few tools generate as much discussion both love and hate as the Fest tool Domino machine anytime one of these makes an appearance in a YouTube video half the audience gets up to change the channel because a lot of folks just can't relate to such an expensive tool that only does one thing mortise and ten and joinery granted that one thing is pretty big mortise and T and joinery is fundamental to good sturdy Woodworking and loose Tenon joinery which is what the Domino creates is far faster and easier than the traditional method of cutting a Tenon on the end of one workpiece and fitting it into a mortise on the other workpiece but you don't need to spend more than $1,000 to create solid Domino style loose Tenon joinery in fact if you already own a router then you can do pretty much the exact same thing that the Domino does for free here's how to do it I've cut some scraps of plywood the larger pieces are about 6 or 8 in by 3 or 4 in in their exact size isn't important but the thin strips in the center are important they are exactly as wide as the bushing you'll need on your router it doesn't matter what size that bushing really is just make the center strips in your jig the same width as the bushings outer diameter next determine the rough length you wish your mortise to be this isn't an exact science just be sure it's shorter in length than the end of the narrowest workpiece that you wish to use the jig on keep in mind as you glue your jig together that the actual mortise that you will cut will be slightly shorter than the slot you just created due to the offset from the bushing surrounding your router bit fight the desire to get out your calculator and figure out that exact offset it doesn't matter because the exact length of your mortise doesn't matter either you don't even have to use the full width of the slot in your jig it just has to be a little bit wider than the widest mortise that you intend to cut next you'll attach a fence to your jig you can devise a way to make it adjustable so The Jig can be used on many different projects but I really just prefer to make a fixed fence that's customized for the project I'm working on because it's not hard to make a new jig down the road if a different project calls for it place the plate you just assembled on top of one of your workpieces and center the hole by I now scribe a pencil line on the underside of The Jig plate along the edge of your workpiece to indicate where your fence must be mounted to hold the jig in that position it is critical that this line be parallel to the mortise if it's a little crooked your mortises will be crooked too and you'll have all sorts of assembly issues the easiest way to ensure that it's right is to use a table saw to cut a shallow curve right over your pencil Line This is accurate because we know the edge of our plate is parallel to the edge of the mored slot and the table saw fence will ensure the curf will be as well now get yourself another scrap of wood raise your table saw blade and skim The Edge leaving a tongue that will fit into the curve it only take a couple of passes slowly raising the blade until the tongue fits perfectly what you've created is a fence that will selfline with the mortise as you attach it to The Jig securing it with glue or screws that's it for The Jig itself now let's cut some mortises lay your work pieces together as they'll be assembled with the show faces up here we're making a door it's a perfect project for this type of joinery draw lines across the center of each joint these lines will help you position in The Jig so use a square to extend them around the edge or end where the mortise will be cut note how we've also drawn a line at the center of the jig's mortise slot this line can be aligned with the central line on your workpiece and The Jig clamped in place it's important that the jigs fence is always placed on the outer show face of the workpiece that's why it didn't matter if the mortise hole was perfectly centered on the edge or end when we made The Jig as long as you always place the fence on that outer show face of every workpiece everything will line up perfectly I recommend an upcut spiral router bit I'll link to the one I use below this video upcut bits will pull the chips up out of the mortise keeping the bit cooler so it'll last much longer however you will still have to take several shallow passes going about A4 inch deeper with each one and if you are cutting a large mortise you may still have issues clearing the chips fully unless you pause and vacuum them out from time to time remember clearing those chips is essential to keeping your bit cool and sharp if you're getting a lot of vibration as you make each pass you may change your tactics instead of moving the router sideways through each cut plunge the bit repeatedly downward to full depth boring a series of holes down the length of the mortise this is my favorite method especially when cutting deep mortises once most of the waste is gone you can clean things up with a final pass across the mortise length at full depth after you cut your first mortise you'll know how wide to cut your loose Tenon stock that's merely a wide strip of wood that's equal in thickness to the diameter of your rotor bit many short loose tenons can then be cross cut from a single piece of long stock you'll notice that the edges of my loose tenant are rounded this was done with a router bit but it's really not necessary because it's not a bad idea to actually cut your Tenon stock narrower than the full length of your mortise this gives you room to adjust the position of the assembled work pieces in case you didn't position your jig perfectly on your center lines or if you just want to make some adjustments during assembly the strength of the joint is in all the glue surface on the faces of the loose tenons it won't be weakened if the Tenon is narrower than the morse's length and if your tenons are narrower than the width of the mortise it doesn't matter if the edges are left Square that's all there is to it Loose ton joinery is easy to make it's super strong and now you know how to do it too try it on your next project now here's something else you really need to see 3M says their cubitron 2 sandpaper is a revolutionary advancement in abrasive technology what makes cubitron Paper different is the grit is made up of ceramic pyramids which slice the fibers of the wood rather than plowing troughs through them like the grain of the tiny rocks that are found on other sandpaper the result is an abrasive that works faster and stays cooler so it lasts longer significantly longer like five or six times longer than the cheap stuff and about twice as long as even other premium sandpapers 3M cubitron 2 destroyed Mira King Spore all the brands that are generally considered to be really good stuff the cubitron genuinely lasts a lot longer I assume it must keep it cooler perhaps it optimizes the way it cuts I I honestly don't
