I am a fairly recent convert to Festool. I purchased a Domino XL at the end of the sale in June (along with a MFT, TS75, and CT36). I did quite a bit of research and although the 500 would have been a better fit for most of my projects, I figured the Seneca adapters would fill the gap for me, and the 700 would give the extra capacity. So far, I am glad I did.
Last Sunday one of the Pastors at church asked me to make a bench/table to stay out in the courtyard more or less permanently as a booth for various activities. They wanted it done as inexpensively as possible, and of course, be ready by the following Sunday. I threw this quick design together in Sketchup, and with a few tweaks, I got the go ahead on Monday.
Since cheap was important, and it was going to be outdoors, I decided to use basic borg redwood lumber. I jointed and planed some 2x6's, used domino's to align the edges and glued up an 8'x20" main table, and 4' x 20" slab to form the wings. I built the legs using 14x140 dominos in all the joints, and other than a few screws holding the legs to the top, and the lateral shelf to the legs, all joinery was done with Dominos.
It took me about 20 hours total to finish it and get it delivered.
My takeaways from the project.
[list type=decimal]
[*]Plan better. I could have avoided the need for the pocket screws holding the bottom shelf to the legs if I had assembled everything in a different order.
[*]The XL is a joy to use. I didn't test fit anything before I glued and everything fit perfectly. This says way more about how well engineered the XL is than it does about my skill.
[*]Get some of the Domino tenon stock. I had to cut down some domino's and it would have been cleaner (and probably cheaper) to just cut some to the appropriate length.
[*]Keep a good supply of Domino's. I had purchased all three systainer assortments with I bought the XL, but I was nearly out of 14x140's by the end of the project.
[/list]
It was a fun project, and was well received at church today - they want two more. All told, it cost less than $200 for everything, so they were happy about the price too (I donate my time).
Thanks for looking, and thanks for all the advice I got from everyone here when I was making my Domino purchasing decision.
Lee
Last Sunday one of the Pastors at church asked me to make a bench/table to stay out in the courtyard more or less permanently as a booth for various activities. They wanted it done as inexpensively as possible, and of course, be ready by the following Sunday. I threw this quick design together in Sketchup, and with a few tweaks, I got the go ahead on Monday.
Since cheap was important, and it was going to be outdoors, I decided to use basic borg redwood lumber. I jointed and planed some 2x6's, used domino's to align the edges and glued up an 8'x20" main table, and 4' x 20" slab to form the wings. I built the legs using 14x140 dominos in all the joints, and other than a few screws holding the legs to the top, and the lateral shelf to the legs, all joinery was done with Dominos.
It took me about 20 hours total to finish it and get it delivered.
My takeaways from the project.
[list type=decimal]
[*]Plan better. I could have avoided the need for the pocket screws holding the bottom shelf to the legs if I had assembled everything in a different order.
[*]The XL is a joy to use. I didn't test fit anything before I glued and everything fit perfectly. This says way more about how well engineered the XL is than it does about my skill.
[*]Get some of the Domino tenon stock. I had to cut down some domino's and it would have been cleaner (and probably cheaper) to just cut some to the appropriate length.
[*]Keep a good supply of Domino's. I had purchased all three systainer assortments with I bought the XL, but I was nearly out of 14x140's by the end of the project.
[/list]
It was a fun project, and was well received at church today - they want two more. All told, it cost less than $200 for everything, so they were happy about the price too (I donate my time).
Thanks for looking, and thanks for all the advice I got from everyone here when I was making my Domino purchasing decision.
Lee
