I tried to be a sport. I dealt with a a lot problems that were the direct result of Festool sloppiness, but enough is enough. Lets start at the begining. I run a remodeling company that does a fair amount of custom cabinet work and the domino joiner looked like a good investment. The first job it was used for was a custom set of floor to ceiling screen frames in meranti. This should have been easy, but festool's lack of quality control struck immediately. The fence crept while in use (see my post on this earlier) despite being at full lock. The result was an expensive waste of lumber and hours and hours of wasted work. So right off the bat and right out of the box Festool cost me lots of time and money. It turns out that the lever needs to be removed and set way beyond the factory setting to keep it from slipping. Gee, I didn't know I was supposed to strip the tool and start reassembling it properly before use. Silly me! I thought they assembled their tools at the factory. The next fun came when dominoes weren't centering on line. The plastic gauge was not capable of being aligned with center. So off it came and there I was doing Festool's job for them again and retrofiting parts that they couldn't get right at the factory. After that I had to adjust the pins. In all fairness the pathetic directions they provide do admit they don't get it right at factory half the time so you get to do it. Your supposed to do it with a flat screw driver, but the slot is fatter than a nickel and the adjuster was nearly frozen in place. It was apparent the any normal driver was going to strip the slot so I had to grind one down to the fat part of the blade and then narrow it to fit. Of course I have nothing to do all day, but work on my domino joiner so this was no problem. I just expect too much I suppose but maybe, they could at least include the tool needed to adjust their inaccurate factory settings since they can't be bothered setting them themselves. After this I tried using the adjustable alignment pin guides that register off the domino mortise as you work along a piece. But guess what? one of them angles off because the dovetail on the sole plate is misaligned. The result is that the two wings register differently on the same setting. I was joining front supporting edges to shelves about 4' long and the inacuracies built as I worked down the line to the point that the dominoes toward the ends of the shelves would not align when the shelves and supports were reversed to face each other. So I guess I was supposed to set the right and left guides at two different settings to account for more Festool quality control screw ups. Then today I was locking the angle adjustment of the fence when PoP! out comes the hinge rod, snapped clean off inside the hinge. Nice! So I called their vaunted customer service at 10:00 AM EST. And guess what? They were just too darn busy to answer their phone. But the machine that answers for them promised they would get back to me if I left my name, rank , and serial number. Like I said, I was a sport, I took care of alot myself. Even after the headaches, lost time and money that Festool's lack of quality cost me, I still tried to give them the option of repairing the tool, but they couldn't be bothered answering the phone. This company has failed me in everyway. So back to the retailer this tool went.
Domino Going Back
- Thread starter MCASE
- Start date
Mike Goetzke
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- Jul 12, 2008
- Messages
- 1,133
I take it you don't like your Domino 
.
I have one of your problems - the fence height not holding. I too was told to reindex the lever but even though it holds now I don't feel comfortable tightening it so hard.
Your unit must have been built on a Friday before a long weekend.
Sorry to hear allyour problems.
Mike
.I have one of your problems - the fence height not holding. I too was told to reindex the lever but even though it holds now I don't feel comfortable tightening it so hard.
Your unit must have been built on a Friday before a long weekend.
Sorry to hear allyour problems.
Mike
Bob Marino
Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2007
- Messages
- 3,263
I am sorry for this poor first introduction to the Festool tool world. It seems you hit every possible mishap with the Domino that could befall a customer; even with the Repair Department.
I know my Domino rate of return is almost nil, (minor issues with a very few have been corrected) but obviously, your machine was a lemon.
Festool's Repair Department is second to none IMHO, but they need to get "more on top of" that 800 repair number. They have direct extension numbers for the Repair Managers that need to be better "promoted".
Bob
I know my Domino rate of return is almost nil, (minor issues with a very few have been corrected) but obviously, your machine was a lemon.
Festool's Repair Department is second to none IMHO, but they need to get "more on top of" that 800 repair number. They have direct extension numbers for the Repair Managers that need to be better "promoted".
