oh boy I'd like to! No, I don't think I plunge to slow nor to fast. It happens to me when using small, bigger or big cutters. I think the moving of vertical adjustment occurs while taking care that the "faceplate" (the on the to be cut wood part) is firmly down to do the the plunge action which, of course, has to be pushed to the wood. I do all of this gently but without hesitating.

Thoughts anyone?

Kind regards,
Mauri Motti

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Mauri,

When you remove the screw holding the lock knob, it is possible to remove it and move it a 1/6 of a turn back to give you the ability to have more "bite" when you tighten it. If you're having trouble with it, I can grab mine and try to snap a photo. I don't recall it being difficult to remove. I'll head to my shop and have a look at it since it's been a few years since I last did it for another post.

Shane

 

[mouppe]

Yes you can unscrew the knob, rotate it and retighten the screw. Have no fear. This will allow you to tighten the knob more fully if it is being stopped by the body of the domino at the moment.

I would not describe the slipping fence as a design flaw, but more akin to something that you learn to cope with through experience.

I find the domiplate works better for repeatable worry-free mortising, and if I need a different height than the 1/2" or 3/4" faces, I double-stick shims to the plate.

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Ok, so I removed and replaced the knob several times. A few times I had to give it a little wiggle to get it loose. I would recommend doing so in the unlocked position.

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[cnewport]

Thanks Shane! This problem forced a redo of a few joints on my last project. Luckily I was joining two boards lengthwise so I had plenty of space to cut new mortises.

 

[Mauri Motti]

Thank you Shane and RL.

I will give this a try now that I'm comfortable how to approach this.
Will report back on this later.

Best regards,
Mauri Motti

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I thought that "problem" was pretty much isolated to the early units? and that there was some kind of factory fix/update for it.
In the last 6-7 years, I have had 2  DF500s and I have never had that happen with either of them.