Domino workflow question for shelving

[mcooley]

If there is a thread already on this topic then please advise.

I am doing shelving units which have butt joints. Anyone have advice on workflow for joining the sides with the mortise on the face and the mating mortise on the end grain of the top and bottom pieces of the shelves? The pieces need to have specific sides facing out (sides) or up (top and bottom) for aesthetic reasons, thus, I have found it very, very easy to make a mistake while flipping the boards around. I am also trying to do every step either with or without the Domino Support Bracket to make it more streamlined.

The supplemental manual has been helpful but there is no mention of other workflow options when matching specific sides of wood etc. Seeing other examples would be really helpful. 

Thanks

 

[rmwarren]

To prevent mortising the wrong face I mock up the assembly then use a small piece of blue/green masking tape to identify the edge the domino fence is referenced off of, and I put the tape on the side I start from. Tape on the left end of a board means I start at the left side and rest the fence against the end/edge and domino the face. Tape on the right top corner of a sheet means I start on that corner and rest the fence against the face of the sheet, then domino into the end/edge.

Hope that makes sense.

RMW

 

[Birdhunter]

I am a great believer in using blue tape with annotations to mark orientations of parts, Domino reference surfaces, Domino widths, and anything else I think I might need to know. I also use a Marks-a-Lot to make annotations on surfaces that don't show upon final assembly. Front, back, left, right, top, bottom, glue side, no glue, and other annotations can be seen on my projects prior to glue up.

It takes time up front to make the annotations, but a lot less time than to pull apart a glued up project that was put together wrong.

Not in response to your post, but a time saver is to make either a full scale or half scale mock up of a furniture project using cardboard. Something that looks good on paper, sometimes doesn't look so good in real life and a mock up usually reveals the problem.

 

[mcooley]

Thanks everyone!

I do make annotations but probably not as many as I should.

As I said, if putting boards together that can go any which way with regards to wood grain then it's fast and simple but when not then definitely more notes helps.

Also, I have made the mistake of labeling the Top of boards with regards to the Top of the piece I am making and so have made the error of plunging from that surface as my reference when I should have flipped the piece over and plunged instead from that reference surface. The brain is a funny think with regards to directives!

 

[sancho57]

I always mark the side of the piece Im indexing off of.

 

[eddomak]

The other thing that hasn't been mentioned yet (that I picked up off Paul-Marcel 's video) is that you may be able to offset the height of the mortise from centre in some applications. If you are able to offset the mortise, then during assembly any pieces that are in the wrong orientation should become more obvious because of the misalignment.

 

[peter halle]

Even the Festool trainers mark their workpieces when demonstrating the Domino.  It is easy to lose track of the reference edges / faces and the edges / faces to mortise - especially if there are distractions.

Peter