Jeff I always learn something every time you do one of these deep dives! The tips are much appreciated, thank you! Can’t wait for my hexscale to arrive!
Hey Jeff! You're correct, because of the Festool Domino, I'm forced to deal with metric, and measuring mistakes are costly with the Domino. To compound the problem, metric is hard for me to read, even on my Woodpeckers Hex Rulers, due to creeping age and lousy eyesight. So I've finally bought some metric setup blocks, and they make it much easier to mark precise cut points in metric. Thanks again for a super video.
Don't leave us engineers out. Engineering scales are triangular in cross-section, too. They're a great measuring tool to pass down. I use my dad's K&E from the 1940s.
I use my architect ruler all the time. Have one only desk, and another at the shop, for creating and reading drawings. Will get a new red one for shop layouts. Centering rulers rule!
Thank you I am all ways learning so much from your videos. I love Woodpecker products but sometimes not the price. Even though there made in the US they need to figure out a lower price which I know makes less profit for them.
Was there some reason that when you were marking the mating piece you didn't just align the center lines and mark the domino position from the first piece? It take the measuring out of in in case there was a slight measuring error on the first piece and the dominos will still will match up. Love my Domino. JimE
Butt the boards together, draw two lines with a straight edge, and you are done. I think the ruler is a great idea, and I’d like to purchase one, but this example just felt like a hammer in search of a problem.
Butting the boards together in position and marking means you have to do a careful alignment of the two, clamp them in place and mark. Then, those exact pieces have to be fit back together. If you align everything off centers and use a consistent spacing, you can batch process all similar pieces and use the parts interchangeably. It's the Henry Ford approach.
You might be better off using a fixed measurement in some cases. Let's say you're making an apron to fit between two table legs. It needs to be installed the same distance from the ends of each of the legs to keep it exactly level. So it might be best to measure down from the top edge of each leg to locate the dominos. In other words, marking a single joint location would work fine, but if you are straddling a space and need to accurately locate the dominos on both ends of a work piece, measuring might be more accurate. I'm basically a newbie at this woodworking stuff, but from an engineering point of view, measuring seems to make sense. Whaddaya think?
I always cut my first mortices on the exact tenon width Domino setting. For the matching mortices, I dial in the next larger width and cut those. That extra width gives me enough wiggle room to position the two pieces exactly to design when I glue them up. Also, without that extra mortice width I often can't get the dominos out after a dry fit. If they're stuck, a pair of pliers does the trick, but it really scars the domino. I probably would not go to the wider mortice on seat rail to leg joints on a chair because seat joints take so much abuse. In fact, I probably would make chair rail tenons the old-fashioned way to have better control over angled tenons and shoulders.
I believe you're looking at a grain line on the piece where the Dominos are in the end grain. There's no pencil mark at the end of the board, it's back from the edge 3 inches or so. See the marking sequence at about 4:00.
I was hoping to see why this ruler was so special, but I'm sorry I just don't see it. Metal 12" centering rulers are less than $10 if you shop around. As for the Domino, mark where you want them, put the 2 boards together, draw your line across the 2 pieces, and go. If you're doing mass production, there's no way I'd continually remeasure, I'd make something (a block of hardwood?) the proper width and use that over and over (marking on the outside for lines across the seam). Woodpeckers has some interesting and useful stuff, but this doesn't seem like one of them.
Am I missing something ?? The ruler shows that it is 12 inches, but with the metric it is 295 mm!!! I think there is a mistake after 210 mm .. they Put 140 mm instead of 220 mm.
Good eye. That's what happens when you use prototypes to shoot videos. We caught the error and fixed the laser file. It's all fixed for the production run.
@@jefffarris3386 With the production run can you make the inch markings a bit bigger? The inch font looks about the same size as the fraction font and there isn't much definition between inch and fraction marks.
I wouldn't trust my ability to align the two pieces exactly where I want them, which you have to do to mark them together. I can mark a whole stack of pieces laying out from centers, and never worry about getting the same ones matched back to their mating joint.
Or, find the center of any board using your tape measure on the diagonal... move one inch in each direction (or 7/8" if you're really hung on 20mm). No centering rule needed. One tool not 2-3.
Before it was edited out, there was a section of this video where I showed the built in stops and explained that whenever they work, they're the fastest and most accurate way to locate mortises. But, they rarely work when trying to do doubles. Usually the spacing doesn't work, but there's another problem, too. If your stock has any variation in width, and you locate mortises from each edge, your spacing won't be consistent. Laying out from a centerline overcomes that.
