Dominofix mft jig

[zachjowi]

I'm looking at making an MFT table.  I know there are several option likes Parf, woodpeckers, etc.

Looking through the fourms it looks like parf is a good option although pricey and tedious.  How do people like the dominofix jig? I found a place I can buy one used for $100. What was the original price for them?

Thanks

 

[Birdhunter]

Pretty sure there is a second (improved) version. Might want to research.

 

[afish]

I dont know about a second version but will give my opinion on the version I looked at and why I went with the Parf MKII and why you may or may not want to.

Dominofix
I originally wanted a router based system but after looking at the Dominofix closer I didnt like that it only worked with a 30mm ring and since I dont use festool routers it was more difficult to find one.  However there is one last I checked on Amazon now.  The other issue is with the 30mm ring on a festool 1400 since there isnt a good way to precisely center a guide ring.  Any misalignment between the center of the bit and the center of the bushing will cause issues.  However, you can minimize these issues by always making sure to orient the router the same direction.  The biggest reason why I didnt purchase it was at the time there was NO reviews with a 5 cut test.  Peter was always willing to openly prove his system which I liked where the Dominofix people did not. 

Parf MKII
So, in the end I ended up with the MKII which I liked for the most part and feel it does a good job of precisely laying out the 96mm grid pattern.  What I didnt like was #1 I only made 4x8 tops which require ALOT of holes and it starts to get real tedious when doing that many holes.  #2 Is the fact that after using the system for a year or so I have pretty much come to the conclusion that dogs are not the best way for getting good repeatable 90° cuts.  I had MUCH MUCH better accuracy and results moving to a 8020 fence and track hinge.  I built my own but if I was going to buy one it would be the dashboard.  I do like the dog holes for clamping/fixturing but not cutting.  Some will disagree but if you do enough searching you will see others had similar issues.  I think the biggest cause with the inconsistency is drilling the final 20mm holes.  If you dont keep the drill perfectly plumb the hole ends up slightly out of plumb and since one hole might be out one way and the next hole might be out the opposite way makes it hard to compensate or figure out. This got worse for me after about half way I just wanted to be done so I probably didnt do as good of a job holding the drill square.  Not to mention the holes can get worn and sloppy making issues even worse.  My advise is save the money on the hole drilling system and use it towards a good track hinge and just layout the holes and drill them by hand and just use them for clamping/fixturing tasks and make the cuts with a fence and track hinge its way better and allows the use of stops easier.   

Im sure some will say you can do this or that to fix those issues but at the end of the day with the price of materials I didnt want to cut up a sheet of plywood only to find the pieces are out of square. I dont like having to worry about it I just want to be able to slap my material down and cut it without a second thought. 

 

[AnthonyE]

I originally set out to make a MFT table using the Parf system.  I bought the Parf system which is made really well and is oddly accurate.  I did have issues with my 20mm drill bit being ever so slightly undersized and had to ream every hole to get the correct 20mm dimension. But this reamer was sent to me for free after proving the the bit was in fact undersized. I will eventually be receiving a replacement drill bit but TSO doesn't seem to have them in stock and I'm waiting for one from the manufacturer.

Having said this, I was happy with the results of the cuts being perfectly square using tall dogs and the clips that connect my track to those dogs.  I didn't like the idea of cutting into a row of holes with my kerf.  I should've done the offset holes to prevent this but didn't bother.

But I do agree with [member=73094]afish[/member] in using a track guide system.  I ultimately made a dedicated table saw outfeed table that doubles as a cutting station now using the amazing Dashboard track guide system.  I don't use a dedicated fence yet but instead use a row of dogs with TSO's close fit dogs.  I eventually will get a fence system but as of right now my I am happy using dogs until I find the right fence. The Dashboard guide rails are super well made and can be purchased for about the same price as the Parf 20mm hole system.  Dashboard's brackets are also incredibly easy to square up using my accurately cut hole pattern from the Parf system. I am currently very happy with my cutting station and wouldn't change anything.

 

[afish]

Anthony brings up a good point.  You can use dogs as a fence if you prefer since the track hinge is then typically squared off one row of holes, you have less chance of running into squareness issues.  What you will gain with a fence ( 8020 in my case) is the ability to add stops.  Yes there are stops that fit in the dog holes "but" they only have a limited amount of adjustability and end up needing to get pulled in and out of the holes if you do a lot of back and forth cutting between different measurements. I actually started with a diy version of some Russian birch with a long slot with some star knobs. while it did work good it was lightyears behind the 8020 fence. 

They make flag style stops for 8020 but by far the best method I found was to screw down These on top of the 8020 for common gable heights and shelf widths or if you make a lot of repeat cuts.  Then if you make a simple L or U shaped plywood block that can butt to the mending plates you can quickly and easily move between different widths with precision and consistency. If you need to do an odd size you can simply clamp a stop to the 8020 or use something like this on the front groove of the 8020 since the mending plate stops that are fixed are on top they dont interfere with the front one. Unlike a flag type stop if you had several set up for different parts you can only slide them so far before it will hit another one which limits the adjustability.  I used a piece of 25x75mm 8020 8' long with the 75mm face down on the bench so it was only 25mm high.  with 2 angle brackets off the back with 2 parf anchor dogs.  I marked the dog holes so the fence would always go back in the same holes and as long as you dont move the hinge you can remove and place the fence in seconds with no error to your stops provided you use the same dog holes. which is priceless if you use the MFt as an outfeed table for a table saw as I did.  It worked great for me and I havent seen anything that outperforms it dollar for dollar.

Unfortunately I only have a few pics and nothing with the stop plates since I have moved on from cutting on an MFT but attached what I have showing the angle brackets and another with the adjustable stops that I started with which ended up working really good for the LR32 and eliminated using those annoying set back bars when batching out panels. But you can see how they would work for cuts too and if need pop right out if they where in the way

 

[blaszcsj]

Tiaga tools shows it at $230