Festool Domino vs other options...

[JDuke]

this is going to be lengthy so bear with me...

Years ago, I got a biscuit jointer alternative and then went to a biscuit joiner, and discovered the domino online.

I didn't buy one then, and went on a journey trying to find an alternative that has taken years.

some of the stops along the way.

home built pantorouter great, and a lot more versatile than the domino but difficult to setup, the new commercial version (yes I bought one used recently) is much easier to setup.

dowelmax was a stop along the way as well, its a great dowel jig and at less than $300 its better for the budget.  It is an excellent dowel jig and is very precise and well thought out. 
I still have it and will continue to use it when I want to dowel something, but it takes quite a bit longer than the domino.

Jessem made a mortise mill that was designed for a drill.  Like everything else jessem, its very well made and probably works OK if your on a tight budget, but for the price your better off with a router jig.
I have thought several times about modifying it to take a palm router for cutting the mortise while keeping the guide system, but have never taken the plunge(pardon the pun).

Leigh MFT was another stop along the way.  Its also a great very versatile way to do mortise and tenon joinery, and excels if you want integral tenons in your workpiece.
With a price tag close to the domino, I kept looking.

I posted a thread on here a while back looking at building a home built domino alternative, or waiting on a knockoff to come out once the patent expires, but never built one.

I finally found a DF500 domino used a couple years ago. 
and after a couple years of using it, am still finding things that i like about it that were obviously well thought out by someone who built it, used it and then thought of lots of ways to improve it.
from the ease of popping the fence mechanism off to change bits, to the ease of adjusting for both width and depth of dominos, to the depth stop clearly marked from fence to center of mortise, to the spring loaded stops for registering the mortise from left to right, to the clear alignment plate on the fence.  It is set up for extreme ease of use on a daily basis. 

I have a bad habit of spending years and lots more money trying to avoid buying high quality tools and then once I have them I wonder why i waited so long.

the domino is the first festool I have purchased, and I like it enough to think about more green.
I am not sure I see the benefit on some of the more common tools like the router, miter saw, or sander, but I can certainly see the benefit of their dust extractors with the auto clean feature.


Hope that this is at least somewhat helpful to someone who is on the fence or considering one of the above alternatives.

Duke

[Lumber Yard®]

Just adding to your thoughts:

I have owned most every M&T tool (both integral and loose) over the years and the Domino wins hands down and it's not really close for me.

One that you left out is the Mortise Pal and honestly, it is my second choice for loose M&T joinery. I know that they aren't being made by the original company but there are knock-offs from China now that are essentially the same jig. The MP is stupid easy to use and I enjoy using it for it's simplicity.

There was also Beadlock (that Rockler bought out) and was similar to the Jessem jig in that it used a drill. Owned both of them and never really liked the set-up. I've also owned several dowleing jigs but never the DowelMax which people generally like.

I owned the Leigh FMT and it works great but is expensive and cumbersome to set-up and use. Like other options sometimes taking the tool to the work proves easier than taking the material to the tool.

I have owned several benchtop and floor standing mortising machines and I have always moved on because of how much space they take up.

[fredhargis]

I have the Domino (s0 as well as the FMT. I haven't let my FMT go because 1) I find it easy to use, and 2) it does a great job. I've also had a Mortise Pal, I did sell it but have kicked myself in the butt ever since, it was another well designed tool. But i find the Domino to be a well designed, useful tool  as well. My 500 (bought used, well used) is probably the only mortiser most folks (including me) would ever need. The 700, which is a fine tool in it's own right, is a handful to handle and if you tied to the Festool tenons it give expensive a whole new definition. But I enjoy using all those tools even though I'm finding loose tenon joinery to be easier to live with. Still, the Domino is a really expensive tool, and not in everyone's budget. I suspect when the patents expire every major brand has their own version ready to go to market...at which time they will become a lot more popular and integral tenons may be a ting of the past. BTW, I didn't give up my biscuit joiner either. I've always considered them (the Domino and the BJ) to be complimentary tools, not a replacement for each other. However, the recently introduced 4MM tenons have been useful, and may lead me to change my mind.

