Domnio DF500 - settings for 18mm and workflow questions

[Toddbg]

I am finally starting to play with the Domino and am having a hard time wrapping my head around a couple of concepts.
First, I am using actual 18mm baltic birch.
I don't see a setting on the depth stop for 18mm, it has 16 and 20mm.

What do you guys use? or do you have an offset?
What workflow do you use for reference surfaces?

I was making a few drawers that already had a spot routed for the bottom, and was having a hard time figuring out the direction of the reference surface to go from.
I wound up with a couple of boards where I used the wrong face and either did the dominos offset and had the boards not sit flush at the joint, or I didn't do the mortise in the same spots and since I had to flip the board to get the right face in place the mortises didn't line up.

I know there is a better way and it is just a matter of learning the right workflow.
So what do you guys do?

Lastly, I'm using the 5mmx30 domino. I had started to do the plunge depth of of 12mm and 20mm so that I would have a decent amount of space between the end of the mortise and the outside of the board.
I was reading that some people are using 15 and 15 so that they don't have to reset things for each piece.
Is 3mm really enough room for there to not be swelling or telegraphing?

Appreciate the input.
Best,
Todd

 

[Dr. P. Venkman]

Either 16 or 20 will work fine. Occasionally, for no good reason, I’ve manually set it at 9mm. But if you manually set it, you’ll want to keep that setting for an entire piece.

Workflow is a matter of personal preference. Once the dado is routed for drawer bottoms, I dry fit one without dominoes and mark my reference faces and note where the dominoes need to go. Then I line up as many as I can and do one after another exactly the same. Then I spin them around and do the other ends.

I do 15 and 15 on 18mm plywood. I suppose telegraphing is possible, but I haven’t had a problem with it.

 

[CeeJay]

I find 15 and 15 works fine for the cut depth setting.

16 or 20mm stops are both ok for the fence, so long as you make sure you use the same reference face each time (which you should be doing anyway).

Alternatively slide back the fence presets and manually set it to ‘18’ but make sure you do all the cuts you need from that setting before you reset the Domino.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Toddbg]

Thanks guys -
I may go ahead and switch to 15/15 just to avoid having to make changes.

regarding the reference faces.
is there a good guide on what face to reference off of? This is the part that was tripping me up the other day.
it seemed like if I had my boards butted together to make the alignment marks, that I then needed to flip one of the boards and transfer the lines to the opposite side and reference off of that.

Any tips on handling that as far as workflow goes?

Thanks again.

 

[squall_line]

Thanks guys -
I may go ahead and switch to 15/15 just to avoid having to make changes.

regarding the reference faces.
is there a good guide on what face to reference off of? This is the part that was tripping me up the other day.
it seemed like if I had my boards butted together to make the alignment marks, that I then needed to flip one of the boards and transfer the lines to the opposite side and reference off of that.

Any tips on handling that as far as workflow goes?

Thanks again.

Have you watched any of the Domino videos on YouTube?  Sedge did a really good basic Festool Live on the Domino and he spent a decent amount of time talking about reference faces and marking reference faces to keep your workflow consistent and semi-sane.

 

[thender]

Look for the “Sedgetool” domino YouTube’s…. He demonstrates exactly what you want to se about reference faces…

 

[sancho57]

all depends I use 20/15 to start then adjust as needed, start with apiece of scrap.the domino doesnt have to be center in the material

 

[Birdhunter]

Halfinchshy and New Brit Workshop have excellent YouTube videos on the Domino. Watching these and practicing on scrap will save time and aggravation.

 

[ChuckM]

Snip.
Lastly, I'm using the 5mmx30 domino.

A 30mm domino is only 28mm in length, not 30. If a mortise is 15mm deep on each side, you won't run the risk of telegraphing.

To be safe, during assembly, insert the domino all the way into the drawer side first (which is the typical sequence anyway), and that means 15mm of the domino is inside the side, while only 13mm is in the drawer front. The front is 18mm thick, and there's a space of 5mm between the domino and the surface of the drawer front.

5mm is more than 3/16", unlikely for any swelling/telegraphing to show,

 

[afish]

Many will say to not center your dominos and mark everything. Im one of the minority around here since I dont like to use that method.  One of the reasons is. Like many I work in tight quarters and when I have a bunch of parts things get stacked anywhere I can find room and parts can get mixed up easily.  I almost always center my dominos and always try to keep the layout the same amongst same parts this way if parts or my brain mixes thigs up Im still good unless I make a gross error such as wrong side or something.  Plus it just simplifies the process.  Does it take an extra minute? YES but to me its time well spaet because as you figured out making one layout mistake will cost you a lot more time and money than it takes to set the domino up.

Now if I was building a table top and just needed to glue it up, sure offset dominos arnt an issue.  Building a bunch of drawers or cabinets then yea IM going to spend the extra 3 minutes to dial in my domino.  especially when RB is almost 200 a sheet.  Back in the day a mistake wasnt bad if you needed to cut up some more material. 

Either way centered/not centered figure out what works for you.  Some act like if the domino is centered its wrong.  Nothing says a properly sized Domino cant or shouldnt be centered.  I have some older posts on my quick, accurate and simple method for centering Dominos here see posts #11 and #13 for explanation and photos. You can still try and layout and reference of the the same faces if your super anal since material can vary in thickness across different sheets or even in the same sheet but if you center your domino and worst case scenario mix up some thigs you wont be off more than what cant be fixed by a little sandpaper. 

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Snip.
Lastly, I'm using the 5mmx30 domino.

A 30mm domino is only 28mm in length, not 30. If a mortise is 15mm deep on each side, you won't run the risk of telegraphing.

To be safe, during assembly, insert the domino all the way into the drawer side first (which is the typical sequence anyway), and that means 15mm of the domino is inside the side, while only 13mm is in the drawer front. The front is 18mm thick, and there's a space of 5mm between the domino and the surface of the drawer front.

5mm is more than 3/16", unlikely for any swelling/telegraphing to show,

Also, don't drown it with glue. This will keep the hydraulic power to a minimum, so the glue doesn't have to force it's way out somewhere. Pushing your pieces together, rather than bashing them with a mallet, helps with this too. It gives the glue a second to find it's place, instead of breaking it's way out through the weakest place.