Layout for Shelving Unit using the Domino

[CanadianCraftsman]

Good Day:

I am making a second closet organizer with the Domino and just have a few questions for laying out the dominos.  The framework is 1-3/8" x 2" mahogany with plywood shelves.  The side panels are flush and the the front and back rails are setback.  My first shelving unit had only a top and bottom shelf but this one will have three extra shelves.  Is there a trick to layout the dominoes so that all the mortises and the pieces will be interchangeable?  If I was using my old method I would use a hollow chisel mortiser and make the tennons on the table saw or shaper.  Everything is identical and I can interchange the pieces. 

I was trying to come up with a way to perfectly  center the mortises on the rails and and legs so I could just mix-and-match the parts.  For my first shelving unit I aligned the parts and made a pencil mark near the center and each joint.  This worked but I had to keep each joint matched.  I am planning to used the narrow setting for the domino width.

On a side note I have been making a few projects with some mahogany scraps and I used the Kapex to cut some scarf joints and used the Domino to add some strength and easy alignment. 

Thanks for the help,

Michael

 

[Brice Burrell]

Michael, I always make my parts interchangeable when possible (usually plywood cabinets or built ins made of ply) . Here's how I do it. I generally use 3/4" ply, most of the time it's 18 mm or so. I set the Domino to 20 mm to cut the mortises for the shelves. This will place the center of mortise 10 mm from the face that index the Domino off of. I generally index off the top of the shelf.

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Then for the sides I use the Domino's base indexed off the backside of a guide rail on the MFT or MFS profile. Indexing from the Domino's base will give you a mortise centered at 10 mm. So I draw a line where I want the top of my shelf, then line up my MFS profile with that mark and cut my mortise. This will perfectly align the top of the shelf to my mark and make all of my shelves interchangeable.

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