# home made domino jig



## Pabs (Dec 10, 2008)

ok… so I just finished doing 30 mortise and tenon joints. for the mortises I used a router and a 3/8 straight bit.. worked great for making the holes… 
I made a mortise jig I found on finewoodworking.com. and the results were bang on. 
for the tenons, I also built a jig for the table saw…worked well but I still had to tweak each tenon to fit in the holes…so that was time consuming. and cuttin the actual tenons took more time also to cut than cutting the mortise 
that go me thinking… I have a project where I may need to do over a 100 mortise and tenons (25 + doors) ..so I'm looking at ways of making this painless (well, less painful anyway!)

Festools makes the domino jointing machine

you then buy the biscuits that look more like tenons and the idea is that you create a mortise in both pieces of wood being joined and then you put these biscuits in and join the 2 pieces

really nice system but the price is WAY out there… 800$ for these things…ouch!

so I started thinking that I could simply use my mortise jig I made to create a hole in stile and one in the rail.
then I would simply need to make the "biscuits"... but that should be easy… I can take a piece of stock and plane it down to match the exact size of the hole… then round off the edges (again to math the hole profile).. I can do this for a long piece of stock and then cut some 2 inch biscuits (or whatever length I need).

once I have that it become pretty quick work I would think of joining stock.

can you guys see a disadvantage of going this route? in terms of strength it should not make too much difference I figure.. if I use the all the same material (for the stiles, rails and biscuits) once the glue sets the strength should be the same as thought I would have regular tenons no?


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## Lifesaver2000 (Nov 17, 2009)

There are several threads on loose tenon joinery here on Lumberjocks. One is

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/26631

I'm sure others will chime in here with more information, but you might want to check some other threads for some background. A search for "Loose Tenon" here on the forums will yield a lot of information and opinions. Good Luck!


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## Pabs (Dec 10, 2008)

thanks lifesaver… just read thought it and lots of good info…


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## richgreer (Dec 25, 2009)

It looks like you have already gotten some good information. I will only add that what you are doing with a homemade jig, I am doing with the Mortise Pal jig. You may want to look at the Mortise Pal - not necessarily to buy it - just to see it and how it works. That may give you ideas for improving your own jig.

Also, you might find it appealing to buy some of their templates to use with your own jig. The also sell tenons but it is not hard to make your own.

I'm a big fan of this system. It gives most of the functionality of a the Festool Domino at a fraction of the cost.

As an FYI - I use the Mortise Pal with dowels (using their dowel template) as much as I use it with tenons.


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

Pabs - if you made the jig michael fortune published - that is what I did as well. Can't do any better, especially for add angles in chairs - which is his goal in design
FWW 197
He really is a jig master.


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## Pabs (Dec 10, 2008)

thanks for the tips guys

one thing…the material used for the floating tenon…should that be made of the same material as the pieces being joined or would it be beneficial to use something else? 
would softer wood be better for the tenon? would it swell more when glued to give an even tighter fit??

biscuit joinery for instance is always done with the same biscuits, regardless of the material being joined

the project I have in mind would be from Oak..


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## Domer (Mar 8, 2009)

There is a jig called the Router Wizard that works pretty well for making the mortises. you can use a tenon jig on your table saw to make the loose tenons. You need to attach a plunge router to the jig.

It is available from Eagle Jigs in Kansas City. They have a web site that has some videos on how it works.

Domer


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## Pabs (Dec 10, 2008)

hey Domer…just checked out the Router Wizard… nice little jig, a bit high at 200$ though

it did however give me some great ideas on how to improve my own jig!


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## Pabs (Dec 10, 2008)

here's the link to the Router Wizard demo videos Domer mentioned
eagle jigs demos


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## renners (Apr 9, 2010)

Take a look at this bad boy…

http://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswandel#p/search/0/PDPrFJazD3Q

several LJ's have made bits from this guys plans, there's nothing but the highest praise for this guy


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## Pabs (Dec 10, 2008)

thanks for that link renners.. .that's insane!

it's like Da Vinci decided to take up wood working!


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## Domer (Mar 8, 2009)

The Router Wizard is a little pricey but lots less than the Domino. It will do all of the things a Domino will plus but not just as fast or quite as easy.

I have a Router Wizard that I bought before I bought the Domino so I hardly ever use it but am unwilling to give it up as yet.

Domer


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