Comments on: Loose Tenon Joinery: A budget alternative to the Festool Domino

By: Garry

Garry — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:00:17 +0000

Hi, I love this post! It is a great concept which I must try soon. I have been looking at the festool as a joint purchase with my Dad, but will definitely give this a go first!

Thanks again for a great and detailed post, now I’m off to look at the rest of your site!

Garry (Scotland)

By: Mark (TheCraftsmansPath.com)

Mark (TheCraftsmansPath.com) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:19:33 +0000

John, no experience with Dowelmax. That’s quite a steep price. I would think that you could fashion a very accurate doweling jig similar to Dowelmax with some drill bushings and wood. I just can’t see spending that kind of money on something that can easily be made in the shop.

–Mark

By: John

John — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:30:27 +0000

Any experience withe Dowelmax?
At $310 it”s not cheap” but does an excellent job and the locations of the mortises are reproducible on both the Stiles and Rails.

John

By: Mark (TheCraftsmansPath.com)

Mark (TheCraftsmansPath.com) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:39:19 +0000

Roy,

Thanks for your comment. My best suggestion for cutting the mortises on longer pieces would be to mount the piece to the jig as normal and run the router in along a vertical path. This setup would not be not as stable as the horizontal setup but with light passes it could work.

The other way that would work well is to build up a horizontal router table that holds the router with the bit in a horizontal fashion and you ride the piece on a table feeding it into the bit in small increments.

–Mark

By: Roy Harvey

Roy Harvey — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:02:11 +0000

I saw your jig for loose tenon joinery. I liked the concept. However, I’m curious how to do really long pieces. I recently did a dining table. The aprons were 75 inches long. How could you use your jig on a piece that long? I cut tenons for this with my router where they intersect the legs. Worked okay, but a lot of work. Any ideas?

By: Mark (TheCraftsmansPath.com)

Mark (TheCraftsmansPath.com) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 01:02:32 +0000

Hi Bill,

Thanks for visiting the site and for your comment.

I’ve never used the jig for a compound angle mortise. However, with a bit of modification, I think it could be used.

I would think that if a flat piece of plywood/MDF were added to the font face \and attached with a piano hinge, then the jig could be used for compound mortises. Obviously, you would also meed to incorporate a way to hold that surface at the appropriate angle as well as the piece to be mortised. I think it could definitely work with some forethought.

If you give this a try, let me know and send me a picture of your modifications. Sorry that the Domino did not work for this…maybe Festool should take this as a cue and incorporate this kind of capability into their very expensive tool!

–Mark

By: Bill Neild

Bill Neild — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:45:44 +0000

Mark:

I am in the process of doing my research on building some dining room chairs. I already have the Festool Domino. As you no doubt know, most dining room chair designs have compound angles. The side rail for the seat I am modeling my chair on splays outward toward the front by 8 degrees and is lower at the back where the rear leg is by 2 degrees. The Festool Domino is fine with angle joints, but not so user friendly with compound angles. I may be able to get to where I need to be using wedges to put the workpiece in the right position, but I was wondering whether you have tried to use your jig for compound angles, and if so, how you did it. From what I have seen, the FMT jig appears to be fully capable of handling compound angles but that is at least another $500-$600 by the time the dust settles. Any thoughts?

Bill Neild

By: Festool Domino

Festool Domino — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:46:35 +0000

I was thinking of buying one of these, but was unsure. After reading this, I think I am going to make the leap and purchase – love the site!

By: Mark (TheCraftsmansPath.com)

Mark (TheCraftsmansPath.com) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:03:41 +0000

Terry,

Glad the info helped you!

–Mark

By: Terry Tobel

Terry Tobel — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:37:03 +0000

Mark,

I am a johnny-come-lately but thanks for the info. I was drooling over the Festool but could not justify. You explanation will get me off square one.

Thanks

By: Mark (TheCraftsmansPath.com)

Mark (TheCraftsmansPath.com) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:03:04 +0000

Ray,

Thanks for stopping by the site.

Quite a coincidence! I too do some turning. It’s quite the addiction. I’d be happy to have a conversation with you. I’ll send you a separate e-mail with phone info (I removed your number from the comment posted on the site because I did not think it was good for it to be public).

I also looked at your web site. You do some very nice segmented work. Oh and the Cowboy Hat is exceptional!

–Mark

By: Raymond Lanham

Raymond Lanham — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:50:09 +0000

Mark,
I stumbled upon your website and found a friend! I, too, am in the midst of making a Hal Taylor version of the Maloof Rocker. However, you’re more in the “midst” than am I since I haven’t even purchased the wood yet. I’m still in the “making jigs and purchasing tools” phase of pre-production. I would like to compare notes with you on the phone, if that would be alright. I find that often trying to type my questions is more labor intensive than I would like. Please let me know if I can call and on what number. My cell phone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX. I live in Dallas, Tx. Please take a look at my website. I’m more of a bowl turner then a furniture builder but have been inspired by Sam’s passing to make at least one heirloom to pass on to my progeny.
Ray

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By: Chuck

Chuck — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:00:58 +0000

Your explanation and ideas are great. Thank you.

One small point: in the photo showing the setup for mortising the rail end, it appears unlikely that the sliding clamp has marginal adjustment range to align the mortise center with the line. As shown, it is not aligned. For a vise at the left end of a bench, it might be better to drill the mounting holes for the clamp board on the right-hand side of the center line, allowing for wider rails.

By: The Craftsman’s Path » Q & A: Mortising jig and loose tenons

The Craftsman’s Path » Q & A: Mortising jig and loose tenons — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:14:15 +0000

[...] Loose Tenon Joinery: A budget alternative to the Festool DominoIn search of a smoothing planeQueen Anne Side Table: Leg mortises, knee blocks and postsQueen Anne Side Table: Glue Up and drawer runner assemblyQueen Anne Side Table: Cutting tenons on the aprons [...]

By: Mark (The Craftsman's Path)

Mark (The Craftsman's Path) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:38:17 +0000

R Wood,

Thanks for stopping by the site.

With regard to the Domino, I think that the thing that it gives is flexibility – you can bring a fairly portable tool to the work rather than bringing the work to the tool. To me this flexibility is its biggest asset.

As far as loose tenon joinery vs. traditional mortise and tenon: the advantages to loose tenons are that you can cut very precise mortises in both work pieces and then simply fit an accurately sized tenon to that mortise. The strength is essentially equivalent to a standard mortise and tenon. If you standardize the tenon sizes you can mill up tenon stock ahead of time and have it on hand. Then a loose tenon only has a single machine setup.

Having said all of this, I still use a mix of loose tenon and traditional mortise and tenon joinery in my work.

Please continue to visit by the site and let me know if you have other questions.

–Mark

By: R Wood

R Wood — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:03:01 +0000

Mark,

Just discovered your blog. I think I will spend a few more hours reading all the great material you have here!

One thing I have always wondered is the Domino hype. Other than efficiency, I am not sure what one gets with the Domino. I am also not sure you get out of loose tenon joinery that you don’t get with regular mortise and tenon. TO me, it seems like the processing of making m-t is not that much more difficult.

Would you please share your thoughts?

Thanks