Festool Domino Machine User manual

Getting the Most From the Festool

Domino Machine

Text and Photos by Jerry Work

For many woodworkers the construction of a butterﬂy leaf dining table like the small one

shown here is considered a rite of passage because it is very difﬁcult to do correctly.

The table tops slide apart to reveal a self storing leaf that folds in the middle. By pulling

up on one half of the leaf both halves rise up to perfectly align with the table top both on

the ﬂat top surface as well as along each edge. Then the two halves of the top slide to-

gether to engage the butterﬂy leaf in its deployed position.

Properly executed,

this operation is a

thing of beauty in

and of itself. Most

people watching a

butterﬂy leaf table

open for the ﬁrst

time seem to be

transﬁxed as they

watch everything

side so effortlessly

into perfect align-

ment. And, watching

the leaf fold down

and store below the

table top is no less

captivating.

I often caution my

customers to be

prepared for the ﬁrst

dinner party on their

new table. If the

guests see the butterﬂy leaf deploy, they

usually will stand around opening and

closing it time after

time just because it

is fun and interesting

to do.

Using conventional

tools and techniques

it is very difﬁcult to

get all the pivot

points in exactly the

right places so de-

signing and building

such a table can be

quite complex and

intimidating. But, as

we will see while we

follow the construc-

tion of the table

shown here from

start to ﬁnish, using

the innovative Fes-

tool Domino ma-

chine and the self

aligning, self squaring and self locking

features of the sliding dovetail joint, build-

ing tables such as this one are well within

your grasp whether you are a hobbyist

just starting out or a seasoned furniture

maker with years of experience under

your belt.

The Domino machine is the key.

Also in this manual we will follow the con-

struction of a conventional four leg with

side skirt style of table, an upright chest

with gracefully ﬂaring legs and sliding

doors, and a unique “convertible” coffee

table that can quickly change look and

function.

All of these are easy to build by using

the Domino machine and are all within

your reach as well.

How should we describe this innova-

tive tool?

Early in the U.S. introduction planning I

was asked by Festool USA how I

thought the machine should be de-

scribed. Because I had lots of experi-

ence with loose tenon joinery using the

three dimensional sliding table on my

industrial slot mortising machine, I ﬁrst

described it in those terms. At that time I

wrote that I would describe the Domino

machine as, “a portable loose tenon

jointer with great positional accuracy.”

And, as we will discover moving through

this manual, it certainly is that.

However, as I used the Domino machine

on more and different projects, it evolved

in my head to something much more than

those words could capture. The Domino

machine solves a whole range of wood-

working issues from joining two pieces of

wood in all six ways one can joint two

pieces together, to handling a myriad of

wood movement problems that are al-

ways a part of building with solid woods,

to precisely aligning two or more compo-

nents during assembly operations, to

making hidden latches, stops and door

slides, and much more.

As you progress through this manual I

think you will enjoy seeing examples of all

of these uses and the opportunity to learn

more about this truly remarkable and

unique woodworking tool.

The author, Jerry Work, designs

and hand crafts ﬁne furniture in

the 1907 Masonic Temple build-

ing in historic Kerby, OR, where

visitors are always welcome.

[email protected]

www.jerrywork.com

What is a Domino Machine?

Let’s begin by exploring the tool

itself. It is made up of a body

with a unique mechanism that

both rotates and oscillates a

drill-like cutter bit. The body

slides nearly effortlessly on two

hardened steel shafts built into

the fence section of the tool.

Once aligned where you want

the cut to be made, you push

the body towards the work piece

to produce an elongated slot,

most commonly called a “mor-

tise.”

The Domino machine fence and

positioning systems allow you to

center that slot both horizontally

and vertically very accurately.

Built into the machine are adjust-

ments for the width and the depth of the

slot. The cutters can be interchanged

easily and quickly and come in 5mm,

6mm, 8mm and 10mm diameters produc-

ing slots of those widths.

The idea is to cut a mortise slot

into which you can insert a pre-

made wooden tenon which Fes-

tool calls a “domino,” hence the

name of the machine.

