New member says hi and quick domino test drive

[Dave Rudy]

"hanging chaff" which throws off registry of successive mortises when using the stops.

Dave R.

Dave, IIRC, hanging chaff can throw off far more than mortises -- even Presidential elections!  (Sorry, couldn't help it.  LOL)

Why haven't we (FOG) heard about those complaints

. . . .

What is being done about older machines like ours to bring them up to snuff?

Fred

Fred, If there were a lot of complaints, believe me we would have heard them here. (We did hear a little of the one Dave Ronyak referred to).  And why do you think the "older" Dominos are not "up to snuff", a characterization with which I would not agree. 

I guess the question is philosophical, in a way -- if Festool adds an engineering improvement between models, is everyone who bought his tool before the modification "entitled" to the modfication?  Auto manufacturers, for example, make small changes frequently between model years.  Unless there is a defect involved, earlier purchasers are never "upgraded".

I suspect that if manufacturers like Festool had to retrofit every tool with all subsequent modifications, they would simply find it economically unreasonable, and might default instead to holding all changes until a totally new model was released.

My $.02

 

[Ned]

Good points, Dave.

Perhaps a more neutral question would be, "Can older model Dominos be upgraded with the new parts?"

Ned

 

[Fred West]

Dave, those were good points but on the other hand if the older dominos are not up to snuff and I am speaking about the pins area alone then why the change? Why done so quietly? And by the way, while auto mfgs do make small changes all of the time the pins on the domino are NOT a small part but an integral one. I am not even saying that Festool needs to pay for the change but I would like to know their reason for changing which as of right now we know nothing and if we wanted to change over what would it cost? Fred

 

[nickao]

Many people will not purchase the first marketed design of anything, just because such improvements can and will be made. Software comes to mind as the one thing, a brand new model car another. I am sure some people did not purchase the Domino only because they were waiting for the bugs to be worked out.

Nickao

 

[Michael Kellough]

Good Morning,
That's an odd change?  I'm trying to think, what are the advantages of the new pin design?
Matt

Here's my guesstimate as to the new "pin" shape.  They no longer register against the true cylindrical end wall of the previously cut mortise, which means they should be less prone to falsely register due to "chaff" (debris) that remained in the previously cut mortise used to reference the new one to be cut.  Same prinicple as is used in many fence and stop systems to prevent sawdust buildup from preventing accurate registry against the stop.  Side motion of the new "pins" is stopped as the pin contacts the junction between the parallel walls of the previously cut mortise and beginning of the cylindrical portion.  The triangular shape of the new pins when viewed from the side enables them to work equally well on all mortise widths in the Domino program.  This change may solve my one gripe about my experiences with my Domino when mortising into the face grain of mediocre Chinese birch plywood and the often resulting "hanging chaff" which throws off registry of successive mortises when using the stops.

Dave R.

Dave, I don't think the new pins will even fit into a mortise (John?). I haven't read any instructions in a long time but I don't think even the round pins are intended to fit into mortises, they are intended to register off the face/edge of the part so the first mortise is exactly in line on both parts to be fitted. The new shape/material is more suited to registering to a face, especially a finished face than a small steel pin.

The possibility of chafe or other debris makes the practice of registering from holes problematic. The more closely spaced the holes the more likely you are to get out of register after a number of mortises. I'm guessing the engineers decided to limit hole registration to the less frequent spacing allowed by the cross stops to keep accumulated error within the tolerance provided by the wider mortise.

 

[Warrior]

Johne,
Nice work man. The table and your photography. Really nice.

Eiji