Festool Domino 700 Series

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wobblydoggy

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Just bought one of these from ebay.

I bought it because I have lots of doors to make, numerous projects where I want to join boards to each other etc.

What experience of the Domino have you guys had, good and bad please?

Cheers

Wobbly
 
Awesome. You wont believe how you ever survived without it. You will never want to cut another traditional M&T again because of the time saved. I don't think I've ever heard a bad word said about them. The general reaction is positive and its a genuine innovation that has really taken off.
 
Welcome to the club, I bought a DF500 first in late Jan and liked it so much decided to get the XL 700 just before the promo offers ended a few weeks ago.

The only bad side is the cost, but once you use it you get over it. Cutting M&T is fun but if you need to cut lots or are in a production environment you would have to use a jig anyway so the Domino takes up less space than a jig and is more versatile. You might end up liking it so much you want to domino every single joint!
 
Random Orbital Bob":3boebf59 said:
Awesome. You wont believe how you ever survived without it. You will never want to cut another traditional M&T again because of the time saved. I don't think I've ever heard a bad word said about them. The general reaction is positive and its a genuine innovation that has really taken off.

It's interesting that in the UK and USA we think of the domino system as innovative. I guess that's because we've been brought up with square chisel mortice machines. On the continent most woodwork is based around slot morticers and loose tenons, so they regard the Domino system as just a portable extension of what they're already used to.
 
Brilliant machine with lots of not immediately obvious uses. I bought mine mainly for windows and doors but have found that I have it used a lot more than that. I have made a Festool MFT type bench extension that simply "plugs in and out " of the bench with 140mm x 14mm dominos. Even on smaller work it can do through mortices and isn't limited to the depth restriction of the DF 500. Geoff
 
For a few years i just thought of them as a glorified biscuit jointer.....until I bought one (500) now most of my jobs are completed with it as it is so simple and convenient to use. luckily I got mine cheap second hand but having used one now I would happily pay the high price for one. I often find myself looking at how I can use it on most joints and feel reluctant when I have to revert to traditional M&T's ....mind you if i bought the 700...hmm! :lol:
 
Its also great for knock downs. My kids got guinea pigs last year and I made a framed box which housed Perspex sides. Because the plan was to have them in an outside hutch during the summer I wanted the indoor Perspex box (its open topped) to be dismantle-able. Because the mechanical/friction strength of the loose tenons is so good due to the precision of both mortise and biscuit, it's easily strong enough with just a dry fit. Now I can just use gentle persuasion with the old Estwing when I come to dismantle the frame and can store it flat up against a wall till the following winter.

That's a 500 I should clarify
 
Same as wot they all just said. I'm a hobby woodworker (albeit a fairly serious one) and find myself thinking up projects just so I can use it. If I was a pro I'd have a 700 also.

In fact I was so impressed with how my Dom works that I just bought a Kapex. It's also awesome.
 
It's worth pointing out that good as Dominos are (I have both the 500 and 700 so I'm pretty committed) they're not perfect for everything,

1. The standard beech dominos rot quickly in damp conditions, so aren't much use for outdoor projects or exterior joinery. There are sipo dominos for exterior work, but that's more cost and because they come in uncut lengths it's an additional time element

2. The domino mortice is actually deeper than stated, about a mill at the corners and about a mill and half in the middle (it cuts on a sweep), so be very careful when plunging into material that's close to the limit

3. Dominos aren't particularly versatile when it comes to referencing from fixed surfaces. It helps if the project is designed around the limited reference stops that the machines offer. But in the real world this is rarely the case, which generally means you end up cutting more "sloppy' mortices than you'd ideally like, leaving voids in the workpiece.

4. Festool wanted to put locating "pins" on Dominos, but ran into a patent dispute so were forced to switch to paddles. The original pin models had the huge advantage of taking slip on spacers, but also the disadvantage that they sometimes pop out and foul an edge when you least want it!

5. The perspex window does not come calibrated...you absolutely must do this calibration yourself or the machine won't fulfil its potential. IMO Festool should emphasise this more in the literature and give clearer guidance on how to complete this (but when has Festool documentation been anything but basic?).

6. Dominos swell and shrink according to humidity, so it can sometimes be a pig to disassemble after a test dry glue up. But you'd be crazy to trust to a glue up without a dry run, as even very experienced users get caught out with tiny misalignments that need individual dominos paring down to fix.

7. Unless you're using a domino regularly it's easy to get it the wrong way round or otherwise mess up a project, at least with a more traditional approach the workpiece is fully marked up so catastrophic mistakes are a bit rarer.

8. A domino joint is only as good as the accuracy you've been able to achieve on the components, there's not much point getting a domino until you're certain that you can consistently produce components that are dead square and dead straight.


Bottom line for me is, much as I love my domino machines, I wouldn't be without a biscuiter, a dowel jig, and even a traditional morticing machine...they still all have their roles. And for many woodworkers the money a domino machine costs might be better invested in a more accurate planer/thicknesser or a more accurate saw, after all these are the basic machines that you need for pretty much every project where as there are plenty of cheaper alternatives to a domino.
 
Hi Custard I agree with everything you say here and this U-tube maybe helpful, as it is how I found out how to calibrate my machine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLAfpRxihqw
Also on the beech domino point I think it has been mentioned before but if there is an outdoor project which could be humidity or water ingress critical it's probably best to make up your own dominos with the same timber stock you are using. If you do a big batch they last for ages. The only drawback is they don't have the glue serations. Geoff
 
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