Domino .. accuracy in sheet goods ??

[art stratemeyer]

Hi Gang,

Finally got to unpack the Domino ( had 3 commission to get out before I could play with it ).

First thing I tried was grabbing some scrap veneered ply and see how the edge to edge surface registration was.

On the first try I find good mating however there is a "fingernail" difference in the mated heights of these two pieces.  While this can be sanded, it does bring the risk of sanding through the veneer on the part that is "higher".

Has anyone else seen this ?? 

 

[Bob Marino]

Hi Gang,

Finally got to unpack the Domino ( had 3 commission to get out before I could play with it ).

First thing I tried was grabbing some scrap veneered ply and see how the edge to edge surface registration was.

On the first try I find good mating however there is a "fingernail" difference in the mated heights of these two pieces.  While this can be sanded, it does bring the risk of sanding through the veneer on the part that is "higher".

Has anyone else seen this ?? 

  Art,

Is the work surface that the joiner is resting on perfectly flat? If that surface is not perfectly flat, (glue/varnish drippings, etc.) the sufaces will not align perfectly. Are the pieces of ply exactly the same height?

The Domino is so precise, small erros will result in a close, but not perfect alignment.

Bob

 

[art stratemeyer]

Howdy Bob ( happy bunny day )

I was not registering off of the worksurface but rather using the fence face as the reference.  Thus taking away the worksurface as a reference.

PS ....... missing a tool ...... the allen/torx wrench to adjust the position guage not included.  Chuckle, had to dig through all of my non-metic ones to find on that was kinda close

 

[Corwin]

Check the Systainer carefully for the tool -- I thought that mine was missing also, but found it was hiding in the lid behind the paper. 

On Edit:  No, that was the open-end wrench that comes with the Domino that was loose, not the Torx driver you are wanting.  The Toolie-Tool includes T10, T15 and T20 drivers -- I see the Domino uses many screws requiring the T10 and T15 sizes.

Note to Self:  No more posts until after completion of first cup of coffee!!

 

[Bob Marino]

Howdy Bob ( happy bunny day )

I was not registering off of the worksurface but rather using the fence face as the reference.  Thus taking away the worksurface as a reference.

PS ....... missing a tool ...... the allen/torx wrench to adjust the position guage not included.  Chuckle, had to dig through all of my non-metic ones to find on that was kinda close

Perhaps the plywood had some "compressability" from the voids? Try it on 2 pieces of solid wood to double check. Also, if the worksurface on which the ply was resing on had those glue drips, you'd have the same problem.

Let me know about that wrench. If not, I will get you another one.

Bob

Bob

 

[art stratemeyer]

I'm gonna try on several various pieces just to see ... after all these were my first cuts.

Also .. your note about the glue drips ... again ... since the reference is the fence and not the worksurface these should have no impact.
Besides ... how dare you say I've got glue drips on my assembly table !! LOL ... have to get after my apprentice for that.

 

[Warrior]

Art,
Check out your domino's fence to base parrallel. Mine was out by around .5 deg. I'm not sure exactly how it works but I adjusted mine by: With the machine upside down setting the fence to 90. Place a square on the base and one the fence to check for parrallel. Then loosen fence lock and angle pointer. Adjust fence to perfect parrallel and retighten the angle pointer(part 24 on parts diagram) making sure that the fence and base are parrallel and the pointer is reading at exactly 90. I dont know what the relationship between the pointer and where the fence is stopped by the detent, but there is one.

Hope this helps anyone with a machine that is out of parrallel.

Eiji

 

[art stratemeyer]

Hi Eli .. thanks for the tip on parallelism.  I'll check that .. however since the face of the fence was the registering surface ( base does not come into play ) not quite sure the effect this will have.

 

[Mark Carlson]

Art,

I get the same behaviour but I'm using the fence versus the base.  I going to follow Eiji's suggestion to see if my fence is parallel to the fence.  My problem might be bad technique although I dont think so because I've duplicated it a couple of times.

~mark

 

[Mark Carlson]

My fence at 90 degrees is more like 89.  The angle pointer doesnt seem to have any effect of this.  Is there a way of adjusting the fence so that the 90 degree indent is really 90 degrees?  Thanks for any input.

~mark

 

[Warrior]

Mark,
Loosen the angle pointer then adjust the fence to exactly 90 then tighten the pointer with it reading 90 on the scale. It works.
Eiji

 

[art stratemeyer]

Hi Mark ... yes, I can see that when you use the base as the reference then then you have two issues coming into play.

