Festool Domino DF500 vs DF700 Joiner Model Comparison

the Festool Domino is a revolutionary machine but which one makes sense in your shop the DF 500 or the XL DF 700 let's take a closer look and find out before we get into details let me give you my conclusion I believe that for the majority of shops the DF 500 is going to meet all your needs the reason I say this is because it can handle projects that are small from small boxes up to household furniture tables chairs chess all those kinds of projects if you typically deal in three quarter sheet Goods four quarter material up to a quarter thick stock the DF 500 is going to meet all of those needs now I'm not saying there's not a place for the DF 700 there absolutely is so let's dive into the details and see which machine makes sense for you a quick recap on the Festool Domino is that creates mortises for a floating tenon joint now floating tenon joint is a very traditional joint it's just we're going to cut it a lot faster and more accurately using this tool a floating tenon joint has two mortises in the pieces of wood that you're joining and has a floating tenon glued between that those mortises to create the joint in this case we're going to call that ten and a domino now you can buy premade dominoes to stick in that joint or you can make your own in your shop the biggest difference between these two tools in front of me is the size of the cutter or the thickness of those mortises that creates so let's go ahead and take a look at that first the DF 500 can use the following cutter sizes small four millimeter five millimeter six millimeter eight millimeter and I have installed a ten millimeter the DF 700 can use an 8 millimeter and 10 millimeter I've got installed a 12 millimeter and goes up to a massive 14 millimeter cutter now these cutter ranges obviously relate to the thickness of the Domino or floating tenon that can be used in the joint for a typical joint holding two pieces of wood together you want that mortise and associated floating tenant or Domino to be about 1/3 of the thickness of the material that you're cutting so for 3/4 inch material you generally want to use that 8 millimeter cutter now both the DF 500 and the DF 700 have eight and ten millimeter cutters so you can handle that 3/4 or 1 inch types of material however if you go down in thickness to half-inch material for panels drawer side smaller boxes the DF 500 can handle that with these smaller ranges of cutters obviously going the other way up to 1/4 material and slabs of wood jointiy thick pieces the DF 700 will excel at those projects once you make the mortises using the DF 500 or the 700 of course you're going to use a domino that exactly fits that same size so the range we have here for the DF 500 starts down at a very small 4 millimeter thickness 5 millimeter 6 millimeter 8 millimeter and 10 millimeter for the DF 700 you have the same tenant 8 and 10 millimeter 12 millimeter up to a massive 14 millimeter thick tenon the next big difference between these two machines is not just the thickness but the depth of cut or how deep mortise you can make with the DF 500 it's almost an inch and a quarter so the bit comes out almost an inch and a quarter for making that deep of a mortise into each each piece that you're joining the DF 700 by contrast comes out a massive two and three-quarter inches so you can get a really deep cut leaving a lot of glue surface for a really strong joint so therefore with the DF 500 you get Tenon's that go up almost an inch and a quarter into each piece of wood for that joint whereas for the 700 you can get a 5 inch long tenon across that joint one application I want to bring up at this point is alignment of panels whether it's edge gluing sheet goods or solid woods it's a typical operation in the shop for making larger panels from smaller widths of wood to help with the alignment you can use Domino's to avoid having to place calls above and below to keep the pieces flat across the joint the DF 500 is going to excel at this since you'll tip want to use smaller dominoes in that operation another factor to consider between these two machines is the size and handling the DF 500 is around seven pounds and you can see it's quite a bit smaller than the XL 700 I find it extremely easy to pick up to move around use around the shop holding it here by the back it's very easy the XL 700 it's just that a little bit bigger it comes in at just over 11 pounds so four pounds heavier than the 500 and overall it's just a bigger machine for handling storing comes in a larger sustainer for storing in your shop and moving around however I will say the plunge mechanism on both of these is extremely smooth I was especially impressed with this 700 with even with the bit spinning very smooth to plunge it in and make a mortise which makes it really easy to make very accurate cuts with both of these machines so overall you can see that the 500 is just that a little bit easier for moving around as compared to the 700 of course cost is always a factor and the DF 500 is cheaper than the 700 it's about 30% cheaper than the larger machine so that's obviously something important to consider when deciding which tool is right for your shop a couple other notes about these two machines there is an overlap at the 8 millimeter and 10 millimeter cutters so both sizes of cutters can be used in these two machines so that thickness of Domino can be used with either machine however remember that there's a massive difference in the plunge or depth of cut with the 700 so you're going to get a lot more glue surface even at the 8 and 10 millimeter thickness of Domino leading to a much stronger joint another factor with the DF 500 in thicker materials like an eighth quarter type of material is that you can create very strong joints by stacking dominoes so you make multiple mortises across a single joint using multiple tenants across that joint and create a very strong joint even in thicker materials now you won't get as near a depth of cut or plunging nearly as deep as the 700 but even that larger material you can still use 500 by stacking dominoes so which one is right for your shop only you can make that decision I think the DF 500 makes sense in a lot of shops working in three-quarter material one inch up to eight quarter thick materials making regular household size furniture if you deal with big slabs of wood making large conference tables or using big timbers and woodworking projects the DF 700 is super awesome of course you can always find more information about these two machines at Highland woodworking comm if you have any questions or want to add to the discussion leave a comment and always feel free to drop us a line let us know which machine belongs in your shop

Channel: Highland Woodworking

Views: 73,000

Rating: 4.8834357 out of 5

Keywords: Festool Domino, DF500 versus XL DF700, Domino Comparison, Handheld Power Mortiser

Id: uYgZLn_EZHI

Length: 7min 29sec (449 seconds)

Published: Tue May 24 2016