Using the Domino with Narrow Stock

[Cary Swoveland]

I've written a paper that addresses the problems of using the Domino with narrow stock.  A draft is in the gallery, under "Enhanced Festool Gallery", and then under "Domino".  I hope members will find the information useful.  I would appreciate receiving suggestions for corrections and improvements to the paper.

What I've done is make the set of spacers shown in the picture below:

[attachthumb=2]   [attachthumb=1]

I then constructed tables that show which spacer to use for various combinations of type of joint, stock width, whether one or two domino are used and the size of the domino.

Cary

 

[Scrap]

This is a great idea Cary, I like it more than the others I've seen. I haven't had a chance to read through the whole thing yet, but I will read through it when I have a little more time.

FWIW, I don't own a Domino yet, but I've been planning on buying one real soon, this was one of the concerns I've had as I've seen so much talk about it, but this seems to be a great solution, thanks for posting.

 

[CharlesWilson]

Very nice, Cary. Now, with a little rare earth magnet glued into a hole just below the 5mm hole, we can prevent the spacers from wandering.

Charles Wilson

 

[Cary Swoveland]

Very nice, Cary. Now, with a little rare earth magnet glued into a hole just below the 5mm hole, we can prevent the spacers from wandering.  One could try to drill a 5mm hole in a magnet, but they are pretty fragile..

Charles Wilson

Great idea, Charles.  I'll try it.  Since the housing itself is aluminum, the magnet would have to depend on the (steel) pin alone, as you intimated by your suggestion for the location for the magnet.  One could try to drill a 5mm hole in a magnet, but they are pretty fragile...

Another possible modification to the spacers occurred to me as a result of your post.  This could be done with or without a magnet.  If I were to make the spacers somewhat thicker, I could cut a rabbit on the top of the back, sized so that the lip of the rabbit would abut the bottom of the Domino, holding the spacer snugly in place and vertical.  (I know, a picture would help, but I don't have the time for that now.)

Cary

     

 

[Les]

All kinds of  magnets with holes and small rectangles. They hold on the 5mm pin.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Cary,
Excellent work, and I am looking forward to seeing the feedback people offer.  I've been getting better at using the Domino, and I would like to explore this idea you have presented.

By the way, here's a direct link to Cary's manual:http://www.festoolownersgroup.com/CoppermineMain/thumbnails.php?album=41

Matthew

 

[Dan Clark]

Cary,

This is great work.  But I think it's easily worthy of being in the FOG Reference Library as a reference document.  The Reference Library is here:http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?board=30.0.  Can you repost there with a link to the PDF in the gallery?

Thanks,

Dan.

 

[Cary Swoveland]

I've modified the spacers to incorporate Charles Wilson's suggestion to add a rare-earth magnet, and Les Spencer's advice to use a ring magnet.  I have the good fortune to be close to a Lee Valley store, and they carry them.  I got their 1/2" diameter ring, which has a 1/4" hole (and are about 2mm thick).  The Domino's pins are 5mm, which is about 0.20", so they work fine.  I installed the magnet a little off-centre so it touches the pin when in place.

I also used thicker stock and cut a rabbit, so that stays in place on the Domino.  Here are a couple of pics:

[attachthumb=1]  [attachthumb=2]

I like the changes.  The spacers fit snugly in place.

Dan, I'd be happy to put the paper in the reference section when I've finished it.  Thanks for the suggestion.

Cary

 

[Mirko]

Cary,
Damn, thats some good thinking! I finally got a Domino last week and I think you have solved the only problem "I have" with the machine.
Festool knew what there were doing when they placed the pins where they did, in-fact if the pins where closer to the center, jigs and ideas like yours would not be possible.

Mirko

 

[Mirko]

Cary,
How exactly are you allowing for the slop in the ID of the 1/4 hole compared to the 5 mm Domino pin, are you just pushing the magnet tight to the pin, if so will it move freely?

Mirko

Edit: if the hole for the magnet is offset, do you make left and right spacers?

 

[Cary Swoveland]

Cary,
How exactly are you allowing for the slop in the ID of the 1/4 hole compared to the 5 mm Domino pin, are you just pushing the magnet tight to the pin, if so will it move freely?

Mirko

Edit: if the hole for the magnet is offset, do you make left and right spacers?

Mirco,

I drilled a 5mm hole (the diameter of the pin) whose centre is 6mm from the top of the spacer. (I explained in the paper that the later distance should be no more than 7mm--any more would limit the adjustment of the fence height.)  The hole is centred side-to-side, so both sides can be used as a spacer.

I then counterbored a 1/2" (12.7mm) hole for the magnet 2mm deep (the thickness of the magnet).  The inside diameter of the magnet is 1/4", or 6.35mm.  By moving the centre of the counterbore 1.35mm (thereabouts) down from the centre of the 5mm hole, the top inside edge of the magnet slides along the top of the pin.  That also places the top of the counterbored hole 6.00 - 6.35 + 1.35 = 1mm from the top of the spacer.  I centred the counterbore side-to-side, but that isn't needed to use both sides as a spacer.

Should you wish to make spacers, note that the distance from the centre of the pin to the base of Domino is 10mm.  Therefore, if you drill the hole 6mm from the top of the spacer, the length of the rabbit is 6mm + 10mm = 16mm.  (I initially thought is was a little more until I noticed that I had never removed the protective film on the base.)

Cary (also in Vancouver)

 

[woodshopdemos]

Cary,
  I got sidetracked looking at your Golden sitting comfortably in the passenger's seat. It looks like you have her in a safety harness. They were popular a dozen years ago. I had a friend who put his Doberman in the harness and it tried to get out and got hung up in it, the owner twisted around to hold Dobey quiet and ran the car into a tree.
  With new puppy on the way, do you recommend that or not.
Here is something we just got.

I have some time before I have to worry about it:

 

[Mirko]

Cary,

Your PDF is very well written and I enjoyed reading it.
It makes perfect sense to me now, thank you, also its great  to hear of another Festool owner in town

Lee Valley doesn't sell the phenolic sheets any more, would you know of another place to get it in town?

Mirko

 

[Cary Swoveland]

With new puppy on the way, do you recommend that or not.

I'm happy with the one I got, but it's not adjustable for size, so it's probably not suitable for a growing pup.  I don't know if size-adjustable harness are available.  I sent you a PM with information on the one I got (the Roadie Basic).  One alternative is a "crate".

Interesting item you bought.  I've not seen that before.  Cute pups.

Cary

 

[Cary Swoveland]

Cary,

Your PDF is very well written and I enjoyed reading it.
It makes perfect sense to me now, thank you, also its great  to hear of another Festool owner in town

Lee Valley doesn't sell the phenolic sheets any more, would you know of another place to get it in town?

Mirko

Thanks for the compliment, Mirko.  I bought some sheets of phenolic on eBay.  I've sent you a PM about having purchases from the US shipped to Blaine or Pt. Roberts (as Marko knows, these are towns in WA that are just across the border from Greater Vancouver).

Cary