marc rosen wrote:

Hello Charlie,
I have been mulling over buying the Domino vs a Trend M&T jig for a
while. I have several routers so the Trend is an obvious choice from
a financial point of view but when I think of multiple slip tenons -
for a set of chairs as an example - the Festool looks like it will win
out in a race against time. From your last paragraph it sounds like
you are using the Trend so please let me know how you'd compare the
two.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...endMTjig1.html

As you'll notice, the TREND MT Jig has a problem with tolerances
- if you're going to do both the mortise and the tenon with it.
Between
the guide diameter and the router bit diameter, if they accumulate
your can get a very loose or very tight fit. For loose tenon work
that's not a problem.

The killer with the TREND is what you have to go through to switch
from cutting mortises in side grain (leg for example) and end
grain (table apron for example). Clamps can get in the way so
you have to take one or more off, then put it/them back on. That
often involves tilting out the pivoting support piece and removing
(and not losing) allen head screws - in a tight space.

Then there's the left/right stops. They slide between the jigs
table top and two guide plates. If the guide plates are set so
there's no mortise thickness slop then the stops are hard to
move in small controlled increments.

Any of the M&T jigs involve a fair amount of set ups and
changing set ups.

Let's take a simple example - a set of table legs and apron
parts. Legs are 1 1/2" square and the aprons are 3/4"
stock. You want the INSIDE face of the aprons flush with
the INSIDE faces of the legs.

+--------------+
| A |
| |
| +---------------
| B | D
+-------+-----+---------------
| C |
| |

If you use leg faces A&B as reference faces for laying
out the mortise and inside faces C&D on the apron part
you may see the set up problem. When you cut the
mortise AD the leg mortise is cut with the leg horizontal,
face B against the back support of the jig, top end to the
right. But when you go to cut the mortise for BC, face A
is against the back support of the jig and the top end
is to the right. That means you have to reset the left/right
stops. That's two set ups to do the legs - AND you better
keep track of the parts orientation or you're screwed.

The process is repeated for the apron mortises so there's
two more set ups and you still better keep track of parts
orientation.

Now if any part that requires horizontal positioning
is wider than about 2 1/2 inches, you have to REMOVE
the pivoting vertical "fence" - a two minute operation
but a) time consuming & a hassle, b) you now have some
allen head screws to keep track of. Lose one and you
make a call to TREND - or scavange one off the unit -
to be put back later.

With the Domino you've got built in left & right reference
pins that are spring loaded so they retract if not needed.
They position the center of the mortise 45 mm (about
1 3/4") from a reference edge or end. There's a pair
of adjustable, retractable, stop pins attachments that
mount on either side of the DOMINO's base that go from
100 mm to 205 mm (about 4" to 8"), with 1 mm lines
to set them pretty close to exactly where you want
them (within 0.04" or a tad over 1/32")

Ah hell - text only is just too limiting. I'll be putting
together some web pages on the DOMINO over the
next week or so - have more Bonsai tables to make
(if you think tools proliferate get into Bonsai). You
really need pictures and diagrams and illustrations
to show all the options this tool provides. These
guys built a boat load of features into what looks
like a biscuit joiner - on steroids and built in presets
for up/down, left/right, in/out etc. They've thought
of things you didn't realize are handy - and even
got the on/off switch right - push foreward to ON
push DOWN on the back of the switch and it pops
to OFF (wish they'd done that on their saber/sabre
saw - I hate to have to take one of my hands of
the tool while it's running in order to turn the damn
thing off).

This is a whole new way of making mortise and tenon
joints - at least furniture scale mortise and tenon joints.
The Stickley / Greene & Greene / A&C folks (with some
bucks to spend) are gonna love the DOMINO

I'll post the url to my take on the tool here when it's
done.

I have read other reviews of the Trend on this newsgroup and the
comments are mixed so I need some more opinions before I make a
decision.

Here's my take on the TREND M&T JIg

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...endMTjig1.html

I built four Bonsai tables with loose tenons using the TREND.
Sixteen M&T joints - 32 mortises per table, in two sizes. The
DOMINO would've done the job in a quarter of the time - or less.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/B...aiStands1.html


If you're not in a big hurry and decide on the TRENT M&T JIg,
I can make you a good deal on my used one. Won't be needing
it anymore.

Thanks in advance,
Marc

No problem.

charlie b