Why the Festool Domino?

The Festool Domino makes loose (also known as floating) mortice and tenon joinery really simple and quick. The Domino cuts a mortice in both pieces being joined to standard width and depth. It has stops to allow you to offset consistently from a surface and edge of a piece and it will work on squared or angled surfaces. Festool  provides the tenon material made from compressed beech, these are glued in place, clamped up and, bingo, the joint is made.

In our opinion cutting a good mortice and tenon joint by hand is much more difficult that cutting dovetails.

Cutting mortices with a router can be done, but it is hard to get it really consistent by hand. You usually will need a jig - some of jigs can be general purpose and others are custom to a job.

In larger shops you will see spindle mortisers, these stationary machines are usually $2500+ (there are a few that are cheaper). We know furniture makers who lust after a spindle morticer. Even with a spindle mortiser you still have to make your own floating tenons. You also have to decide whether to round the tenon stock or square the mortices.

The Domino removes a lot of extra steps in the shop and enables the woodworker to focus on the overall project rather than the details of the joinery.

The Domino is an expensive tool for a home shop but it can make a huge difference to how quickly you can make a piece of furniture. It can also allow you to tackle the joinery on large complex pieces with a lot more confidence.

If this tool had been available when we were starting out we'd have bought one.

There will Domino copycats on the market soon.

We think it is very difficult for us not to present the Domino as part of a course on quick joinery. After the course we think you'll agree with us.

Huh?

The six legged table shown in the picture on the home page was made by each of the students and both the tutors each making some of the joints on a leg and a stretcher. Using the Domino we produced a professional level set of joints in a very short time and it was the first time these folks has used a Domino or made a mortice & tenon joint. This is virtually impossible using the traditional hand or machine methods. Scroll up to read the full explanation of the Domino machine.

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 * Line from the Van Morrison song Domino