Festool Domino

[Bob D.]

Anyone seen the new Festool Domino tool?

It looks well made like other Festool products but the price is high and I am not seeing a great advantage over using a plunge router with a jig.

I don't plan on buying one, just curious about them. I think I saw a suggested price of $700 :eek: somewhere, maybe in a magazine review.

I could buy two really good routers and still have money left over for a mountain of bits and jigs at that price.

Also, to make your own tenons to use with the Domino you would have to mill them to the 4, 6, or 8 mm thickness of the Festool bits, using a router you can make you tenons any thickness you wish if you have the right bit.

[BadgerDave]

It would probably be very handy and pay for itself in a production type atmosphere but IMO it's way to much in the overkill department for the average woodworker.

[Newman]

It's Festool - therefor it's top notch German quality. Sure you can use a router, but it's not as fast or accurate. If you're using it for production work or even a large project, it will pay for itself just in the amount of time saved...

[PhilG.]

Hmmm, Festool Domino or plain Dewalt biscuit joiner?

Dewalt! - Just til I win the lotto.:D:D

[Bob D.]

I've done some more reading, there are 4 different bit diameters available; 5, 6, 8, & 10mm, -BUT- only the 5mm comes with the tool, so you'll have to spend 27 + 28 + 30 = $87 for the other three cutters.
If you want the Trim Stop and the Cross Stop you'll have to fork out another $90 for the pair. The review in FWW says you will have trouble unless you use a dust extractor (shop vac) with this tool. Performance will suffer w/o it, so you'll need a decent shop vac too if you don't have one. The Dominos themselves are not expensive but certainly more than if you mill them yourself.

All in all as others have said unless you are in a production environment, a full time cabinet builder, or serious home shop you might want to leave this one on the store shelf and continue to work with your plunge router and a mortising jig.

If there was a system like this that came in with a price range near that of a good biscuit joiner then I think it would really take off. I am not knocking the quality of Festool products or the Domino in particular (though FWW did have a part break on their demo unit), I do think for $720 they could give you all four bits though. That might soften the sticker shock a little bit.