User:TonyTang0225/sandbox/Festool Domino

Festool Domino

The Festool Domino is a handheld loose mortise and tenon joinery (a strong woodworking joint that's very difficult to create) machine for woodworking, which enables users to create strong hidden joinery quickly and accurately. Its patented design uses a spiral router bit (something like a drill bit, but it cuts in all directions, instead of just cutting downwards) that rotates and oscillates in a pendulum motion simultaneously to create oval-shaped mortise (a recess in a piece of wood) that will accept a tenon (a small piece of wood that fits in two opposing mortises). The Domino is primarily used when joining end grain to end grain or end grain to side grain, where normal glue joint is relatively week due to the nature of grain direction--using Domino creates large side grain surfaces for the glue to adhere. The DF 500 Domino joiner was first introduced into the market by Germany power tool manufacture company Festool Group GmbH & Co. KG in 2006. Afterward, the DF 700 Domino--a bigger, more powerful version--was brought to the market. Since their premieres, they have been the company's most well-known power tools. Due to its patent, Festool Group GmbH & Co. KG remains to be the only one selling these tools today.

Description and Features

The Domino uses a patented oscillating spiral router bit to create oval-shaped mortises of various widths and thicknesses to fit different sizes of tenons (called Domino tenons), which are also provided by Festool. These prefabricated Dominos tenons are typically made from beech, which tests results have shown to be the best choice of tenon due to its high shear strength and withdrawal force capacity (how much force does it take to pull the tenon out from the mortise after being glued). Festool Domino's basic concept is similar to a biscuit jointer, where the tool cuts slots using a small round blade that loosely fit biscuits (small oval-shaped pieces of wood), or dowel joinery, where drill bits are used to create holes that fit wooden dowels. However, the Festool Domino excels at joint strength, accuracy, and speed.

Features

• Depending on the thickness of the workpiece, there are 7 different diameter spiral router bits to choose (4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 mm). Typically, using Dominos that are 1/3 of the thickness of the workpiece gives the strongest joint. The depth of the mortise can also be controlled by the machine using the included depth gauge.
• There are indexing pins and reference lines that allow users to create mortises at consistent locations across multiple workpieces quickly. When joining two boards of the same length, the indexing pins can be used to register the tool at the same distance from the workpiece's two edges consistently without measuring, and the reference lines enable users to line up the machine at the middle of the boards.
• There are three settings for the widths of the mortise: zero tolerance fit, close fit, and loose fit. The different widths are created by the ranges of the oscillating pendulum motion. So, users may adjust the fit base on their needs. For example, when gluing a long board, two zero tolerance mortises can be placed at the two edges of the boards using the index pins (which guarantee accurate placements), and the rest of the mortises could be created to loosely fit the tenons so the boards can line up easily.
• The fence also features angle adjustments so the mortises can be created at any desired angle. There are indexed stops for the most common angles: 0, 22.5, 45, 67.5 and 90 degrees. These settings are useful when joining two mitered pieces at an angle other than 90 degrees.
• The Festool Domino has excellent dust collection, capturing 95% of the dust created.

Differences Between the DF 500 and DF 700 Models

Model	Router Bits Accepted (mm)	Max Depth of Mortise (mm)	Number of Position Index Pins	Price (US dollars)
DF 500	4, 5, 6, 8, 10	28	2	960
DF 700	8, 10, 12, 14	70	6	1400

Comparison to Other Joinery Methods

Traditional Mortise and Tenon Joinery

Traditional mortise and tenon joinery is commonly accepted as the strongest joinery. It is traditionally created with handsaw and chisels, which is very time consuming and requires advanced woodworking skills. The advantage of using traditional mortise and tenon joinery is its strength and visual appeal: when creating a period piece, traditional mortise and tenon joinery is usually needed. If no such requirement is needed, using Festool Domino is a much faster approach to mortise and tenon joinery.

Pocket Hole Joinery

Pocket hole joinery is one of the easiest joineries to do. It only requires a pocket hole jig and a special pocket hole drill bit, which could be purchased at very low prices (starting at $14). Also, the pocket hole screws serve as clamps while the glue is drying, so users can move on to next the step without waiting for glue to dry which takes one to two hours. However, this joinery is not very strong and there are large visible holes left on the surface, which could break the visual appeal of the furniture. Therefore, pocket holes usually need to be placed at less visible sides of a project, such as the bottom or back. Otherwise, pocket hole plugs (small pieces of wood that cover the pocket hole) or wood filler are commonly used to disguise the pocket holes. But they require additional cutting, gluing, and sanding, which somewhat defeats the purpose of using pocket hole joinery--speed. Since Festool Domino creates hidden mortise and tenon joint, no such additional steps are needed, and no large holes are left on the furniture to potentially cause an eyesore.

Biscuit Joinery

Biscuit joinery is another cheap alternative to Festool Domino (starting at $65). Yet, biscuits hardly provide any additional strength to a joint due to the fact that the fit between the slot and the biscuit is very loose and the biscuits themselves are fairly thin and weak. Therefore, it could only be used for vertical alignment when gluing up small panels to form a large panel. Meanwhile, Festool Domino can be used for both alignments and creating strong joints.

Dowel Joinery

Dowel joinery one of the cheapest joinery methods. It only requires a Dowling jig (starting at $10) and a drill with the correct sized drill bits. But it is hard to set up accurately since users have to make reference lines across workpieces to line up the dowels and use additional clamps to secure the Dowling jig first before drilling the holes. This multi-step process creates a lot of opportunities for errors and is time-consuming. In contrast, the included indexing pins and reference lines on Festool Domino minimize the setup time and provide accuracy. Furthermore, dowel joinery has the same low strength issue as the biscuit because dowels usually have a small diameter. Therefore, they are prone to bending. Additionally, since dowels are round, they don't provide any rotational stability between two boards unless using multiple dowels at the same time. On the contrary, since Domino tenons are oval-shaped, rotational stability could be achieved with one Domino tenon. Also, since Domino tenons are made of beech, they are very resistant to bending. On the other hand, one advantage of using dowel joinery is that it could add visual interests to a piece by using different wood species for dowels and the rest of the furniture.

Advantages

• One of the strongest joinery methods
• Joinery can be created very quickly and accurately
• It is hidden joinery, so no ugly visible holes

Disadvantages

• Very expensive. DF 500 sells at $960 and DF 700 sells at $1400.
• It has to be paired with a dust collector. Otherwise, there is a risk of overheating the spiral router bit, which could lead to damage to the machine or shattering of the bit.
• Dominos still need to be glued into the mortises, which means it requires a couple of hours of dry time for glue.
• Due to the fact that it is a power tool with a router bit (something that cuts in any direction), it could be very dangerous when not handled carefully.

External links

https://www.festoolusa.com