Almost all projects in the woodshop need a way to join two or more pieces together. Currently the wood shop has very limited joinery methods. We only have a Kreg pocket hole jig, a very inadequate dowel jig, and tongue and groove joinery available. The Domino allows for a wide variety of very sophisticated floating tenon joinery including edge glueing frame joinery and other types of floating tenon joinery with a rather shallow learning curve. It will be a piece of equipment that requires certification. It is currently out of stock but Mueller thinks it will be restocked in early march. There are 2 members that have experience with the Domino, @Tyler Wertz and @Danielle Fraley, they can answer questions.
Festool Domino DF 500 1,060 Piece Tenon Assortment, Systainer3, 5 Cuttere
Cost: $395
This will give us an assortment of all of the tenon sizes avail for the Domino system, all 5 cutter sizes for different size tenons, and a storage container for all of it.
How are things space-wise in the woodshop? Seems like a great tool, but I’ve seen some areas getting kind of cramped with new equipment. My use of the woodshop is sporadic, so I genuinely don’t know!
For comparison, a highly rated doweling jig, and dowels is 7% of the cost of this.
$40 JointMaster™ - Milescraft
$11 350 Dowels
So all in $100 and we have something that in the video they agree is comparable and better in some cases. Sometimes a domino is better in some cases, but is it $1400 better?
Although space is getting a little tight there is plenty of space for a hand tool like this. There is even space for a couple larger stationary tools with a little thought and planning
I vote yes! This is a precise machine that makes joinery easy and hidden. It is very user-friendly and I will be happy to help train people if it is purchased. Our joinery capabilities at the wood shop are pretty sad and limited right now, and the domino can be used on all kinds of projects - tabletop glue-ups, table bases, cabinets, shelving units etc. I think many people would benefit from having this new machine with dust extractor.
The domino is definitely superior than a doweling jig in terms of precision, I can tell you from direct experience. But I don’t see why we couldn’t have both? The domino machine will require certification and using this jig wouldn’t. Something for everyone?
I vote no. I had been planning to sit this vote out, but the poll in the woodworking channel on slack makes it fairly clear to me that there are other items in the wood shop that our members think are higher priority than this (namely a drum or wide belt sander and a nicer drill press). I think that we should plan to get something like this system in the future, but address the items that our members want to see more first.
I vote no for reasons similar to Kevin. Sounds like a neat tool, but more for down the road after more of the basics are covered. I also heard that there might be some concern with dust collection compatibility?
