The wonder of the domino

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For off the shelf doors or ones you make?



I think there may be a 9 degree tenon jig in your workshop.....There's a smallish clue in the image :)
Is that for cutting an angled shoulder on jambs of door / windows?

Sure is! Great for a speedy one off frame. Clamp it to the panel saw, bobs yer uncle
 
Interesting debate here, which has some similarities to the film v digital argument which raged in the world of photography (it might still be raging !).

My Domino has encouraged me to tackle a range of projects which I wouldn't have done before. I can do joints in other ways but haven't got the skill to nail every one of a series, so something won't line up somewhere, which spoils my enjoyment. I like the design and construction parts of a job and for me the jointing is just a necessary evil, where it might well spoil everything, so the domino has been a complete game changer and massively increased my enjoyment and finished product quality. As a hobbyist, it's been worth every penny - I decided against projects before simply because I didn't have the time, inclination and skill to tackle all the required joints.

It's a matter of preferences and which part of woodworking gives you the most satisfaction- I get totally the skill involved in say hand cut dovetails and the results (as shown by other forum contributors) are beautiful and must be immensely rewarding to the maker.
 
At the turn of the century another man came along, Marc Isambard Brunel (Name sound familiar? It's the father of the legendary British Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel). Brunel mused over a dinner in New York about making ship blocks with machinery as a frigate would need 1500 blocks and each block would need to be made entirely by hand, when Brunel came back to England he came to be associated with Samuel Bentham and succeded in inventing several machines for making the blocks. It was said that the first attempt was so successful, 10 unskilled workers using the machinery replaced 100 skilled craftmen overnight. Goes to show that machinery has been taking people's jobs long before CNC machines came around!

'A New and Useful Machine for Cutting One or More Mortices Forming the Sides of and Cutting the Pin-Hole of the Shells of Blocks, and for Turning and Boring the Shivers, and Fitting and Fixing the Coak Therein.' A bit of a mouthful, but that was the patent Brunel was granted in 1801.

I've just finished reading 'Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World' by Simon Winchester, which covers this development. Fascinating stuff, if you're in to such things.
 
'A New and Useful Machine for Cutting One or More Mortices Forming the Sides of and Cutting the Pin-Hole of the Shells of Blocks, and for Turning and Boring the Shivers, and Fitting and Fixing the Coak Therein.' A bit of a mouthful, but that was the patent Brunel was granted in 1801.

I've just finished reading 'Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World' by Simon Winchester, which covers this development. Fascinating stuff, if you're in to such things.
I've just read Simon Winchester's fascinating book as well - perfect present idea for anybody on this forum !
 
Switching gears slightly has anyone found a DF 500 in stock anywhere?
 
Switching gears slightly has anyone found a DF 500 in stock anywhere?
Nope.

I ordered one from toolfest (part of bunnies bolts) at the start of October and they've not had any delivered since then. apparently some surprise XLs appeared a week ago but apart from that no ETA from Festool.
 
Nope.

I ordered one from toolfest (part of bunnies bolts) at the start of October and they've not had any delivered since then. apparently some surprise XLs appeared a week ago but apart from that no ETA from Festool.

So they may now be worth even more than you paid for them - for those who wish to sell on after buying for a specific job! :p

I'm keeping mine though - I love it!
 
Every so often, I decide to ignore the feud between hand tool users, machine lovers, and 'hybrid' workers.
Then I see a purist knocking him/herself out hand-sawing a 6" square chunk of wood, to make 2 inch square legs, just for the sake of it. Okay, if you really do want to knock yourself out, go ahead.

However, just think how the timber was felled, and reduced to marketable sizes. Not by hand that's for sure.

I use my machinery to reduce through sawn timber to the initial components. After that I roll over to hand tools for cleaning up, sizing and jointing. (Making a stack of drawers for a kitchen, I'd use my Keller Jig for dovetails. It's the easiest jig to use, and it isn't restricted to drawer sizes, and of the plethora of jigs, its results look the best to me. For nice jobs, (which I want to, concentrate on, now I am a trembly, old duffer), I'll stick with traditional methods and hand tools. But I neither have the strength, nor patience to hand rip heavy planks just taken off the lorry!

In the end, I will have no guilty feelings about it. As I already said, if you want to knock yourself out, and you are young enough to enjoy it, then be my guest! I will still give you kudos for a job well done. And I won't label you as a "woodworker" just because you use machines, when you could employ hand-tool methods.

'Nuff said for me!
Cheers

John
 
Hi

What I find amazing is the ornate workmanship that was done in the big country houses and such...

Few years ago the good lady wife persuaded me to do the "Nile cruise" gig for our hollybobs. I was, and remain in awe, at what the Egyptians (or aliens if you hold to that notion) achieved whilst creating the various tombs and monuments we saw whilst there. When you realise that what you were looking at was built before JC briefly walked the earth, some still holding on to the glorious colours and so much of it so crisp and clear I couldn’t even imagine how ,with our current level of technology ,we would try to replicate it. Everyone is familiar with what Hieroglyphics are but what threw me was I'd always thought they were carved into the rock..turns out they weren't, they were left in relief standing proud, so for just using a hammer and a chisel to achieve that sort of accuracy just blows my mind especially when you think of the price of a mistake..
Screenshot 2020-11-23 at 17.45.58.png
 
So they may now be worth even more than you paid for them - for those who wish to sell on after buying for a specific job! :p

I'm keeping mine though - I love it!
Well they are at last shipping out! Axminster got some last week and I got a message from Bunnies Bolts just now to say mine will bee here tomorrow.
 
I did some subbing work for a friend who has a kitchen company. I started making doors and frames with my morticer and tenoner and haunching (like you supposed to!) but he was unhappy about the time this was taking and encouraged me to get a domino which I did.

The time saving was massive.

Down sides (like Custard said) the size of the rails are designed around the size of the dominos, hence all his kitchen doors are the same size. They are all the same design as well (I believe they are classed as Shaker, i.e. a flat panel in a frame, generally painted finish).

But, if you want a haunch I don’t see how this is achievable using the domino jointer (is a haunch necessary on cabinet doors?).
 
I only see the limitation in terms of thickness and depth, but that doesn't mean you cant double them up, even if it means thinner dominos. you can certainly make longer mortices and make your own wide domino stock
 
We used a Domino machine for my front door, made from Douglas Fir. I was told by many that I was not to do it. We did, it worked. Many said it wouldn't. Many said it wouldn't be strong enough. It was, over a year later, zero movement.

Mind you, it was my nephew's Domino, he's a carpenter/joiner, but the machine is still brilliant.

If they had been around 30+ years ago (maybe they were and I just didn't know) I would have bought one without hesitation. The thing is that today I cannot think of any future project that I would need one for, so I just keep on the right side of my nephew!
 
We used a Domino machine for my front door, made from Douglas Fir. I was told by many that I was not to do it. We did, it worked. Many said it wouldn't. Many said it wouldn't be strong enough. It was, over a year later, zero movement.

Mind you, it was my nephew's Domino, he's a carpenter/joiner, but the machine is still brilliant.

If they had been around 30+ years ago (maybe they were and I just didn't know) I would have bought one without hesitation. The thing is that today I cannot think of any future project that I would need one for, so I just keep on the right side of my nephew!
I assume its the 700? I have seen a number of yootoob videos where joiners make doors with the domino
 

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