Domino DF 500 for slab table alignment only?

[juststartingout]

Hi All,

I'm in the process of building a 120" x 42" live edge slab table.  thickness is about 2".  I only have a domino df 500 ad have the largest cutter for those dominos.  I was thinking of using those dominoes for jointing and gluing only.  I have ordered some canadian woodworks c channel to brace the bottom of the table for wood movement restriction and support. 

My question is:  is the DF500 sufficient.  I DO NOT own a DF 700 and am not likely to need anything that large for future projects, so i'd rather not buy if not absolutely necessary.

Thanks,

Oscar 

 

[Gregor]

In case you only want to use the dominos for alignment of the glue-up you won't have any problems, even when using the small ones. With 2" there is plenty of glue surface so the dominos itself won't really matter much for the final strength.

The 8 and 10mm ones are nevertheless quite sturdy, using multiple of them per joint can often be enough to reach the needed structural integrity for corner joints (like for chairs, table legs and such). I found though that it's a good idea in general to destructively test prototype joints before settling on the final design for mass production.

 

[waho6o9]

Another Fogger had a great idea about mortising the holes deeper with a chisel or drill and making longer

floating tenons.

" Domino DF 500 for slab table alignment only?"

You should be fine for alignment and structural purposes.

 

[ChuckM]

Glue is stronger than wood, as long as your edges are properly prepared. A lot of people use biscuits or nothing at all (other than glue) to join boards together. The DF500 is more than good enough for any edge-joining tasks.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Seconding ChuckM, back in the day, before the biscuit joiner, nothing was added to the joint except glue. If the boards needed help to align, wedges were added between the bar clamp and wood.

Biscuits almost eliminate the need for wedges but are still a bit loose compared to Dominos. Simply for alignment, assuming the stock is traight etc., even 5mm Dominos are adequate. If you’ll need to torque the board around an alignment fulcrum to get the surfaces to match, then you’ll need to use bigger Dominos.

 

[jonnyrocket]

I did something very similar. I used the DF500 to give me "alignment dominos" while gluing up an 8/4 walnut table top. The dominos kept the surfaces aligned much better than biscuits did (as mentioned about I tried different options on some scrap pieces before going ahead with it).