Domino for cabinet doors

[Sam Murdoch]

            I'm new to the world of domino but have high hopes. Assuming careful set up and accurate milling would you with more experience with the Domino feel comfortable cutting cabinet door frame parts 7/8" thick x 2-1/4" wide to exact finish door dimensions then using the Domino to make the joints? Will it be possible to finish up with flush faces and ends? I have always left my stiles long and trimmed the doors down to size as an extra step. Am I asking too much to aim for finish sizes out of the clamps?      Looking forward to your feedback.      Sam M.

 

[slb]

Hi Sam,

To my thinking, there are two separable parts to your question.  The first is whether you can get the surfaces flush using the Domino.  I find that with a small amount of practice and care you can.  At the worst you may need to do a touch of sanding, but I expect to do that after assembly anyway. 

The second part, though, is whether you should mill your door pieces to final size, independent of whether the Domino will give you perfect joints.  I want the doors to exactly match the case, and find that the case is almost never perfect, no matter how carefully made and no matter how carefully I measure the diagonals.  So, I always leave a little extra width and height and trim the doors to match the case.  The high precision of the Domino lets me choose the amount of extra based on the accuracy of the case rather than the door joinery!

 

[Sam Murdoch]

      Yes, of course you are right, a little trim factor is wise, but with practice and care my objective should be achievable?
That's the question. Thanks for your input.
    Sam

 

[Jerry Work]

Hi Sam,

I place a 6 or 8mm domino inside the 10mm tongue and grove on all my rail, stile and panel doors both for strength and to make it much faster to assemble.  All parts are cut to exact dimension before assembly.  The dominos can be placed with such accuracy that no trimming is needed.  I use the saddle fixture to cut the domino in the center of the ends of the rails before cutting the tongues.  Since my rails and stiles are always 20 x 50mm I simply mark a center line at 25mm to position the domino in the stiles.  That mortise can be cut either before or after cutting the grove.  I normally use a 10 x 10mm tongue and grove so cut the mortise in the grove 10mm deeper than in the tongue piece to achieve the same net tenon depth in both components.  The doors come out flat, square and very strong. 

A neat way to speed up assembly if you don't mind a couple of hard to see pin holes on the back side is to assemble the doors good face down on a MFT clamped into a known square corner.  Now place a couple of 23ga micro pins through the back side and into the dominos on both sides of each joint.  That will hold the assembly tightly square until the glue dries.  Using this technique you can remove the door from the clamping jig immediately, check to make sure it is perfectly square and then gently set it aside for an hour or so for the glue to dry before final sanding and a trip to the finish room.  Hope this helps.

Jerry

            I'm new to the world of domino but have high hopes. Assuming careful set up and accurate milling would you with more experience with the Domino feel comfortable cutting cabinet door frame parts 7/8" thick x 2-1/4" wide to exact finish door dimensions then using the Domino to make the joints? Will it be possible to finish up with flush faces and ends? I have always left my stiles long and trimmed the doors down to size as an extra step. Am I asking too much to aim for finish sizes out of the clamps?       Looking forward to your feedback.       Sam M.

 

[johne]

Sam,
Like Jerry said, it is not that hard to get those joints flush. I am new to the domino but had no problems getting accurate and repeatable results.
For joints like you describe i use the setting where you cut the mortise to the exact size of the domino. No problems so far. If you mess up you could always glue in a domino, cut it flush and mortise a new slot. Or if you dont trust the machine, or yourself, in the beginning use the slightly elongated mortise (position 2) this will leave you some room for adjustments.

 

[Sam Murdoch]

Hi All,
     
    I've been using the Domino pretty regularly these past weeks and am more confident that I can achieve the degree of exactness that I want  but I'm glad for the feedback. Jerry, do I understand you correctly that you use a tongue and groove joint between your rails and stiles AND a domino too? Or do you merely groove all your parts for the panels and that the domino fits in that groove? I'm planning on using the domino as my rail to stile tenon and of course stopping the panel groove on the stiles. Are you doing something different. Sorry to be dense. What a great resource we have in this forum. Thanks.

Sam

 

[clintholeman]

You really shouldn't have any trouble getting a good, flush fit with Domino while making doors.

I use it regularly to make doors and it is a dream!!  And the doors are strong!!  Really strong!  As is just about anything you make with it.  Fast and efficient too!

 

[Steve Jones]

I had an order for a full kitchen with mitered flat panel doors a few months ago. I decided that  that was a job that the Domino was made for. We cut all the rails and stiles at 45 degrees, ran them over the tablesaw twice to cut the dado for the panel. and then clamped them to the MFT and simply used the built in stop on the domino against the outside (point) corner to locate the holes.

It mostly worked well, most of the corners came out perfect, and a few just would not come out level, despite being very carefull with the domino, several people tried and none of us could get a "perfect score" on those joints. Easy enough to fix, as said earlier, glue in a domino and cut it off to start again.

Finally found out that sometimes the locating pin on the inside of the corner was popping into the slot cut into the inside of the frame piece and holding the blade up enough to throw off the joint.

Next time I do doors like that I'll cut the slots after the domino holes.

 

[Michael Kellough]

I had an order for a full kitchen with mitered flat panel doors a few months ago. I decided that  that was a job that the Domino was made for. We cut all the rails and stiles at 45 degrees, ran them over the tablesaw twice to cut the dado for the panel. and then clamped them to the MFT and simply used the built in stop on the domino against the outside (point) corner to locate the holes.

It mostly worked well, most of the corners came out perfect, and a few just would not come out level, despite being very carefull with the domino, several people tried and none of us could get a "perfect score" on those joints. Easy enough to fix, as said earlier, glue in a domino and cut it off to start again.

Finally found out that sometimes the locating pin on the inside of the corner was popping into the slot cut into the inside of the frame piece and holding the blade up enough to throw off the joint.

Next time I do doors like that I'll cut the slots after the domino holes.

Thanks for the warning and advice.

 

[Jerry Work]

Yes, I use both the tongue and grove and the domino at each joint so the customer can see the tenon construction on the top side of the doors, and for strength.  The Dominos keep the rail from sliding in the stile during glue up making assembly much faster.  They also add strength.  The Domino is really important for any center stiles as any misalignment in those will cause the rail to raise under the tipped center stile.  That puts pressure on the rail to stile joint at the corners and tries to slide the tongue of the rail out of the grove in the stile, which in turn wants to pull the assembly out of square.  Take the few moments required to add the Domino mortises and the whole assembly, even very complicated ones, goes together straight and square every time as nothing can slide out of proper position.

Jerry

Hi All,
       
     I've been using the Domino pretty regularly these past weeks and am more confident that I can achieve the degree of exactness that I want  but I'm glad for the feedback. Jerry, do I understand you correctly that you use a tongue and groove joint between your rails and stiles AND a domino too? Or do you merely groove all your parts for the panels and that the domino fits in that groove? I'm planning on using the domino as my rail to stile tenon and of course stopping the panel groove on the stiles. Are you doing something different. Sorry to be dense. What a great resource we have in this forum. Thanks.

Sam