Domino Heresy

[brandon.nickel]

I want to chime in with a complaint about my much vaunted Domino.  Neither my registration pins nor my plastic window are properly aligned.  Each consistently produces a joint that is offset about 0.030".  This may not sound like much, but it's clearly visible and worse than I can do by hand mortising or even pocket hole screws.  So, I need to calibrate it, right?  The procedure for doing so has been well documented around here.  So, tonight I finally decided to work on it. 

Step 1 of Align registration pin cam = Remove set screw on left side.  Step 1a:  Get 2mm allen key from toolbox  Step 1b: insert allen key into set screw.  Short end is too short to fit, so use long end.  Step 1c:  Apply torque to set screw.  Doesn't budge.  Go get pliers to increase leverage.  Apply more torque.  *POP*  Oh good, it broke free.  Oh wait, no it didn't.  The allen key just spun in the set screw, rendering my Domino non-adjustable!!!.  This is a Snap-On allen key, so no complaints about using the wrong size or a cheap bad-fitting hex.  So, now I need to get in touch with Bob Marino and see what we're going to do about this.

When I spend nearly $1000 on a tool (including Dominos and accessories), I expect it to a) come out of the box properly aligned.  b) if not, it should be adjustable without breaking.  I consider this to be totally unacceptable in a tool of this quality.  I'm thoroughly annoyed by the fact that my Domino is generating an inferior product to that which I was creating using pocket hole screws and vise-grips.

Anyone else having similar feelings?

 

[Les]

Yep. Mine was the same. I had to adjust all the geometry to get  accurate cuts. I still can't adjust the eccentric bushing without driving it out of the hole. Now all is good and I don't want to send it back to Festool because I'm afraid I'll get another one like the first one. Can't adjust the eccentric bushing.

 

[Bob Marino]

Brandon,

I will call you later.

Bob

 

[Ted Miller]

Yep. Mine was the same.

Me too, mine was way off. I figured for the price it would be dead on from the factory...

 

[brandon.nickel]

I'm still upset that my Domino wasn't setup properly out of the box, but I can't say enough about Bob's customer service.  He's sending me his personal machine from NJ to IL with a Sunday delivery.  This is much more than I expected.  Festool will be sending FedEx for my unit on Monday, so I anticipate a timely resolution to the problem.  I can't help but think that it would be easier to check these things at the end of the assembly line than to go through this trouble.

Thanks again to Bob for stellar customer service.