![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_2002-800x600.jpeg\")
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Progressing in the discussion of mortise and tenon joinery, it is now time to bring in Domino<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Put simply, it is a way to make a pair of matching mortises into which is placed a manufactured tenon. Properly set up, it gives fast, precise mortising and an accurately fitting tenon. We all know Domino.<\/p>\n I bought a new Domino 500<\/strong> 18 years ago. It can be seen from old posts that I had some difficulty with its accuracy. I had to build in some refinement to make it right.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But why<\/strong> do I not use the fast, easy, clean Domino for everything where a mortise and tenon is needed?<\/p>\n There are three limitations:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 1) Limited tenon length<\/strong>. The largest single tenon with the Domino 500 is 50mm (2″ long and 8 or 10mm thick). There are plenty of places where I want the greater strength of a tenon joint that goes in further than one inch <\/i>(50mm tenon).<\/p>\n 2) I usually want wider<\/i> tenons<\/strong>. I can use two or more Domino tenons and that will give the needed joint strength. Still, sometimes I want a single width tenon.<\/p>\n 3) The Domino is expense<\/strong>. Currently, the 500 is now about $1350. Sure, it is really worth it, but it may be out of range for some folks.<\/p>\n The Domino 700<\/strong>, more expensive, has a capacity for much longer tenons (some longer than I think I would ever need). That will take care of your big constructions. It does not have the handy smallest versions taken care of by the 500.<\/p>\n For most woodworkers, the Domino 500 is probably the more versatile choice, but look at both if you are going to unload the cash. Bottom line: I still think it is worth it.<\/p>\n So now I have gone through two major suggestion categories:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Mortise Master. Low cost, reliable, good range of mortise sizes (and therefore, tenons). More work, dusty. Several alternatives are around.<\/p>\n 2. Domino. High cost, reliable, good but limited range of mortises. Convenient work, great dust collection.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Two other<\/strong> highly versatile machines, which I have no experience with, can also cover your mortise and tenon joinery (along with of other joints): the Woodpeckers Multi-Router and the PantoRouter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And here, I\u2019m afraid that I have to say it:<\/strong> the 4000 year old mortise and tenon is largely history. It is rarely, if ever, needed. There are faster, easier, and strong options.<\/p>\n But what, there are two big categories left to discuss:<\/strong><\/p>\n Dowel joinery<\/p>\n Angled joinery<\/p>\n We\u2019ll get there, and more<\/strong>, in upcoming posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Progressing in the discussion of mortise and tenon joinery, it is now time to bring in Domino.\u00a0 Put simply, it is a way to make a pair of matching mortises into which is placed a manufactured tenon. Properly set up, it gives fast, precise mortising and an accurately fitting tenon. We all know Domino. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-techniques"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8443"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8456,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443\/revisions\/8456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}