1. the flatness of the bench where you rest the base
2. the flatness of the material itself as it sits on the bench

It's the referencing off of the fence that has me a bit bamboozled

 

[bill-e]

Make sure your Domino isn't accidentally referencing off the work surface.  With the fence set to put a mortise in the center of a 3/4" (or thinner) piece of plywood the Domino base will hit the work surface and the fence, while appearing to be resting on the piece, will not be. 

Align the edge of the piece to be mortised with the edge of your work surface, or overhang the surface so that the Domino can be held level and plunged without work surface interference.  If you do this you should be able to get perfect alignment.

 

[bill-e]

Now what I said above may not be your problem but I think it bears expanding on.

The work piece thickness at which a properly set up Domino will put the mortise in the center and have both the bottom surface and the fence reference off the piece is 20mm or .787".  So you can see that a perfect .750" thick piece may appear to reference off the fence if your not careful (In my review I mention a couple of times that you cant be sloppy with the Domino) and your tenancy will be to tilt it up off the work surface because in your mind you think it shouldn't be touching, only to actually be touching up at it's face and causing the misalignment. DAMHIKT

So, in order to use the fence as a reference for material thicknesses under say 21mm the work piece must either be flush with or overhanging the work surface edge or be propped up by placing a board under it so that there is no Domino base/work surface interference.

 

[Mark Carlson]

Art,

Did you resolve your issue?  Did you measure your fence at 90 and the base to see if there parallel?

I'm also using my fence at 90 and not the base.  When I check the base and the fence with two engineer squares I get a very noticable gap between the two squares indicating that my fence is not really at 90 degrees.  This explains why my boards dont go together well.  Anyone else have this issue besides Eiji and myself?

~mark

 

[bill-e]

Mark,

I just rechecked mine and it perfect.  Did you square things up and try again?

I ask because it seems to me that if the fence angle was off a little bit, the mortise entrance point into the work would still be the same on both pieces of work and should still align.

I don't think this is related to your problem but while I'm thinking about it... Another thing I noticed was that when using the step gauge, make sure you only adjust the fence height by grabbing the side of the fence right over the gauge.  If you move the fence by the far side at the height lock it's easy to cock the fence and mess up your alignment.

 

[Mark Carlson]

Mark,

I just rechecked mine and it perfect.  Did you square things up and try again?

I ask because it seems to me that if the fence angle was off a little bit, the mortise entrance point into the work would still be the same on both pieces of work and should still align.

I don't think this is related to your problem but while I'm thinking about it... Another thing I noticed was that when using the step gauge, make sure you only adjust the fence height by grabbing the side of the fence right over the gauge.  If you move the fence by the far side at the height lock it's easy to cock the fence and mess up your alignment.

Bill,

Thanks for your checking your domino for squareness.   I ran out of time and wasn't able to get my fence pefectly parallel to the base.  I'll play with it some more tomorrow.  I'm sure I'll be able to lock the fence at 90 degrees but I'm not sure that I'll be able to reliably go to that angle.  Eiji suggested adjusting the pointer.  Looking at the parts diagram I dont see how the pointer could effect the accuracy of the 90 deg detent.  Maybe.   Rick's manual doesnt talk about checking or adjusting the accuracy of the fence.   I wonder if the Festool manual says anything about this.

~mark

 

[Warrior]

Mark,
the pointer has a stop on the underside that catches the fence angle gauge and holds it against the detent ball. When the stop on the pointer engages the fence angle gauge it reads 90. When you adjust the pointer you can move that 90 to a true 90. Hope that helps.

Eiji

 

[Warrior]

Regarding adjusting the 90 deg/ fence to base parrallelism.

Why is this not in any of the manuals?
I almost freaked  when I put my squares on the base and fence.
I took me a little while to figure out the solution but I did. It was dominated.

Eiji

 

[jimg]

The work piece thickness at which a properly set up Domino will put the mortise in the center and have both the bottom surface and the fence reference off the piece is 20mm or .787".  So you can see that a perfect .750" thick piece may appear to reference off the fence if your not careful (In my review I mention a couple of times that you cant be sloppy with the Domino) and your tenancy will be to tilt it up off the work surface because in your mind you think it shouldn't be touching, only to actually be touching up at it's face and causing the misalignment. DAMHIKT

Thanks. I had exactly this issue last week. I was making up some board and batten doors last week using 3/4" pine and was having a problem with the surfaces not being aligned exactly right. Thinking back on it, I had the boards clamped on the MFT and with your explaination I can see how I could have been referencing off of the table rather than the board. The boards weren't off by much, but since I was expecting perfection with the Domino, it was alarming. I'm glad that it was just a case of operator error.  ;D