[Handplanesandmore]

From day 1 (dinosaur years!!!
), I set out to be a slim woodworker. To do that, I had to be good at the core tools so I could use them not as a one trick pony.

After I invested in the domino machine, I decided to have it as the only joinery machine in my shop. Except the dowel jig, every mortiser, biscuit joiner, and router based jig have gone. That's the only way I could master the pricey machine. So far there has not been a project that it couldn't handle.

Edit --- I should add that the domino allows me to finish a M&T joint project in half the time , sometimes even less, compared to the use of dadoes, mortiser etc. Also people who only plan to use the machine to join boards shouldn't get a domino. It's a waste of money. Boards can be joined with glue alone.

To be good at something, you need to use it often enough just like handcutting dovetails. One benefit of my approach is that when I'm gone, my family don't have a big job of cleaning out my shop.

As for patent expiry, everyone says sawstop clones should be up and running soon. But how soon? Waiting isn't the solution. I have no idea when domino clones will be available, but I know by the time they're here, my woodworking years are closer to being just a few left.

Simon

[jteneyck]

If I had to make a living, I'd buy a Domino yesterday.  But I don't so I don't have one.  And I really don't need one after I built my horizontal router mortiser.  It does everything a Domino can do with a couple of exceptions, like putting a mortise in a middle of a panel.  And my mortiser does several things a Domino can't, like making raised panels, rabbets, sliding dovetails, drilling dowel holes, etc.  Most people here know I make these for sale, too, and for MUCH less than a Domino (or Pantorouter, or FMT) of any size.  

John

[JDuke]

If I had to make a living, I'd buy a Domino yesterday.  But I don't so I don't have one.  And I really don't need one after I built my horizontal router mortiser.  It does everything a Domino can do with a couple of exceptions, like putting a mortise in a middle of a panel.  And my mortiser does several things a Domino can't, like making raised panels, rabbets, sliding dovetails, drilling dowel holes, etc.  Most people here know I make these for sale, too, and for MUCH less than a Domino (or Pantorouter, or FMT) of any size.  

John

None of us hobbiests really “need” most of the tools we have.  I could make do with a benchtop contractor saw, but the sawstop cabinet saw is a pleasure to use in addition to being much faster and easier to get good results with.  I could say the same about many of the tools I have. 

As I mentioned in the original post, I have a nasty habit of trying the cheapest option first only to find myself eventually spending more getting to get high quality tools later on.

[2link2]

If I had to make a living, I'd buy a Domino yesterday.  But I don't so I don't have one.  And I really don't need one after I built my horizontal router mortiser.  It does everything a Domino can do with a couple of exceptions, like putting a mortise in a middle of a panel.  And my mortiser does several things a Domino can't, like making raised panels, rabbets, sliding dovetails, drilling dowel holes, etc.  Most people here know I make these for sale, too, and for MUCH less than a Domino (or Pantorouter, or FMT) of any size.  

John

Hobby woodworker here & new to this forum. I didn't know you sell a mortiser & I'm interested in seeing it possibly buying one. I've been looking at bench top mortising machines but haven't bought one yet. 
Thanks

[lincmercguy]

The Domino is my first green tool as well. Before that, I used biscuits, traditional M&T, and dowels with a couple of jigs. While it's not an absolute necessity, I do like it. I also now have a vac and a track saw from Festool. I'm happy with them. My sanders and router are Bosch, and I don't see selling them to replace with green. The festool hose fits with the Bosch ports on the tools.

[lincmercguy]

"As I mentioned in the original post, I have a nasty habit of trying the cheapest option first only to find myself eventually spending more getting to get high quality tools later on."

My excuse for this is that my woodworking hobby started in college when I didn't have much money.

[Tapper]

Article and video on John's machine.

Mortiser

Doug

P.S. Video doesn't seem to be coming up - John, can you help please? Thx.