DOMINO - a user's perspective

C

charlie b

Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
34
I've had the DOMINO since the middle or April
and have been exploring it's "presets" trying
to figure out the underlying reasons for each
of them and how they fit together.  What
I've come to believe is that the DOMINO is
the woodworker's equivalent to the first HP
programmable pocket calculators - a solution
looking for problems to solve.

Have put up yet another look at the DOMINO
from one user's perspective.
http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/DOMINO/DOMINO_TableOfContent.html

Comments, suggestions, constructive criticism
requested

charlie b
 
As a new Domino owner who hasn't had much time lately to work with the tool, I would like to say "Thanks" for providing a quick summary of its operation.  The information is really useful.
 
Charlie,

Excellent work!  I especially liked the "Quick Reference" page.  It captures the critical details on one page.

Regards,

Dan.
 
Charlie thanks for all your hard work. Your site is excellent and a great help.
 
Hi Charlie,

Nice summary and the drawings will be very helpful to many people.  There now is a 79 page manual including some 150 or so photos which I wrote for Festool that is available for free download fromhttp://festoolusa.com under Application Tips > Woodworking.  I, too, see the Domino very differently now than I did when I first started using one of the early units in the US to write this manual.  It is an exceptional way to position two pieces of wood no matter how you fasten them together.  This ability to locate two pieces accurately certainly speeds up and improves the quality of most glue up and assembly operations.  Things that are cut square will assemble square virtually on their own.  With glue, the joints are very strong on their own, much stronger than dowels or biscuits independent of what is contained in a current consumer woodworking mag.  Tenons can easily be stacked horizontally and vertically any time one wants even more strength.  The tenon penetration of up to 25mm per side (about an inch) means that the bending moment of even a stressed joint is moved away from the joint centerline so the joint is as strong as the surrounding wood even on very thin joined edges, a really big advantage for engineering a furniture piece.  Without glue the joints stay aligned in one dimension while being able to move in another depending on the widths of the two mortises.  This feature really aids in solving solid wood movement issues.  All in all a great addition to improving both the quality of ones work and the efficiency with which the work is done; the two critical factors in determining the value proposition presented by the piece.  Thanks again for adding to the knowledge base.

Jerry

charlie b said:
I've had the DOMINO since the middle or April
and have been exploring it's "presets" trying
to figure out the underlying reasons for each
of them and how they fit together.  What
I've come to believe is that the DOMINO is
the woodworker's equivalent to the first HP
programmable pocket calculators - a solution
looking for problems to solve.

Have put up yet another look at the DOMINO
from one user's perspective.
http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/DOMINO/DOMINO_TableOfContent.html

Comments, suggestions, constructive criticism
requested

charlie b
Click to expand...
 
Wow Charlie! Awesome work and amazing attention to detail. For example, your graphic showing Domino tenon sizes even illustrates that 5 mm Dominoes have chamfered rather than radiused edges. Thus far, I haven't noticed anyone even mentioning this detail.
 
Charlie,

I just posted a link to your User Perspective here in the FOG Festool Quick Links section (http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?board=30.0) so that it readily available to other Domino users.  Again, very nice work.

Regards,

Dan.
 
I saved the image (one page reference) to my hard drive and then printed it .... It fills up a 8.5 x 11 sheet completely and very easy to read.
 
Thank you Charlie B for the manual.

When I go to your index page some of the links are broken.  Since no one else has mentioned it I assume I am doing something incorrectly.

The missing links are:
Reproducability - Not Quite "UNDO", But Close

End Grain Mortising In Narrow Parts?

Getting Around Tenon Conflicts - Use Two Depth of Cut "presets"

Angled Mortises - the tricky stuff

The links are broken in both FireFox and MS Explorer.

Thanks for the help
 
Charlie,

There is so much great info in your review, I copied all of it about 2 weeks ago into a Word .doc. It now looks like you have added quite a bit of new stuff since I copied it originally. Would it be possible for you to add revision dates to your table of contents? I would sure appreciate it.

Jerry Work,

You hit another home run with your Domino manual.

Thanks again to both of you for all your hard work.
 
Woodrat (et. al.)

The "dead links" you identified are just place holders
in the Table of Content.  I haven't done the pages yet
(and if anyone has figured out how to predict the
centerline of the mortise for the various "preset"
"thickness gauge" values (ie - distance from fence
to angled mortise's centerline) - PLEASE let
me know.

Les Spencer's suggestion to add the date of additions
to the TOC is an excellent one - DUH! - and I've started
doing that.  Thanks for the very subtle Thunk Upside
the Head ; ).

I'm pretty sure the DOMINO was designed for a specific
application initially and then adapted to solve other
mortising "challenges".  I'm still trying to figure out what
they originally were after - hence all the "visual aids".

And what I put together is more of a Tips & Tricks /
Free Accociation / Exploration than a "manual".  I'm
not a technical writer (as you no doubt can tell) and
certainly not a technical illustrator - or photographer.
I do this stuff to help me understand a tool or technique.
Putting what I've done up on the web doesn't take much
additional time or effort.  If it helps someone make a
purchasing decision, or provides a tip or trick they
hadn't found yet - great.  What I hope my stuff does
is get someone to try something they didn't think they
could do - and save them some trial and error grief /
frustration.

The School of Hard Knocks is one way to learn something.
Often, however, it's better to learn from other's experience
(FIRE BURNS!  OK, I'll take your word on that.)

charlie b

still looking for constructive critiques.
 
Charlie, 

I want to express my appreciation and thanks for the time and effort in presenting "A User's Perspective."  An excellent resource for all to share.

I have been on the fence on the Domino.  In the effort of you and Jerry Work, I decided to go ahead and purchase the Domino.  I am half way through Jerry's manual, though it is taking me a bit to digest it all. 
I am sure, that once I have the Domino in hand and use it in real applications, everything will make a bit more sense.

Ken S   
 
Anyone selling a Domino by chance?  I could save about $75 buying the previous model from Festool.  Any real disadvantages to the old model? 
Kevin
 
Thanks Charlie,
Can you please print out some "Do Not Attempt To Use The Dust Extractor As A Bong" Systainer labels, in pea green, of course.
 
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