Mortice and Tennon or Domino DF700

[The Pipdoc]

I'm looking to make a Pair of driveway gates in either oak or iroko. Each gate will be approx 6 wide and about 6 foot high. The infill will be in tounge and grove.
My question is - would I need to use traditional mortice and tennon joints or would a domino 700 do the job?
The frame will probably be made from 3" x 3".
Thanks for your help.

Edit: the gates will look something like this

http://www.gatesandfencesuk.co.uk/abbeywood-from-8625-p.asp

 

[Stone Message]

For me this is a no brainer...

I built a small barn using mortice and tenon work, lugging the lumps of wood into the workshop to be machined and sweating a lot. I would not hesitate to use the DF700 for the next one - I reckon it would save several weeks of extra work.

I have made a gate using the DF700 with some home made extra wide dominos and I am told that the postman is able to swing on it every day.

The DF700 is one of the two best designed and engineered pieces of woodworking machinery that I have ever used.

Go for it!

Peter

 

[The Pipdoc]

For me this is a no brainer...

I built a small barn using mortice and tenon work, lugging the lumps of wood into the workshop to be machined and sweating a lot. I would not hesitate to use the DF700 for the next one - I reckon it would save several weeks of extra work.

I have made a gate using the DF700 with some home made extra wide dominos and I am told that the postman is able to swing on it every day.

The DF700 is one of the two best designed and engineered pieces of woodworking machinery that I have ever used.

Go for it!

Peter

It's a small world Peter!
I contacted you only last week via Youtube regarding this very topic and you referred me to you video on gate making. Very good it was too, as indeed all of your videos are.
The reason I'm asking the same question is, not because I didn't value your previous reply, but because I'm just a bit concerned about the weight of these doors I propose making.
It would appear that you wouldn't hesitate to build such a door(s) using the Domino. I'm assuming you would recommend doubling up on the joints in the 75mm x 75mm framework?
Thanks
Bernie

 

[jacko9]

Gates and Doors are the reason I purchased the Domino 700.  If your concerned about the weight then in addition to doubling the joints, you can also cross pin each joint.

Good luck and keep a picture of video review of your project, I'm sure that we would love to see your creation.

Jack

 

[RONWEN]

Gates and Doors are the reason I purchased the Domino 700.  If your concerned about the weight then in addition to doubling the joints, you can also cross pin each joint.

Good luck and keep a picture of video review of your project, I'm sure that we would love to see your creation.

Jack

+1  [smile]

 

[NYC Tiny Shop]

Domino XL with sipos.

 

[wrightwoodwork]

I can't see any problems with using the domino DF700 I would do a double row domino's placing at approximately 2/5 and 4/5 also when you place the braces on the back there is no way the gate can drop if place the right direction if fitted nice and tight. The brace has to be placed lowest on the hinge side rising up diagonally to the opposite top open corner. So when any weight is placed on the outside edges of the gate the braces are placed under compression preventing the gate from dropping. If the braces are placed the wrong direction, on the direction of tension then no matter how good your joints are be it mortise and tenon or domino joints the gate will drop. Where placed the correct direction so the braces are in compression then the joint can be poor and still not drop. The domino is perfectly adequate to make the joints of the rails to the stiles

 

[rsh]

as peter mentioned, remember that you are not limited to festool stock sized dominos - mill your own monster tenon stock, along with wrightwoodwork's advice (well said).

there is a bit of a learning curve to getting the pattern of cutting to repeatable oversize mortise - but still much less time than it would take you to cut by hand

 

 

[Stone Message]

Here is a picture of some of my gate work showing the extra wide dominos. I made the mistake of making them exactly the right size and did not allow room for the glue to move. When I did the clamping I got hydraulic lock and had to work really hard to get everything up together. In future I would allow 0.5 mm for the glue.

Peter

 

[Stone Message]

It's a small world Peter!
I contacted you only last week via Youtube regarding this very topic and you referred me to you video on gate making. Very good it was too, as indeed all of your videos are.
The reason I'm asking the same question is, not because I didn't value your previous reply, but because I'm just a bit concerned about the weight of these doors I propose making.
It would appear that you wouldn't hesitate to build such a door(s) using the Domino. I'm assuming you would recommend doubling up on the joints in the 75mm x 75mm framework?
Thanks
Bernie

Hi Bernie,

It is difficult keeping up with people who choose not to use their real names on this forum.

Yes, double up on the joints which goes along with the other replies above. There is a slight advantage in using (say) 2 pairs of double joints instead of one pair of extra wide joints when the surface area of the former is equal or greater than the wide joint option.

If I were to build your gates I would use 2 pairs of double joints, 14mm x 140 mm and Sipo. You can peg through dominos - I did when building the gate. Use an appropriate glue, Cascamite as a minimum but there are some very clever two part glues which perform better (you will have to get advice from someone else on these as I do not use them).

I think that you should post some pictures of your progress - it sounds like a very nice project which may inspire others.

Peter

 

[tjbnwi]

I'd have no problem using the 700 on these.

More importantly I would create the bottom rail with a beveled top and the pickets with a recessed beveled bottom. This allows water to shed off easily. This is a processes that I saw from Brain of Basswood Artisan Carpentry create. He has some photos of it on his FB page.

Tom

 

[The Pipdoc]

Thanks all for the responses received so far.
The news is I have taken the plunge ( no pun intended!!) and just bought the 700  -  I should receive it in the next day or so.

I now just need to buy the house that these gates are going to be fitted on!  I know its not the normal way to go about things but I should hopefully have teh house purchase confirmed by this Friday and then it'll be all systems go.

I now just have to explain to Mrs Pip Doc that this was a good idea!! ;D

 

[jacko9]

Well done and good luck on "closing the house".  When you get your DF700, give it a spin with some scrap wood and see how well balanced the tool really is.

Jack

 

[Dragginbutt]

I believe what was missed in this exchange is that the practice of using free (or loose) tennon jountery has been around for a very long time, and the introduction of Festool's two machines making it easy to do the mortices fairly quickly and consistently.  From a builder/woodworker perspective, it makes it so much easier because I do not have to add material for the Mortice when cutting parts.  Invariably I will screw one up and end up with a mismatch.  The Festool has saved me from many redo's and any more expensive lessons.