Domino Joinery Guide / Recommendations

[iamnothim]

My domino should arrive next week and I'm looking for some resources on joinery techniques.  If it one exists. 

I've watched numerous Domino reviews and manuals and I picked up the SCG and the Domiplate after watching the 1/2" review..  [smile]  What I need help with is basic Domino joinery guideline/practices.  How many domino's to use and where?  What size and what depth?  Spacing? One of the first things I'll do is butt join 2 pieces of 5/4 x 2-1/2" Sipo to make a stringer for a wall shelf.  Looking at it I wondered.. "I should use one or two?"

Over the years I've tried to make mortise and tenon joints by hand and failed miserably.    [crying]  Even after watching a few Paul Sellers videos.  ......

 

[blakjak220]

Interested if anyone comes up with something like that too.....

I've had mine for a month and have really just played with it a lot making mortises from different angles, putting different amounts of domino in a joint and just seeing how strong it was... I did find that if you use 6mm dominos in low/avg quality 3/4" ply that you can blow them out the side fairly easily if you put any lateral pressure on them like when fitting them together. 5mm on the other hand works great. And I tried dominos + pocket screws a couple times and that works great too - the dominos to register and hold the pcs together then pocket screws to cinch it all down. The good thing about playing around with it is that it doesn't cost any money to just make a bunch of mortises and test fit stuff cuz you just re-use all the dominos.... You'll probably be surprised how strong they are....

 

[truck90278]

although they can be difficult to get into, i would suggest the Festool Essentials class.  the 2 day class touches all the tools including a lot of time with the Domino. You can sign up for notifications when classes are available, limited to only 6 people per class. 

 

[copcarcollector]

although they can be difficult to get into, i would suggest the Festool Essentials class.  the 2 day class touches all the tools including a lot of time with the Domino. You can sign up for notifications when classes are available, limited to only 6 people per class. 

+1 - Great idea. I took that class and did work with the Domino quite a bit, various angles etc....

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

There is no hard fast rule for how many tenons to use. I really depends on the structural needs of the build and the size of the tenons being used. When in doubt, better to err on the side of too many. For most things, I usually space them about 8-10" apart.

You can use the rule of thirds for the tenon size. So, the tenon should be approximately 1/3 the thickness of the material being joined.

Shane

 

[Stephen B]

[size=11pt]

In addition to the excellent works by Paul and Rick, have a look at -

http://www.festoolusa.com/Web_files/Getting_the_most_from_the_Festool_Domino_Machine.pdf

Which shows both basic and advanced work.

 

[iamnothim]

Thanks Guys,

In addition to the excellent works by Paul and Rick, have a look at -

http://www.festoolusa.com/Web_files/Getting_the_most_from_the_Festool_Domino_Machine.pdf

Which shows both basic and advanced work.

There is no hard fast rule for how many tenons to use. I really depends on the structural needs of the build and the size of the tenons being used. When in doubt, better to err on the side of too many. For most things, I usually space them about 8-10" apart.

You can use the rule of thirds for the tenon size. So, the tenon should be approximately 1/3 the thickness of the material being joined.

Shane

 

[waltwood]

I have put in a few thousand Dominoes now so I will share some of what I know.
There is a learning curve to it but it is not difficult to use. Do test pcs. as the first guy suggested.
I glanced at the site above and wanted to add that you don't tighten the cutters very much. They can be very difficult to remove if you do.
I NEVER cut the slots to the narrowest setting. I always use the middle size. This could have to do with what I use it for mainly, which is casework or my lack of precision.
I use 3 Dominoes for 12" wide stuff, 4 for 16" and 5 for 24". But that is just for cabinet cases, I space them about 7" on solid wood projects.
The distance that it cuts a slot from the end using the paddles seems to be perfect for everything I do. I have tried all variations and the way they have it set up is great.
Walt

 

[mouppe]

Just a quick note about the traditional rule of thirds relating to tenon sizes. Traditionally, the tenon size was one-third the thickness of the material it was being mortised into, so if you have an offset in material thicknesses the tenon could be much thicker than one-third the size of tenoning piece.

When I am using dominoes to align panels I use the small 4mm ones. I am not concerned about structural strength so I want to mortise quickly and cheaply.

When I want a strong joint, I use the big ones, and the longest possible without weakening the joint. Sometimes I double up the tenons.

Here's a Chris Schwarz article on tenon sizes.

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/joinery/tenons-rule-so-here-are-the-rules-on-tenons

 

[jacko9]

A lot of Domino technique is learned from your own experience.  I always use the exact setting for the reference surface cut to be able to precisely align the first cut then use the wider cuts for additional tenons.  For single tenons, I use one third of the work thickness for the tenon unless you need more glue surface like in drawer blades where I use double tenons.  Follow traditional woodworking techniques for mortise and tenon joinery and you'll be just fine.

Jack

 

[RC]

And try to be the first Domino user not to make the elementary mistake of having the work piece on your work table in such a way your Domino morticer registers off the table and not off your fence resulting in inexplainably misaligned joints ;-)

Remember to over-hang your pieces over the edge of your table when cutting the mortices and make sure your fence is not making contact with the clamps either... Done both

 

[Roseland]

And try to be the first Domino user not to make the elementary mistake of having the work piece on your work table in such a way your Domino morticer registers off the table and not off your fence resulting in inexplainably misaligned joints ;-)

Remember to over-hang your pieces over the edge of your table when cutting the mortices and make sure your fence is not making contact with the clamps either... Done both

Hey, I qualify!  But then I only started using it this week.  I'm sure I'll make the same mistakes soon.  The biggest problem I have (coming from a biscuit jointer) is remembering to change the mortice width.

Andrew