Domino DF 500 view plate

Tayler_mann

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Joined
Nov 23, 2014
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416
This weekend I was working on a wine cabinet I am building. I am doing a miters case construction so of course I plan to use dominos to assist me in he glue up of the miter cut case panels.

I did some sample cuts and domino joints to ensure my tools were spot on before doing the real deal. I found that my domino view plate must be off because my miters were about 1 mm off. So I started to do the adjustment to my view plate. I set the fence back to 90 and lined to pieces up and drew two lines acrossed them. I domino both pieces, inserted the dominos and combined the pieces. Oddly enough they lined up perfectly so I did the 3 more times and it came out perfect every time on 90 degree cuts. So I decided to practice some more miters with the domino.

I made a few sets of practice pieces from some scrap made my mark with my woodpeckers T square and made the cuts. Again everything was off 1mm to the same side. I did this 3 more times and repeated the results 3 more times.

What is different with the view plate in the 45 position versus the 90? I just can't seem to come up with what is wrong with this situation. Thank for any help providesz
 
I always try to make my cuts referencing off of the stops, rather than "pencil marks". There is always some margin for error when eyeballing. I cut mine so that all of the slots in one side are "tight" and only one on the ajoining board is, all others are cut at the first oversize adjustment. This way only one domino is controling the fit and you know exactly where to "adjust" it. A quick hit with a sander or even a razor knife will get that one small enough for you parts to align.
 
I'm just the opposite, I rarely use the stops and nearly always use a pencil line. I think it's just personal preference and whether your joinery is well-suited to the distance from the stops.

I think you might be getting some movement when you're plunging. Make sure you have adequate downward pressure on the handle on the fence. Also, be mindful of plunge speed. Plunging too fast can cause issues.

Lastly, dust extraction is mandatory for the Domino. Without it, you can have problems.
 
I have used the domino for this joint before and it's worked flawlessly. I always use pencil lines and I know my pencil lines are always accurate since I have woodpecker T rule. I called festool and thought maybe I had it figured out last night but no go. He explained that since there isn't a hard stop on both sides you need to be sure the fence is at 45 degrees on both sides and that the fence is coming down equally on both sides. Both of these factors are perfect on my domino so ruled that out.

I did about 15 miters last night and every single time the pieces were offset about .5 mm to the left everytime the same. This leads me to belive there is another factor I cannot figure out. I think I am going to adjust the view plate to accommodate my 45 mortises and than I will set it back for 90 to finish the project I am on and than send it in.
 
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