Domino joining without the Festool price tag

[Carlos]

I've watched this being used and it's pretty impressive. However $800 is way outside the price range that I can justify. But...those domino slots look like something you could make with a router. Put a fence on the router, plunge it, draw it across the work. No different from making a mortise/tenon joint using a router and chisel, except no chiseling.

So what am I overlooking in this plan? Surely there must be more to this tool that I'm not seeing?

[drumpriest]

Nothing but speed. I did a tutorial video on mortising with the router, you can check it out here....

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=27419


This was how I did all of my mortises until I bought the Domino. It's really about convenience and speed, that's all. I am finishing up a a wine rack project that needed 64 mortises, and the Domino was excellent for this task.

[FEDSAWDAVE]

FESTOOL is not for everybody. Depends on your projects. In an industrial setting, the DOMINO is 2nd to none. Over the years, I've sold the Porter-Cable, the Lamello, The Virutex etc... When fabricators who have used those get there hands on the DOMINO (after initially balking at the price), they wonder what they waited for. Heard it to many times to count. You have to test drive one to see the differance. All FESTOOL dealers have demo units for customers to try. Look up a dealer near you and ask for a demo.

www.yourfestool.com

[Tom Slick]

A loose tennon joint is what the domino makes, that is nothing revolutionary and has been around for years. The domino system is what makes it a great tool.

[FEDSAWDAVE]

It is "the system" and the Germans have perfected it.

[crokett]

The Rockler store in Indianapolis is a Festool dealer. I went in and played with the tools over Christmas and if I had the money my whoe shop would be Festool.

[DonHo]

The beadlock loose tennon system is the poor man's answer to the domino system. Beadlock actually has been around for a long time and it works well. I see that Rockler offers an upgrade called the beadlock pro for a little over $100. I've only used the "old" standard beadlock which cost less than $50, but it works well enough that I'd have to need to make a lot of loose tennon joints to consider spending the money for a domino. Think of all the curly maple and cherry I could buy for $800

DonHo

[jonmulzer]

You can make loose tenons quickly with a router table also. Not as fast as the Domino but if you already have the router table..... More accurate than a fence on a router balancing on a 3/4" board.

[drumpriest]

jonmulzer is correct, if you try and balance on a 3/4" board, which I personally find insane. The demo video I did uses a workmate. I also built perhaps the simplest jig of all times in the shape of a U with 3/4" mdf, 2 long pieces, 1 short piece, then 2 long pieces, glued and brads. Just slip your 3/4" piece in to it, clamp, and you have a nice stable platform for your router.

Again this works great when you are doing a project that only requires 8-16 mortises, with 1-2 setups. When you get into projects with huge numbers of mortises, it's a big time investment. If you have the time, by all means it works great, the Domino is for people willing to spend some money to save some of that time.