You can make your own if you

want to, but the pre-made Fes-

tool tenons are extremely

strong, very precisely dimen-

sioned to ﬁt perfectly into the

mortise slot cut by the Domino

machine and they are quite

economical to buy. My recom-

mendation is to simply use the

Festool dominos and not try to

reinvent that wheel on your own.

The pictures on this page show the Dom-

ino in broad view. As we come in closer

with the detailed photos on the next few

pages we will see the many precise ad-

justments and alignment aids.

The Domino Body

This sequence of photos shows how the

body and fence can easily be separated

by simply raising the lock tab as shown

here. The wrench used to change cutters

is ideal for this. Hook the edge of the

wrench beneath the lock tab and lift it up.

The fence will start to slide off the body

as shown in the photos left and above

exposing the rotating and oscillating cut-

ter (red arrow).

In the photo above you can see the two

hardened shafts (green arrow pointing to

the right shaft) that the body slides on as

you push the body in to cut the mortise

slot. They ensure the mortise slot will be

exactly parallel to the base of the Domino

machine, one of the keys to Domino’s

impressive accuracy.

Here is a view of the under side of the

body. The round housing held by the four

screws is gear driven to move the cutter

tip back and forth in a horizontal arc while

the cutter is also rotated to make the cut.

The cutters can be easily changed as

they just screw onto the threaded end of

the gear-driven shaft as shown by these

photos.

Above, the wrench is positioned on the

ﬂats of the cutter tip. The shaft lock but-

ton is on the side of the Domino body

right where the thumb on one hand can

easily press it while you loosen or tighten

the cutter with the wrench held in the

other hand. In the photo above I moved

my thumb down so you can see the shaft

lock lever (red arrow).

The cutters are available in four different

diameters, 5, 6, 8 and 10mm. The 5mm

cutter comes standard with the machine

itself and the four cutter set shown above

comes with the set of domino te-

nons.

The photo below shows the cutters with

their respective Domino tenons for size

comparison.

Depth of cut is controlled by a lever on

the side of the Domino body (red arrow

above and in detail below). Settings

are for depths of cut of 12, 15, 20, 25

and 28mm. This is the depth meas-

ured from the front of the fence to the

bottom of the mortise. Lift the black

safety catch and move the green depth

lever to align with the desired depth of

cut. To allow for some glue build up in

the bottom of the mortise as the tenon

is inserted, the actual length of the Fes-

tool supplied tenons is about 1.5mm

shorter than the depth of the

corresponding mortise.

The top green knob turns to

set the desired width of cut.

Three settings are provided.

The narrowest width (the set-

ting shown below) matches

the supplied domino tenon for

each domino (tenon) thick-

ness. The 5mm thick domi-

ons are just under 19mm wide

scaling up to the just under

23mm width of the 10mm

thick dominos.

At the minimum width of cut setting

(the way the width knob is set in this

photo) the cutter bit oscillation is

13.7mm. With a 5mm cutter bit the

overall cut mortise slot will be 13.7 + 5

= 18.7mm wide, nominally 19mm.

Move the knob to the intermediate

width of cut setting and the oscillation

increases from 13.7mm to 19.2mm

resulting in a slot 24.5mm wide for the

5mm cutter bit. The tenon still ﬁts tightly

into the sides of the

mortise slot, but the

slot is longer than the

width of the tenon al-

lowing some assembly

adjustment room side

to side. The third width

setting increases the

oscillation to 23.2mm

resulting in a 28.2mm

mortise slot which pro-

vides close to 10mm

side to side adjustment

room.

The ability to vary the

slot width is key to

many of the Domino

machine attributes. As

indicated, at the narrow

setting the domino tenon ﬁts tightly into

the slot. At the wider settings the thick-

ness of the domino tenon ﬁts tightly into

the mortise slot front to back, but the

domino tenon is free to shift side to side.

When you cut a tight mortise (width knob

at the narrowest setting) at the same lo-

cation on two different boards, that one

M&T joint will keep the two boards

aligned as desired. Placing wider mortise

slots along the same face of one of the

two boards means the remaining domino

mortise slots can be cut with some mar-

gin for positional error while still allowing

the joint to close properly, a great advan-

tage over dowel joints where the posi-

tional accuracy must be dead on or the

joint simply will not close up at all.

