Festool Domino Machine Instruction Manual - page 74

Here is a shot of the maple top plate slid-

ing onto the Domino tenons near the 

top of the leg.  I used pocket hole 

screws to hold the maple top plate to 

the leg instead of glue so I can take 

this assembly apart later if I ever 

need to.  It also allows the customer 

to take it apart to move the table 

without the legs in place if they want  

to.  However, pocket hole screws 

alone are not very strong in a bend-

ing force such as this joint will have 

to endure.  That is where the ex-

treme strength of the Domino tenons 

add the necessary structural sup-

port, and make possible a moving 

leg butterfly leaf table.

Before we move on we have to re-

member that the maple top plate itself is 

a piece of solid wood, so we need to ac-

commodate it’s natural wide grain move-

ment as well.

This is easily 

done with a 

neat Domino 

“trick.”  Drill the 

through holes to 

be larger than 

the diameter of 

the attachment 

screws.  Center 

a Domino mor-

tise about 5mm 

to 10mm deep 

on those at-

tachment holes 

as shown here.  

If the maple top 

plate wide grain 

moves relative 

to the long grain 

of the torsion 

box fillers, it can 

slide in the over-

sized hole with the washer head of the 

attachment screw riding on the shoulder 

left at the bottom of the Domino mortise.

Keep this “trick” in mind any time you 

need to accommodate the movement of 

solid woods on surfaces which don’t 

show.  It is fast, easy, and very effective.