Festool Domino Machine Instruction Manual - page 16
There are only six ways you
can join two pieces of wood
together.
I will refer to the surfaces of a board
as the faces (the wide flat top and
bottom of the board), the edges (the
sides of the board) and the ends.
Boards can be joined:
1) edge-to-edge
2) face-to-face
3) end-to-end
4) edge-to-face
5) end-to-face
6) end-to-edge
Edge-to-edge
is a common op-
eration any time you need a
board wider than the stock you
have on hand. We usually call
that a “glue up” or a “panel
joint.”
Reinforcing and properly align-
ing this edge-to-edge joint is
easy, very fast and very precise
with the Domino machine. Set
the slot width to narrow, the
fence to 90 degrees and the
fence height to half the work
piece edge thickness. Hook the
pin over one end of each piece
to be joined while pressing the
fence down on the face of what
is to be the top or good surface
of the glue up. Turn on the Domino ma-
chine and push the body towards the
work piece until it bottoms out at the de-
sired depth of cut to machine the mortise
slot.
Do that on both boards. Since the spring
loaded pins set the horizontal mortise
center and the fence sets the vertical
mortise slot center, the ends and the
faces of the two boards will be perfectly
aligned. In the photo above you can see
that I mark the end aligned with the
spring loaded pin with an “X” mark. That
mortise is centered 34mm in from the
edge.
I suggest you always work with the
fence on the top or “good” surface of
your work pieces so those faces will
align even if the two work pieces are
not exactly the same thickness.