Bob
Bob Marino
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- Jan 16, 2007
- Messages
- 3,263
nickao said:
Here's the repair # and ext 888-337-8600 ext 60488.
Bob
Wow that sounded like a nightmare. I love my domino very much. Yes there were alignment problems, but I'm grateful that I'm able to adjust the alignments unlike other tools (biscuit jointer/dowel jointer) where you have know choice cos the marks are either cast, scribed, etched or fixed in. Other than that It's been a wonderful machine to use know that it's been adjusted accurately.
So what are you gona do? get a replacement or your money back?
So what are you gona do? get a replacement or your money back?
James Biddle
Member
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2007
- Messages
- 162
So let me get this straight:
You buy a new tool that is unlike any you've ever owned and use it for the first time on a real, paying job.
The problems you discover are that the tool messes up that job because of a:
1. creeping fence that you readjusted, and a
2. misaligned plastic centering guide that you realigned, and
3. misaligned guide pins that you manufactured a custom screwdriver for and recentered the pins because the "pathetic directions" told you to, and a
4. misaligned dovetail on the sole plate that you couldn't fix but decided anyway to use that tool on the very next day only to find that,
5. an angle adjustment rod suddenly snapped off for no apparent reason, and
6. what finally pissed you off was that no one answered the phone for some unexpained reason.
Hmmmm. Seems like for a really patient person, you got some really bad luck dude.
You buy a new tool that is unlike any you've ever owned and use it for the first time on a real, paying job.
The problems you discover are that the tool messes up that job because of a:
1. creeping fence that you readjusted, and a
2. misaligned plastic centering guide that you realigned, and
3. misaligned guide pins that you manufactured a custom screwdriver for and recentered the pins because the "pathetic directions" told you to, and a
4. misaligned dovetail on the sole plate that you couldn't fix but decided anyway to use that tool on the very next day only to find that,
5. an angle adjustment rod suddenly snapped off for no apparent reason, and
6. what finally pissed you off was that no one answered the phone for some unexpained reason.
Hmmmm. Seems like for a really patient person, you got some really bad luck dude.
Hi KorDes,
I would like to thank everbody for the supportive posts. They convinced me to try it again. I got the new domino. The fence stays put so far, and the dovetails for the guides seem good, and the pins seem to be in perfect adjustment. They set the mortise the exact distance from both ends and register joined pieces perfectly. Tell you guys though, be gentle with that there locking lever on the angle adjuster. The only little problem is that darn plastic gauge, but that is easily remedied. I hope this works out because I've got a lot of uses for this tool. I even built a really nice jig for doing mortises at repeatable right angles across the face of boards. So wish me luck.
I would like to thank everbody for the supportive posts. They convinced me to try it again. I got the new domino. The fence stays put so far, and the dovetails for the guides seem good, and the pins seem to be in perfect adjustment. They set the mortise the exact distance from both ends and register joined pieces perfectly. Tell you guys though, be gentle with that there locking lever on the angle adjuster. The only little problem is that darn plastic gauge, but that is easily remedied. I hope this works out because I've got a lot of uses for this tool. I even built a really nice jig for doing mortises at repeatable right angles across the face of boards. So wish me luck.
This should help,http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=1026.0MCASE said:
Hi Fidelfs,
I followed the directions for attachment suggested by Steve-Co at (http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=1026.0) I thought I followed the directions closely, but when I clicked the post button it appeared to place the attachment. However, when posted on the forum all that appeared where the attachments were placed was a message saying attachment missing. So when writing the post, the attachments appeared placed "in line" on the composing page, but when the post went to the forum page the attachments came up as missing.
I followed the directions for attachment suggested by Steve-Co at (http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=1026.0) I thought I followed the directions closely, but when I clicked the post button it appeared to place the attachment. However, when posted on the forum all that appeared where the attachments were placed was a message saying attachment missing. So when writing the post, the attachments appeared placed "in line" on the composing page, but when the post went to the forum page the attachments came up as missing.
Brice Burrell
Member
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2007
- Messages
- 7,385
Just try them as attachment without the in-line feature. If you still have trouble you can e-mail your pictures to me and I'll post them.
