Problem getting flush butt joint with DF500

[Michael Kellough]

[member=79628]mazdaq100[/member] get aDomiplate. Registering the stock and the Domino against a third party surface at the same time is asking for problems.

Sometimes you must register off the bottom the machine but be extra careful when doing so.

I usually use the Domino on sheet goods so just use the Domiplate to make sure registration is correct on both parts.

Only use the fence when working with thicker stock or offsets.

 

[smorgasbord]

This is another reason for buying dowel pins already formed instead of cutting your own.

Yeah, I don't have the link handy, but I saw a test of different dowel type strength, and surprising to me that the fluted dowels you show came out on top. The spiral cut would appear to have more surface area, but apparently that doesn't help for a dowel where the hole has little long grain to long grain contact. And solid dowels you cut yourself result in glue starving.

With a DF700, I'm only interested in something else for small joints like you'd get with ¼" or smaller dowels. I'm toying with getting a Cam-A-Line since that has the benefit of adjustable spacing and fixed indexing from the ends. I can use the DF700 with the Seneca adapter for 8mm dominos, but the 6mm and smaller is trickier to handle.

 

[Packard]

If you soak a fluted dowel in water and the allow it to dry slowly, you will see that it is larger and has more surface area than the spiral cut dowel.  So it does not surprise me at all that the fluted came out ahead.

When I first started rolling down the fluted dowels for easier assembly, I was concerned that I was compromising the strength of the joint.  Testing put that to rest.

I do wonder if bamboo makes a decent dowel in small diameters.  They are available in 5 & 8 mm as skewers from the supermarket. I’m planning on testing that.

 

[smorgasbord]

I do wonder if bamboo makes a decent dowel in small diameters.  They are available in 5 & 8 mm as skewers from the supermarket. I’m planning on testing that.

I use the tiny 3mm or ⅛" skewers from the supermarket to align toy rattle parts cut on my CNC for gluing. However, that's for alignment only, not for strength. My wife bought a bag of those recently and had me shave them down for decorative skewers. With now two bags, I think we're set for life on ⅛" skewers/dowels.

 

[woodferret]

I also cannot figure our why the National Library of Medicine would be publishing this type of work.

That material science journal also contains a lot of NIH funded studies.  Some of which pertain to expected things like titanium implants, but others are also related to occupational/industrial health.

 

[Packard]

I do wonder if bamboo makes a decent dowel in small diameters.  They are available in 5 & 8 mm as skewers from the supermarket. I’m planning on testing that.

I use the tiny 3mm or ⅛" skewers from the supermarket to align toy rattle parts cut on my CNC for gluing. However, that's for alignment only, not for strength. My wife bought a bag of those recently and had me shave them down for decorative skewers. With now two bags, I think we're set for life on ⅛" skewers/dowels.

I can almost guarantee that those “1/8” skewers” are really 3mm—about .119” not 0.125”.  Not much of an issue for its intended use as skewer, but if you are going off-label and using it as a dowel, you will probably need a 3mm drill bit.

 

[smorgasbord]

I can almost guarantee that those “1/8” skewers” are really 3mm—about .119” not 0.125”.  Not much of an issue for its intended use as skewer, but if you are going off-label and using it as a dowel, you will probably need a 3mm drill bit.

Quality control on them is, as you'd expect, really bad. Most of the ones I measured come in between 3.02m and 3.09mm. Some aren't round, going down as low as 2.8mm but then rotate 90 degress and they're 3.04mm or so.

 

[cpw]

I've also wondered why companies like Seneca can do well making what are essentially aluminum plates that attach to the base of the Domino. My conclusion has been that for production-ish work having a Domino set to the right thickness with no possibility for error nor misalignment is worth it to those shops. Then again, maybe that I'm using a DF700 which might have a better fence than the DF500 is also a factor in me not ever thinking I needed one of those offset plates.

I don't do production work, but do like the Domiplate.  If you use the Domiplate for registration, it in part functions very much like an alternative to the support bracket/TSO Big Foot.  The Domiplate will be at 90 degrees to your fence.  You've either got the wide part of the Domiplate with a nice big knob against the wide part of the board (and are boring into the edge.  Or on the mating part, you've got the nice wide fence against your board.  The machine doesn't need to be reconfigured in anyway and always has good registration to prevent tipping.

There's lots of ways to use the machine, and the more you use it the more you'll learn what workflows work well for you in what cases.

 

[Lincoln]

Only time I ever reference off the base is when doing intermediate panels. Otherwise, always use the fence. That goes for domino, dowel or biscuit.

 

[ChuckM]

Only time I ever reference off the base is when doing intermediate panels. Otherwise, always use the fence. That goes for domino, dowel or biscuit.

Whatever works is my take. But I always register with the fence, not thre base, until and unless it is not the "best" way for the task at hand.

Some people handcut dovetails free hand and some with a guide or jig. As long as it works for them, they are all.good.

For the DF500, I haven't bought any third-party accessories because I can do all my projects without buying anything except the Veritas domino joinery table as I see its potentials. I've made jigs for specific projects.

 

[Packard]

I can almost guarantee that those “1/8” skewers” are really 3mm—about .119” not 0.125”.  Not much of an issue for its intended use as skewer, but if you are going off-label and using it as a dowel, you will probably need a 3mm drill bit.

I’ve been buying dowel rods in 1/4” diameter to use as axles for the toys I made.  The wheels I’ve purchased have a very consistent size of 1/4”. (I have no way to measure the interior tolerance.  But the dowel rods are all over the place.  I have to fit the axles to the wheels.  I start by using the next oversize letter drill bit and open up the hole in the wheel. Then, if required, I chuck the dowel in my drill an remove som material using sandpaper. A time consuming process.

So all dowels are all over the place as far as diameters are concerned, and some are visibly not round.

Quality control on them is, as you'd expect, really bad. Most of the ones I measured come in between 3.02m and 3.09mm. Some aren't round, going down as low as 2.8mm but then rotate 90 degress and they're 3.04mm or so.