Domino in middle of board?

[Aaron B]

Can you manually use the domino in the middle of board where the board is curved, (no flat side) and you don't have anything to register it with to line up the horizontal piece?

I mean, can you cut the slots in the horizontal piece, then fit the dominos in, the hold the horizontal piece against the vertical and trace around the dominos to indicate where you need the slots in the vertical and then just line things up?  Can you manually line up the domino cutter this way?

Hope that made sense.

 

[justaguy]

I'm thinking you would want to mark the "horizontal" (your description) work piece for the domino location(s), The take the "horizontal" piece and use it to transfer the marks to the "vertical. Trying to transfer by tracing around the dominos would probably not work well.

In addition, I think the potential for success would depend a lot on the thickness of the pieces and the radius of the curve. And of course you have to fit the joint where the two boards meet to eliminate gaps.

I picture of what you are trying to join would be helpful.

 

[Aaron B]

Here is a picture.
The top top rail, which is curved, I would like to have a couple of dominos in it to connect to the leg, but you can see the leg is not straight anywhere.

Looking on how to transfer the slots I make in the top rail over to the leg so that they line up.

 

[justaguy]

If you have not yet begun milling the parts, I would layout, mark and cut the slots in both pieces while they are still square.

 

[Aaron B]

If you have not yet begun milling the parts, I would layout, mark and cut the slots in both pieces while they are still square.

I haven't started yet, but my concern would be the top rail not coming out exactly as planned since there is hand worked involved and then the slots wouldn't line up, or if I made them line up the top rail may not touch the footboard rail.

It is a thought though, and I will consider it, just not sure how I would line them up when the shape isn't there, afraid something would happen where they wouldn't line up after they have been shaped.

I'll have to maybe lay it out after I get the boards surfaced and see how I feel about it at that point.
Thanks