A Domino Slot Template.

Using Festool's Domino floating tenons is usually an expensive upgrade for hobby woodworkers.  The machine to cut the slots can cost over $1000, and the tenons themselves are more costly than traditional dowels made for joining wood parts. 

There are other less expensive sources for the floating tenons.  Attempts have been made to build simpler machines that duplicate the slot cutting action of the Domino machine.

I design and build furniture, and have found that floating tenons come in handy for connecting parts.  I can't justify the cost of a Domino machine, but I do have a small CNC and with it I can make the slots for ready made tenons on most furniture parts.  For joining long boards together I've designed a simple template that can be used with a handheld plunge router using a template bushing. 

A Domino Slot Template

This template could be made using a router table.  I drew up the template for cutting out with my small CNC.  The slots in the sides are for screws that would hold wood guide strips.  The guide strips can be adjusted to center or offset the slot that will be cut by the template. The template can be clamped to the edge of your board to stay in place when being used.  

A 5/8" diameter bushing in a plunge router base used with a 3/16"d spiral upcut router bit is all that is needed to make perfect sized slots for commercial Domino brand tenons or alternatives.  Some plunge bases for routers come with a dust collector shroud to suck away the chips as the slot is being cut. 

Plunge Router with Template Bushing

  This template is for 6mm x 20mm tenons. 40mm length. 

Slot has been Cut

You could make templates for each available size of tenon. All that needs changing is the size of the center hole. With floating tenons available in large quantity packs each size template would get plenty of use. The guide strips could be removed and used on whatever template plate is needed. A stack of different template plates would cost far less than the cheapest Domino machine you can find out there. 

A Good Fit

Once the template has been set up for the material, making several slots along the edge is relatively easy.  It just requires undoing the clamps, sliding the template to new position, then clamping it in place. Modifying the template for thicker or thinner material takes no longer to do than adjusting the fence of a Domino machine for the same job.

It is also easy to change the slot hole so you can use 5mm or 6mm bits to make the tenon slots.

For metric bits

If you use Vectric.com's VCarve or Aspire a files for these templates can be found on their forum HERE. 

Comments and Questions are encouraged!

4D