Since the majority of the strength of a

loose tenon joint is derived from the ﬁt

and glue surface on the faces of the mor-

tise slot and the faces of the tenon, little

strength is lost when the width of the mor-

tise is greater than the width of the tenon.

We will see numerous examples of when

and where you want to use tight ﬁtting or

over-width mortise slots as we progress

through the manual and show actual pro-

jects in process.

The Domino Fence

Now let’s look at the adjustments on the

fence part of the Domino machine. In this

photo we are looking at the back side of

the fence with the body removed. You

can see one of the two hardened steel

rods that the body slides on as it moves

the cutter in and out of the work piece

keeping the mortise slot parallel with the

base of the fence.

The ﬁrst adjustment to consider is the

height the fence is above the horizontal

centerline of the cutter. That is shown

by a scale and pointer. In the close up

photo below the fence is set to be exactly

10mm above the centerline of the cutter.

A lock lever secures the fence at the de-

sired height. The fence moves up and

down on machined ways so it remains

exactly parallel with the cutter at all

heights.

For rapidly setting the fence to common

heights above the horizontal centerline of

the bit, a stop block (shown in detail

above) is provided that slides back and

forth to reveal different step heights. The

fence sits on the top of a stop

block step, positioning it exactly

an indicated distance above the

horizontal centerline of the cutter.

The stop block (shown here at a

setting of 20mm) is marked in

units corresponding to the overall

thickness of the work piece for

which the cutter will be exactly

centered. In this case the stop

block is set for a 20mm thick work

piece resulting in the pointer

(photo left) indicating that the cen-

terline of the cutter will be at

10mm.

The stop block is marked to center the

bit on work pieces 16, 20, 22, 25, 28, 36

and 40mm thick.

You can also simply use the height

scale to set the fence any distance you

want it to be above the horizontal cen-

terline of the bit within the range of 7mm

to 30mm.

The minimum height of 7mm ensures

that a 10mm cutter will leave a minimum

of 2mm of wall between the upper side

of the mortise slot and the upper side of

the work piece so you don’t inadvertently

drive the cutter into the bottom side of the

fence.

The fence also rotates from 90 degrees

angle relative to the edge of the work

piece (meaning the fence is parallel with

the cutter) to zero degrees relative to the

edge of the work piece (meaning the cut-

ter is moving perpendicular to the fence

the way it is shown in the photo left).

Ball detent stops are also provided for

common in-

termediate

settings, or

you can sim-

ply set the

angle with the

protractor

scale and

pointer. The

pointer is ad-

justable so

you can cali-

brate the an-

gles to be

dead on.

Now let’s look

at the variety

of alignment

marks to help

you place the

mortise slots

exactly where

you want

them.

This ﬁrst photo is looking at the front of

the Domino fence with the fence piece

raised to the zero degree angle for clarity

of view. The slot in the center towards

the bottom (red arrow) is where the cutter

emerges when the body is pushed to-

wards the work piece to make the mortise

cut. The cutter centerline is 10mm up

from the base of the fence assembly

(green arrow above).

Two alignment pins are spring loaded and

are set 74mm apart so each is 37mm

from the centerline of the cutter.

The right and left spring loaded alignment

pins are shown in detail below. The right

pin is mounted in an eccentric with a

screwdriver slot by which you can turn

the eccentric to bring the two pins into

exact alignment the same distance

from the vertical centerline of the

cutter. The left pin is ﬁxed in posi-

tion 37mm from the vertical center-

line of the cutter and 24mm from the

outside of the pin to the outside

edge of the ﬁxed portion (base) of

the fence (blue arrow).

The pins are 5mm in diameter so

the base is machined to be 132mm

wide or 66mm from outside edge to

vertical center of cutter. All of these

measurements are very useful to

keep in mind as they each can play

a role in helping you precisely posi-

tion the center of the Domino mor-

tise slots.

When you ﬁrst get your machine, make

sure the adjustable fence height pointer is

exactly on 10mm when the fence is on

the stop block marked 20mm, the angle

pointer is exactly on mark, and the dis-

tance between the two spring loaded pins

is 74mm. Adjust the right pin shown be-

low if necessary.

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