Making Dominos, fast, easy and accurately

[Tyler Ernsberger]

I had knives made from Moulding Knifes Direct to make dominos on the William Hussey moulder. The results are just as good as Festool’s.  Now I can run my scrap to make dominos.  I made $300-400 in dominos in about hour and half.  Just use my name when ordering from Moulding Knifes and they can retrieve my file.  I believe it’s $68 for a set of knives delivered to my door.  I tried uploading the video and the size it to big to post.
https://www.instagram.com/p/COC_z9ujwvm/?igshid=92msekp5ojdw

 

[DynaGlide]

I saw this when you posted on IG. Very cool.

 

[Tyler Ernsberger]

I saw this when you posted on IG. Very cool.

Thanks Matt,

 

[vkumar]

Very cool Matt.  Does the lip in the middle interfere with anything? Or does it help in assembly?

Vijay

 

[MikkelF]

Brilliant idea! 

 

[Steve1]

Cool.

I suppose one could also make them on a router table with a round-over bit.  Anybody try that ?

 

[jeffinsgf]

I've done it. I wanted through-mortises in the same species as the project. I made Paduak Dominoes with careful planing and a router table.

 

[Cheese]

FWIW...just to expand the consciousness of this forum, Domino's can be fabricated from various materials. They don't need to be fabricated from wood exclusively.

In this instance, I needed conventional SAE threaded holes in some Domino's and fabricated them from aluminum.

Keep experimenting, it works.

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[Tyler Ernsberger]

Cool.

I suppose one could also make them on a router table with a round-over bit.  Anybody try that ?

I tried that.  It will work if you keep the dominos loose.  If you make them tight the glue being a liquid will not compress and will not allow the joint to come together.  I had the knifes made with glue relieves to allow the glue to move

 

[Packard]

These could be made from extruded aluminum or extruded polycarbonate resin.  In either case ribs could be designed in to allow glue to flow, but the glue will not be of much use as most wood glues do not adhere well to aluminum or plastic.

Those boards will join nicely if you can depend on the surface glue to hold things together.  The dominoes would then be working as an alignment aid.

In that case, I think I would prefer to use a biscuit cutter and biscuits. 

The wood dominoes add to the glue area and on butt joints and in sheet goods it is a much stronger joint.  But for joining face grain to face grain, the added strength is probably not needed.

Personally I am not convinced that the aluminum dominoes are an advantage over the wood versions.  The wood versions will expand in the slots to add a mechanical aspect to the glue up. 

 

[squall_line]

These could be made from extruded aluminum or extruded polycarbonate resin.  In either case ribs could be designed in to allow glue to flow, but the glue will not be of much use as most wood glues do not adhere well to aluminum or plastic.

Those boards will join nicely if you can depend on the surface glue to hold things together.  The dominoes would then be working as an alignment aid.

In that case, I think I would prefer to use a biscuit cutter and biscuits. 

The wood dominoes add to the glue area and on butt joints and in sheet goods it is a much stronger joint.  But for joining face grain to face grain, the added strength is probably not needed.

Personally I am not convinced that the aluminum dominoes are an advantage over the wood versions.  The wood versions will expand in the slots to add a mechanical aspect to the glue up.

The aluminum dominoes look like a good compromise between a knock-down connector and a fixed domino; the images above appear that they're being used to mount some sort of sacrificial or replaceable end cap.  Theoretically you could also thread the under-side if you needed to hold the dominos tighter and/or make them replaceable.

In the shower or at some other point this morning I thought about using the domino cutter as a way to create space for safety locks on window sashes or frames (the kind that flip out and allow the window to open 2-3 inches but no wider), and wondered to myself if there was already a lock/latch that would fit.

 

[CeeJay]

Cool.

I suppose one could also make them on a router table with a round-over bit.  Anybody try that ?

I tried that.  It will work if you keep the dominos loose.  If you make them tight the glue being a liquid will not compress and will not allow the joint to come together.  I had the knifes made with glue relieves to allow the glue to move

I’ve made 8mm dominoes on the router table when I ran out previously.

I made a board a shade under 8mm thick first (about 7.9mm) then scored some very light grooves across it at 45 degrees with the table saw, the grooves were only about 0.5mm deep. These were for glue relief as per above.

Then ripped board to width, then rounded the edges on the router, then cut to length on crosscut box.

Took about 90 minutes to make about 200 dominoes.

Next time I might try a bullnose bit on the router if the dominoes are wide enough, would halve the time of the router operation.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ChuckM]

Cool.

I suppose one could also make them on a router table with a round-over bit.  Anybody try that ?

After rounding the tenons, I used a hand saw to make the grooves. I used beech for that batch of dominoes. A v-bit can also be used on the router table, if so desired.

The chair project I'm now working on also happens to need dominoes that are 70 to 80mm long. I have some left-over uncut shop-made dominoes to use.

 

[ChuckM]

Cool.

I suppose one could also make them on a router table with a round-over bit.  Anybody try that ?

I tried that.  It will work if you keep the dominos loose.  If you make them tight the glue being a liquid will not compress and will not allow the joint to come together.  I had the knifes made with glue relieves to allow the glue to move

Another option is to cut grooves on the shop-made tenons with a V-bit...it does require extra work on the router table though.

 

[Michael Kellough]

If you want the same tight fit you get with the authentic Dominos you need something like what the op made, or you need to find metric bullnose router bits.

I’ve made very close 8mm Dominos with a 5/16” bullnose bit but wasn’t able to find bits for the other sizes.

 

[jeffinsgf]

I guess my glue relief effort was pretty low-tech. I used a carving vee tool to carve in some grooves.

 

[ChuckM]

FWIW...just to expand the consciousness of this forum, Domino's can be fabricated from various materials. They don't need to be fabricated from wood exclusively.

Snip.

The Domino machine can even be used to cut non-wood materials such as granite (?) countertops.

 

[jeffinsgf]

If you want the same tight fit you get with the authentic Dominos you need something like what the op made, or you need to find metric bullnose router bits.

I’ve made very close 8mm Dominos with a 5/16” bullnose bit but wasn’t able to find bits for the other sizes.

Mine were 6mm using an 1/8" radius round-over. Perfect fit on the ends.

 

[ChuckM]

Snip.

But for joining face grain to face grain, the added strength is probably not needed.

Agreed.

Before I acquired the DF500, all my boards were edge-joined with nothing but glue. None of them including some close to 20 years old have failed. As long as the edges to be joined are properly trued (or spring-joined) and clamped, no dominoes or dowels or biscuits are needed other than for alignment purposes or for ease of handling/clamping.

Glue is stronger than wood.

 

[Cheese]

The aluminum dominoes look like a good compromise between a knock-down connector and a fixed domino; the images above appear that they're being used to mount some sort of sacrificial or replaceable end cap.  Theoretically you could also thread the under-side if you needed to hold the dominos tighter and/or make them replaceable.

I would call these particular Dominos semi-knock-down because they're permanently epoxied into the walnut. That's the reason for the 3 "keys" that are machined into each side. The epoxy flows into the recesses and it's done.

Place the board on it's edge with the Dominos pointing up. Use a syringe to fill each mortise and move on to the next. When finished, the epoxy will have self-leveled and filled in the "keys" so just top off each mortise with a little more epoxy.

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Yes, the Dominos retain a replaceable rear edge/cap for a countertop to make the initial fitting task easier. All fitting is done from the front and when completed, then the rear cap is attached.

Front edge:

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Rear attached edge on RH side:

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The bottom of the walnut countertop with the rear edge attached.

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