Gadget - If you build it, they will....

I actually just purchased one of those a couple of weeks ago.  Haven’t really tried it yet.
 
I expect the bruised ends to need some work in the smaller tenons before they can be used. In a typical case, I use at least 50 to 100 dominoes, and I just microwave them in batches to "shrink" them -- for dry-fitting or gluing up. I can't see myself hammering Dominoes other than getting them into the mortises.
 
I keep mine a sealed zip-lock bags to keep the swelling to a minimum. It seems to work and a quicky in a microwave will shrink them if needed, though I have only had to do that a few times.
 
When I want a less snug fit on a Domino I've always just rubbed both long edges on a sanding block to take the pointy crown off.
I can do this faster than the placement plus hammering shown in the video. It is a very nice looking tool though.
 
Anyone else take a look at the finished product?

Those are some pretty ugly looking Dominos. I hope they're hidden.

[attachimg=1]
 

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Looks aside, I don't understand how it's a useful tool in any typical shop.

If it is bought to make smaller tenons for dry-fitting, what do you do with it after enough of them for each size are made?

If it's used for not just dry fitting but also in the actual glue-up, it's worse as it means you're adding a huge amount of preparation of time to the process if the job is a big one -- defeating the purpose of the use of the Domino machine/loose tenon joinery, which is efficiency.

This gadget, to be honest, makes no practical sense to me.
 
ChuckS said:
Looks aside, I don't understand how it's a useful tool in any typical shop.
If it is bought to make smaller tenons for dry-fitting, what do you do with it after enough of them for each size are made?
If it's used for not just dry fitting but also in the actual glue-up, it's worse as it means you're adding a huge amount of preparation of time to the process if the job is a big one -- defeating the purpose of the use of the Domino machine/loose tenon joinery, which is efficiency.
This gadget, to be honest, makes no practical sense to me.
It make sense if you make your own dominos from scratch. No different from dowel making plate or inserts, sold by Lie-Nielsen or Veritas.
 
But the vendor has clearly stated that the plate can't be used to make tenons. Someone can try, but it would take a huge effort with unpredictable or poor results.

"Note: The plate is NOT made to make dominos from scratch stock like our dowel plate, but can be used to clean up existing dominos or lightly trim home made dominos"
 
ChuckS said:
But the vendor has clearly stated that the plate can't be used to make tenons. Someone can try, but it would take a huge effort with unpredictable or poor results.
Why would it be any different from making a round dowel using a plate? To be honest, I do think that dowel made using plate aren't great.
 
Svar said:
ChuckS said:
But the vendor has clearly stated that the plate can't be used to make tenons. Someone can try, but it would take a huge effort with unpredictable or poor results.
Why would it be any different from making a round dowel using a plate? To be honest, I do think that dowel made using plate aren't great.

The difference lies in the effort required. I've made dowels, and already it's not as a simple process as it seems to be. A) The stock needs to be close to the dowel hole in size, and B) The end of the stock should be tapered for ease of entry.

To make tenons, both A & B should be followed, and that means even more effort. If one is prepared to use a table saw and a knife to complete the two steps, why not just finish them on the router table, instead of using a plate?

Perhaps the vendor had even tried making tenons with the jig, and found it unworkable.

Sometimes, it makes sense to make your own dowels in sizes that simply aren't available, but that is not the case with the standard Domino applications.
 
I feel like anyone who's bought the DF500 has already made up their mind on what their time's worth.  If you have all day to make your own tenons, why not bore your own mortises with a $99 plunge router?

And if you really want some loose-fit mockup dominos, do you somehow own a DF500 but NOT a sander of some kind??
 
tsmi243 said:
I feel like anyone who's bought the DF500 has already made up their mind on what their time's worth.  If you have all day to make your own tenons, why not bore your own mortises with a $99 plunge router?
And if you really want some loose-fit mockup dominos, do you somehow own a DF500 but NOT a sander of some kind??
If it was about time and money good chunk of Domino owners would simply buy or commission their furniture.
 
