If cost was an issue and dust collection not an issue, a cheaper option than the Tianli or its like is the shopmade domino joiner. Someone posted it on YouTube mostly made out of wood and a router.
I don't know about you, but people don't get into the festool stuff because its stuff is cheaper. If efficiency isn't important you because time isn't a luxury to you, the domino joiner isn't right for you for sure. Almost everything that can be done by a machine can be done by hand too and using hand tools are often the cheaper option, and hand skills can be learned.
The Tianli is basically a domino joiner ripped of many of its important built-in features such as an adjustable fence (for angled joinery) or components (such as the motor which is replaced by the router, ), fence height settings (for offset mortising), etc. and of course it's a lot less expensive ($200 is not the net cost, you have to add the cost of a router). If you remove enough things from an Audi or BMW, you get a KIA, to be had for tens of thousands less!!!!
If all you need is just a basic mortise joint or if you only do one project a year or two years that can benefit from the versatile machine, the domino joiner is definitely an over-kill for you.
Simon
