Festool Domino Machine Instruction Manual - page 36

More work was required to cut the 

dado in the inside of the top most 

frame member to accept the maple 

book matched panels you saw in the 

opening photos.  There also was 

machining to do to hold the drawer 

slides and the bases for the hidden 

casters.

Now we will look at how the top was 

constructed and how the whole pro-

ject came together.

The top is a picture frame with mitered 

corners and interior cross members to 

make the four square openings for 

the book matched top panels.

Mitered corners are not strong 

enough for such an application so 

Domino M&T joints were used to re-

inforce them as shown below left 

and in detail below.

The Domino fence was set to center 

the bit on the 20mm thickness of 

these pieces.  I used an adjustable 

square to establish the length I wanted 

each mortise to be down from the out-

side edge of the 45 degree frame cor-

ner and used that to make a mark on 

both ends of the four frame members.

Pressing the Domino fence down on 

the top face of each frame member 

and the Domino face snugly against 

the 45 degree miter cut on the end of 

the frame pieces, I slid the Domino to 

the point where the bit centerline was 

aligned with my mark and made the 

cut.  As was discussed in the earlier 

section on miter corners, look carefully to 

make sure your mortises do not go