Svar said:
Snip.
If it was about time and money good chunk of Domino owners would simply buy or commission their furniture.
Buying is definitely an option, one that is taken by the majority of ordinary people. But once the choice is made to make your own furniture or cabinets, time is an important consideration for most woodworkers, including me. It is not the sole factor, of course. I have made many pieces using hand tools (planes, saws and chisels), and those decisions were made with due consideration of the time I could afford.

I have also made many pieces with power tools.  And within those processes, I always want the most efficient methods. To use domino joinery but make the tenons by hand -- hundreds of them, going by my typical usage? It's not something that makes sense for me as a woodworker.
 
I think we need to pester [member=1674]Peter Halle[/member] into trying his jig so we can get some real world user feedback on this.

[poke] [poke] [poke]
 
I'm personally not a Domino user, simply because I don't do enough of the type of work the machine obviously excels at. But if I ever did buy one, I'd also buy ready-made Festool dominos. This just seems like a whole bunch of goofing around with no real benefit - and to be honest, I don't have time for that.
 
Given whatever the cost is it would be at least double for us in OZ, I don't really see much benefit it it even if it was free.

If I needed to take the highpoints on the sides off, as someone else mentioned, a couple of rubs on rough grit sandpaper would be at least as quick as hitting it through the plate. And to date I've never met a domino that didn't fit in the hole except when assembling things many days or weeks after cutting the mortises, but re-cutting them if needed fixes any swelling that occurred in the wood.

I bought a dowelmaker plate to make round dowels from scratch as I had no other method to do this, this IMHO however seems a device more aimed at OCD tendencies than practicality, but then again my wife reckons I'm frequently wrong so who knows?
 
I think the main use of this tool would be to trim home made dominos to exact fit. I have occasionally made oak domino plugs to hide through dominos. The effort was not trivial for me. If I was going to do that on a regular basis this tool might be worthwhile.

Woodpecker just announced a bandsaw trimming guide just to make template work easier. It is by no means necessary. The philosophy is similar.
 
woodbutcherbower said:
I'm personally not a Domino user, simply because I don't do enough of the type of work the machine obviously excels at. But if I ever did buy one, I'd also buy ready-made Festool dominos. This just seems like a whole bunch of goofing around with no real benefit - and to be honest, I don't have time for that.

Agreed totally. I have used literally thousands of them over the years. Mostly 6mm, but there have been a lot of 8mm and 10mm too. I just started using more 5mm, just to cut down on having to deal with off-setting them with 3/4" material in some applications. Every one of them was actual Festool branded. Most people don't know that you can get them in larger quantities than the clear plastic retail boxes. They sell a "case quantity" type box that is 6 times the amount of the little retail units.
Though I could see buying the longer sticks of "cut them yourself", if you had a DF700, because they can cut such a variety of depths. I wouldn't use those for everything, but would keep some on-hand for the random situation.
 
jimbo51 said:
I think the main use of this tool would be to trim home made dominos to exact fit. I have occasionally made oak domino plugs to hide through dominos. The effort was not trivial for me. If I was going to do that on a regular basis this tool might be worthwhile.

Woodpecker just announced a bandsaw trimming guide just to make template work easier. It is by no means necessary. The philosophy is similar.

I, too, have made dominoes out of sapele to fix blowouts. If the plate can really make shop-made dominoes exactly the shape of a domino mortise, then it is a different story. Festool dominoes do not have round edges like the mortises cut by its machine.

However, the screen shot taken from the demo video doesn't seem to  show that it can do that:

[attachimg=1]

So I echo 4nthony's call for Peter to make some dominoes, and help us answer such questions as if it's a practical tool for making dominoes in large qty, and a tool for producing dominoes that have the same shape and size (not smaller -- the plate seems to have been designed to trim dominoes slightly smaller) of the mortise. I, myself, may even consider getting one if it can do the latter job.

 

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