So I'm building an MFT/Systainer cart. I purchased the 18mm/12mm domiplate because I am using 18mm Baltic Birch. The domiplate/Domino 500 bores a perfect Center mortise at 9mm (so it centers on the edge of the Baltic Birch Ply).. I need it centered because the spine" Which is a cut piece of plywood that goes right down the center of 2 cut pieces of cut-to-size Top/Bottom Baltic Birch forming an "I" beam - kind of. So I bore the mortises for the dominos in 4 locations for the plywood which will be the "spine" but when I remove the Domiplate to bore the mortise in the bottom part of the "eye beam" (so to speak) (there is two pieces of plywood that are parallel to each other - top and bottom and then a "spine" that runs down the center but now I have to bore mortises dead center in the bottom board BUT the domiplate has to be removed in order to register on the "spine" which I have now laid down on the bottom piece to be used to register to the mortise bore into the bottom piece. But the Domino 500 will only bore at 10mm which puts it off center. It must be in the center because there are partitions which have been cut to size and if the spine is off-center then the partitions on one side will be too long. Can anybody suggest a work-around for this problem?
Seneca Woodworking Domiplate
- Thread starter krudawg
- Start date
Mike Goetzke
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- Jul 12, 2008
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- 1,134
Might be just me but do you have a sketch or pic of the joint?
(On a face mortise it's nice to use the penciled line to register where the vertical board will go but it is easy to move your stop to relocate this face mortise if needed.)
Thanks
(On a face mortise it's nice to use the penciled line to register where the vertical board will go but it is easy to move your stop to relocate this face mortise if needed.)
Thanks
Michael Kellough
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- Jan 23, 2007
- Messages
- 7,100
I think the problem is the second mortises have to be made registered from the bottom of the machine so he needs a negative 1mm shim.
It will have to be custom made from unobtainium.
It will have to be custom made from unobtainium.
That would have been a great solution. I used a 1/8" Brass set-up bar to try and get the spacing I needed. After horsing around with the problem I did decide that the 1/8" would have to do. I had to re-cut a few boards and my project is "a little off" but will work ok. Senecas' 18 mm Domiplate will center a domino in 18mm Ply but you can't register the Domiplate on anything in the center of a board and as such will only work on the ends of plywood, not in the middle of a piece of work. This meant I had to use the standard 10mm spacing on the Domino which means it will not bore a mortise dead center where you want it.Michael Kellough said:
so I needed some kind of mm spacer; which I did not have. To bad Seneca can't come up with something. Thanks for all the input guys, I was probably overthinking the problem. I spend a lot of time correcting mistakes on my project at this stage of the game and was trying to cut down of those correction efforts
In the interest of full disclosure I feel I must disclose the simple solution to my Original Post. I am kind of new to the Domino 500 and the Domiplate. I was not aware how you can figure out where the cutter will cut unless it was on the edge of a board. I thought the only way to know where the cutter was going to cut was by registering from a laid down board. Then I looked at a video by "half inch shy" he was doing a review on the Domino 500 and he pointed out a notch you can view from the side that allows you to know where the cutter will line up. It's easy to line up the sight line when viewing a line from left to right on a board but if if you are moving top to bottom you must use the notch on each side to line it up (The XL 700 actually has an arrow on the side that tells you) unless of course you can make the standard 10mm work for you but I used the 18mm Domiplate to put a domino dead center on the edge of 18mm Baltic Birch and could now figure out to hit the domino on the board at 9mm. Clear as mud now? 
Best ist always to make both mortices for a corner joint is using the same alignment: either register both times using the bottom edge or both times using the fence. So when using the fence to make the edge ones (in the side of a board) it's best to also use the fence to register the ones in the face.
When (without unobtanium) after having located the ones in the edge using the fence but wanting to reference using the bottom of the machine (for whatever reason) for the face: The domino has a center line on the bottom of the machine for alignment. The easiest way is to clamp the edge part 10mm from where the mortices shall be located to the face part and use the already existing markings on that to align the center line on the bottom of the Domino (referencing and holsing against the clamped piece, to get less wiggle/movement) for the mortices in the in-face.
Using the same markings -> less errors.
Good plan when doing this, especially in case you have to clean the end on the mortice-in-face part anyway, is to move the mortices in the in-face piece a slight tad inward and, after assembly/glue up, route with a flush cut bit that registers on the mortice-in-edge part. This helps against accidently registering the in-face mortices too much toward the edge (resulting in the mortice-in-face part being recessed, a situation that can't be fixed easily) and guarantees a nice, flush corner joint.
When (without unobtanium) after having located the ones in the edge using the fence but wanting to reference using the bottom of the machine (for whatever reason) for the face: The domino has a center line on the bottom of the machine for alignment. The easiest way is to clamp the edge part 10mm from where the mortices shall be located to the face part and use the already existing markings on that to align the center line on the bottom of the Domino (referencing and holsing against the clamped piece, to get less wiggle/movement) for the mortices in the in-face.
Using the same markings -> less errors.
Good plan when doing this, especially in case you have to clean the end on the mortice-in-face part anyway, is to move the mortices in the in-face piece a slight tad inward and, after assembly/glue up, route with a flush cut bit that registers on the mortice-in-edge part. This helps against accidently registering the in-face mortices too much toward the edge (resulting in the mortice-in-face part being recessed, a situation that can't be fixed easily) and guarantees a nice, flush corner joint.
