Domino Users: Do you use 4 or 5mm??

[Chunky Monkey]

I'm going to be purchasing a domino shortly but on first glance I would need both the 500 and the 700 XL to complete all my future projects, ie. kitchen build, interior doors and frames, cedar greenhouse, general household furniture.

Looking into it closer though, if I were to purchase the Seneca adapter, this would allow me to run the 6mm bit in the 700 and therefore me allow to joint all the 19mm sheet mdf/ply based projects. I hardly use 12mm sheet but when I do, I suppose I could revert to a biscuit cutter just for these jobs.

Other than the 12mm ply scenario above, I can't see a need for the 4 or 5mm options, have I missed anything? Do you use your 4/5mm cutters if so what on?

I'm not opposed to having both the 500 and 700XL, but am finding it very hard to justify.

Any thoughts

Thanks
Jon

 

[Waka]

I have the 500, I did think at one point of buying the 700 as well, this would have been for doors. Anyway I doubled up on the 8x50 dominoes and it worked a treat, I've now made three doors this way with no problem.

The smallest domino I've used is the 5x30, this has been for small stock during cabinet making, I think if you were going to do really small stuff then there could be need for the 4mm.

Personally I think that the 500 is more versatile than the 700, although I don't know how the Seneca attachments alter that.
Certainly for a kitchen build the 500 would be an ample machine for the job.

Hope this helps.

 

[Woodmonkey]

Go to a dealer and have a feel of both, for me the bigger one is pretty heavy, I think it would feel quite unwieldy trying to use it on smaller projects. I've got the smaller one and as waka said you can easily double up if you need more strength. Personally I would go for the smaller one unless you were doing doors all the time.

 

[shed9]

I have the 700 XL and got the Seneca RTS-500 adaptor along with the two domi-shims they do for the XL. Could not be happier, I have all the Festool cutters for both machines and they all work flawlessly. I originally got the Seneca adapter to do sheet goods for which it is superb however I find I use it for other smaller items as well and it is not too large.

I also thought I would end up with both machines as I thought the XL would be too large for smaller work but it works a treat. That said, I'm not knocking the 500 either, I did my research before buying my XL and the 500 was highly recommended by everyone I asked.

For what its worth the Seneca parts arrived within the week which I was impressed at and I wasn't stung for import duty - I would recommend the Domi-shim plates (700 version) as well.

Also the best price I could find for the XL Domino at the time was at Nuts and Bolts at £770, however I suspect prices have gone up since;

http://www.powertool-supplies.co.uk/

 

[custard]

I have a 500 and 700 Domino. I can understand why the 700 with an adaptor is an attractive option, and if you're not using the 5mm and 4mm cutters on smaller components then there's little point in buying both! Personally I use the smaller cutters for drawer boxes, as beefed up biscuits (sheet goods construction generally), and re-inforcing mitres (even if a 6mm cutter could fit it's pretty hard balancing the 700 on a mitred corner).

Unless you're actively making very large items like doors though you could save even more money by just buying the 500 and using stacked dominos for larger joints. As Woodmonkey advised, best thing is to handle both machines...they're pretty different in the flesh and there are some subtle but significant unique features between them like the two options for wider mortices on the 500 versus the one on the 700.

 

[Zeddedhed]

XL 700 is currently £640 ex VAT at Toolfest. Chuck in a £50 quid voucher and that's pretty reasonable methinks.
http://www.toolfest.co.uk/festool-df-700-xl

 

[shed9]

Worth noting the difference in depth of cut of both machines; the 500 goes to 28mm and the 700 to 70mm

Whilst the option to double is there with the 500, this is still limited by depth of insertion of the actual domino.

Zeddedhed, that price is really good (for the 500 too) I would expect them to go up in line with others soon though.