Domino rail attachment

[TequilaTony]

I'll try to make this as brief and understandable as I can.

I just finished a prototype cabinet for my garage/shop. My cabinet interior is 427mm wide by 380mm deep, the same internal dimensions as a sysport. I'm using furniture grade ply and keeping the joinery simple using dominos and glue. I plan on making at least 8 replicas.

I'm really pleased with the prototype with one minor exception. The top/bottom edge faces do not perfectly align with the front edges of the sides where they meet at the opening of the cabinet. They are off my a millimeter or less. I don't plan on edge banding because these are shop cabinets and quite honestly my TS55 leaves such a clean cut that the edges look great. The 1mm gap bothers me a little though and before I build more, I would like to see if I can remove the gap. I've narrowed the issue to be the fact that I cut the cabinet sides to 399mm width (380mm + 19mm for back face). The issue is that the plywood thickness is not a full 19mm. It's 18mm and change. The tops and bottoms are 380mm and attach to the back of the cabinet face so they are consistenly 380mm from the back.

I can solve this issue by referencing the dominos from the front face of the cabinet side piece vs. the back edge of the cabinet side piece. If I reference them from the font edge, I will consistently be at 380mm vs. 381 or whatever I have now. I'm using the Senaca plate attachment off the backedge and while it's consistent, it doesn't guarantee the dominos are spaced from the front edge.

Using a track with the parallel guides would make sense to get a clean offset from the front but I have no way to attach the domino to the track. I could but it up against the cut strip if need be but this seems a little open for error.

Is anyone aware of an attachment? I know this probably seems a little crazy. I could be happy with the small offset but when you are working hard to getting everything square and clean it stands out a little.

 

[ear3]

I'm having a little trouble visualizing -- why can't you redo the mortises in the same spot, but use the wider mortise setting, so that you don't have to deal with offsets?

Also note that you can use the 10mm distance from mortise center to bottom of machine to your advantage -- using a setup block of the same width on both boards and resting the bottom of the machine against it.  i think someone actually put up a video demonstrating this technique, but I forget who made it.  I'm not sure though if this will address your issue.

 

[Holmz]

I'm having a little trouble visualizing -- ...

I have a Domino...
I like my Domino...
And I hate to bring it up on FOG...
But...

I am visualising he is talking about a Mafell DD40 which has its own rail with indexing notches and using dowels instead of dominos.
And I doubt there is anything better for shelf pins.

 

[bdiemer]

Sometimes when I reference off of plywood I use double face tape,(or clamps) to add a thicker straight board behind the plywood. That helps me hold the domino machine straight and square so I can plunge slow and I get no machine drift . Also when I build utility cabinets I always combine a handful of pocket screws with the dominos. This sounds like more work but it's a lot easier than glue clamps and pulls everything square.

 

[bkharman]

It sounds like you mixed your reference sides up. I have done that before... Even when concentrating not to!!

I will often make a mark on them to ensure I remember. If I were you, sand off or trim the 1mm parts and remember for next time.

Cheers. Bryan.

 

[TequilaTony]

Hopefully this picture helps. 

[attachimg=2]

I will probably try to carefully remove the excess with my rail and TS55 for this one.

I routed exact fit in the board edges and oversized all holes routed in the face of boards so I can shift things around as needed. Problem is that this approach only allows shifting in one direction.

 

[dltflt]

Search here on Fog, I think I remember someone using the LR32 plate and attaching the Domino to it.  This was several years ago.

 

[bkharman]

Hopefully this picture helps. 

[attachimg=2]

I will probably try to carefully remove the excess with my rail and TS55 for this one.

I routed exact fit in the board edges and oversized all holes routed in the face of boards so I can shift things around as needed. Problem is that this approach only allows shifting in one direction.

That does help. Search google for domino supplemental guide. It appears that you indexing window may be "off". There is a section for calibrating it. I had to readjust mine after about 500 dominos. That and I think I bumped the fence a time or two.

The supplemental manual shows how to test and realign it if this is the issue.

Cheers. Bryan.

 

[blaszcsj]

Hopefully this picture helps. 

[attachimg=2]

I will probably try to carefully remove the excess with my rail and TS55 for this one.

I routed exact fit in the board edges and oversized all holes routed in the face of boards so I can shift things around as needed. Problem is that this approach only allows shifting in one direction.

That does help. Search google for domino supplemental guide. It appears that you indexing window may be "off". There is a section for calibrating it. I had to readjust mine after about 500 dominos. That and I think I bumped the fence a time or two.

The supplemental manual shows how to test and realign it if this is the issue.

Cheers. Bryan.

I was just thinking the same. My domino came with a shim kit to adjust the left and right offset if this occurred.

 

[Cheese]

[member=47414]TequilaTony[/member]
Here's a link that just came up a couple of days ago about calibrating the Domino.

http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-how-to/ok-seriously-now-how-do-you-calibrate-your-domino-500/msg317787/#msg317787

 

[lunchman]

Couldn't you just make use of the Domino flags to offset the first mortises from the front edge? That would guarantee they're in the same location (and use narrow setting for these).

I'm in the process of building cabinets and my technique is this: mortises for the bottom and top panels and both sides are referenced off the front edge of the cabinet. The bottom and top panels get all narrow width mortises. On the side panels only the first mortise from the front edge is narrow, the remainders are cut at the wide setting. When I put these together, they are perfectly lined up since the narrow width mortises are in alignment.

It sounds like you're referencing from the back edge of the cabinet to accommodate the back panel. Or am I missing something?

-Dom

 

[sancho57]

looking at your photo, I think when you use the domino and or install the sides you are not referencing off the same side. You need to mark the side you are referencing the domino off. I usually mark them F for face side, the side where I set the domino fence.

even if you had a guide rail attachment if you don't keep your reference sides marks and mix them up you won't get a good joint.

Jerry at te Dovetail Joint shows how to mount a domino to a LR32 guide rail to index off it. This might be what your looking for.

http://jerrywork.com

 

[TequilaTony]

lunchman,

Others have suggested my domino needs calibrated. I don't thinks this is the problem.

My tops and bottoms have the dominos inserted in the edge of the wood and mate with holes in the face of the back panel. Since the top and bottom are cut to 380mm, I get a perfect depth from front edge to back of cabinet.

Now for the sides. The sides have dominos on the face and marry to slots in the edge of the back. I did this since these are wall cabinets and I figured forces are trying to pull the sides forward. So, the dominos precent forward movement even if there was a glue failure.

I assumed my plywood was 19mm thick. It is not. It's actually not even 18mm. Since I registered my dominos from the back edge of the side pieces vs. the from edge, there is an error. Essentially, the sides are cut wider then they need be. Had I registered the domino from the front edge, I would have gotten the perfect 380mm with extra wood protruding off the back edge.

So, I agree with your assessment. Thankfully, I built a prototype vs. milling up all 10 cabinets and discovering the problem then

Thanks,

Tony