Modifying the Seneca Domi-Plate for Various Stock Thicknesses

[Steve-Rice]

I really love using the Seneca Domi-Plate on my DF 500 Domino, but I wish it wasn’t limited to just nominal ½” and ¾” material thicknesses.  Obviously, there’s no written law that the domino mortise has to be dead center on your stock, so you could feasibly use the existing settings on alternative stock thicknesses, but that is not my personal preference.

I do a lot of work with 5/8” Baltic birch as a core material for my veneer work and I came up with a viable method for modifying the Domi-Plate to center the mortise on this thickness.  Considering that the offset from the Domi-Plate ½” side to the center of the Domino mortise is approximately ¼”, and the offset to the center of 5/8” material should be 5/16”, I decided to place 1/16” shims between the Domino and the Domi-Plate. This worked surprisingly well for me. 

I would have preferred one solid shim to cover the entire surface of the Domino, but the only 1/16” material I had on hand was from this set of plastic shims I had. Still, the results were excellent and I realized, I could now easily adjust the Domi-Plate to work with other thicknesses as well.

For example: Considering that the offset from the Domi-Plate 3/4” side to the center of the Domino mortise is approximately 3/8”, and the offset to the center of 1” material should be ½”, by adding a 1/8” shim to the ¾” side of the Domi-Plate, I could center the mortise on 1” stock. Since I have 1/8” Masonite on hand, I can easily make one shim to cover the entire base of the Domino.

So by using various shim thicknesses, you could pretty much use the Domi-Plate with just about any material from ½” on up…

 

[JimSpence]

Great idea. I actually have some of those shims lying about.  Thanks for sharing this modification.

 

[Steve-Rice]

You are most welcome.

Enjoy...

 

[Wooden Skye]

That is a good idea, I need to look for those handi shims. 

 

[Steve-Rice]

I was looking at the photos of your brass shims and I wondered how you could line up to the center line, then I read the last line of your post.  Yeah, everyone needs to remember to make the cut out to see the center line on the Domino base plate.

Enjoy...

 

[rajun.services]

How did you attach the shim to the domiplate?

 

[afish]

I thought they sold a shim kit for this purpose but could be wrong. Im almost positive I saw someone had some plexi type shims for this purpose. 

 

[ghhsolutions]

I thought they sold a shim kit for this purpose but could be wrong. Im almost positive I saw someone had some plexi type shims for this purpose.

They do. I have some.

 

[Yukonal]

I believe that the red shims shown are from a package of 40 shims of various sizes available from Lee Valley.
I find these polypropylene shims handy for a variety of purposes.
At Lee Valley in Canada their catalogue number is 27K0745 and their cost is $11.95 Canadian.
Cheers