domino strong enough for tall built-in bookcases?

[mike1967]

I am planning some built-in bookshelves.  Height probably around 7', each unit 24" wide, units to be screwed together to cover a long wall.  Material will be 3/4" hardwood plywood with edging. 

Each unit will have two tall side pieces (obviously) and three horizontal pieces, one top, one bottom, and one 30" from the bottom so that the lower portion of each bookshelf unit will have doors.  The back will be 3/4" ply rabbeted and glued with screws from behind into the middle shelf (the one 30" from the bottom).  I know this is sort of overkill for a back, but why not.

This is a very basic design.

Has anyone built casework like this with dominoes?  My normal approach would be to use rabbets and dadoes on this sort of a design, but if I assemble the thing with dominoes I can do all the edge work before assembly and this will be a huge time saver. 

Thanks.

 

[MarkF]

Short answer is yes.  Here's a tall bookcase on top of a 2 drawer chest.  Only fasteners other than Dominoes used are pin nails for the trim, screws for the drawer slides and screws for the feet on the chest.  This is fully loaded with fabric and books and is solid as a rock:

 

[bonesbr549]

This piece is all domino! Heavy glass 1" stock.  It's solid as a rock.  If you use the proper amount of domino's in the right locations You should be fine.  FWW did a test of joints and the domino did not fair the best, but for the test they used a single domino and IMO if they had used the right configuration t he results would have been different. Even saying that, I've been a fan of floating M&T and this just makes it so easy.  I do not have experience with Plywood so I can speak specifically to that material as I use solid wood, but I would imagine the same holds true. 

 

[Notorious T.O.D.]

The dominos should work just fine. But it sounds to me like the strongest construction will be the 3/4" back with it glued and screwed to the rest of the bookcase.  I have used 1/4 plywood for bookcase backs and loaded them down with 100s of pounds of magazines and there is no problem, plenty strong.

Best,
Todd

 

[MCASE]

Dominos work great in engineered material.   As others have noted and I can personally vouch for:  If your work allows for it combine the dominos with  Kreg pocket screws and you can skip messing with clamps and put your work together super fast and strong.