Festool DF 500 Domino

FESTO domino 500 long time user – BEWARE if you are working a machine thats a few years old especially on hardwoods with a large cutter and if no extraction. and a blunt cutter! The vibration may cause the stop locking lever to work loose ,and give you a creeping alignment off the face! i suggest undo the height locking lever with allen key and rotate anti clockwise and re… Read more

tighten,so the lever dosnt bottom out on the alloy frame. KEEP THE CUTTER SHARP. its happend to me useing employers machines if they dont know what to look out for and dont keep the machine in good order,the creep can de so slight can ruin a veneer job,only way out is to either re joint o use epoxy glue .Otherwise great machine "albeit to expensive now been in the market fo decades" update still a great machine BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO MAKE YOURown domino tennons as stock is almost NONE existant in SYDNEY "WHICH IS REALLY BAD!!!

One "Sweet" little TrackSaw! – Most recent acquisition is the TS 55 Track Saw. As with previous Fesstools I have purchased, it meets or exceeds my needs and expectations. It delivers a high degree of repeatable accuracy with a clean cut. Dial-up angles and depth are reliable and ergonomically convenient. Show details ·  1

Great Tool – Fantastic tool, easy to use and solid construction. Love it.

Best purchase to date – The most effective way to cut straight edges wit a saw, clean & Precise and when used with an MFT it is the greatest addition to a workshop on the market Show reply

Best tracksaw bar none – Excellent finish on timber and guaranteed straight cuts. preferred method of breaking down sheet goods and trimming doors. Show details ·  1

Good if complete! – Looks the goods but didn’t come with any cutter tools still mint in box!!

Festool Domino Outstanding for joining timbers – I bought my DF 500 several years ago & have used it many times to accurately join timbers to make strong joints in timber boards. this machine has saved me countless hours, where traditional mortice & tenon joints would have normally been machined. I highly recommend this machine if you need to construct tight fitting, accurate, strong, labour saving joint to your timber projects. Show reply

Much easier – Does exactly what you think it can do and more. Have been looking at buying one for a while but hadn’t had the right project until now. Easy to use, plus plenty of youtube videos explaining how to set it up etc. which I used instead of the instructions it comes with. Also with the domino it opens up other projects you can do with their range of domino kits. Cant wait to finally upgrade our wardrobe cabinetry using this tool. Show details

Game changer – This is the most versatile jointing machine in the market. I have used dowel, pocket screws and biscuits. None of them can do what the DF500 does. Show details ·  1

Perfect Christmas Present – My wife surprised the heck out of me when I opened the Domino on Christmas day, I had hinted that I would like one but had been saving my bickies to get the ts55f first. So when I ordered the saw I added the big box of dominoes to the order. Now if they can only get them back in the country I will be able to put my domino to work ;) Show details

If you're going to make tables or furniture in general....this is a MUST HAVE! – Doing a rather large plate joined table (3m in length) using tassie oak - started with the usual custom template jig for dowel but over that length you're bound to get some offsets making it quite a chore to align/clamp etc. With the DF500,i was able to finish the table top joints in a day where it had taken me a week to do 1/3 of it. I've done… Read more

lots of slab top work in the past so never felt the need to buy it but now I'm looking forward to the next projects!

Screw me – I’m a builder who likes to have all the best tools around and like to play around at home with my own things Was wondering how I could justify buying this tool just because I wanted it and didn’t have a dedicated purpose for it Now I’ve got it What can I say This is an awesome machine, gave it a go the other day Just invested in a crap load of… Read more

tenons and cutters coz I love this thing so much. I don’t get turned on by many tools, but this thing takes the biscuit ; ) Awesome machine I’ve got the big one also just coz I wanted to Haven’t tried it yet, but guessing it will be just as good Highly recommend this if anyone is thinking about getting one

Should have got one 10 years ago – Took a few trials to get to know the tool and the settings. The quality and accuracy of my projects has improved immensely. I now need to get some of the accessories to make life even easier  Show details

Making Joinery Easier – Keen DIYer looking to improve the quality of my finished work, this tool has certainly met all my expectations and more. Easy to learn the basics and start creating better pieces of furniture. Solidly built looking forward to many years of use. Show details

Such an amazing tool! – I'm an avid DIYer - I particularly like making cabinetry. I've lusted after one of these for a while, and recently found myself in the position of being able to get one, and it is nothing short of AMAZING. Sometimes you'll see something, get it and then find there's little things about it that bug you about it.. the Festool Domino DF 500 Q is… Read more

not one of those things - everything about it is made with such precision and thought, and the tool is SO useful.

The loose vs tight fit slot cutting mean you don't have to be super accurate in layout - and with the optional cross stop, it makes doing reliable long edge join super easy anyway. The additional benefit of Dominos is that all but the largest work pieces are self supporting for perpendicular joints during glue-up or screw up (Dominos are of course usually glued in place, but there's no reason you can't use them for alignment only, and supplement them with other mechanical fasteners)

Such a great tool, I just wish I bought it earlier. There's a reason you never see them for sale secondhand - once you have one, you're hooked for life.

TS55 - Nice piece of kit – I bought this to replace a competitors saw as I thought it would be a major improvement. Generally the saw is brilliantly engineered, easy to set up and cuts well, dust extraction from the front of the saw isn't as good as I hoped.

Sublime engineered tool – As a tradesman with over 40 years experience I’ve used most tools for creating joints however the DF 500 tops them all. I’m new to Festool and I can’t believe just how good these tools are. I was so impressed with the 500 that I went out and Immediately purchased the DF700 too which allows me to tackle the bigger jointing projects. I’m now upgrading all my workshop tools from Makita. I’m a convert Show details ·  2

Great product – I purchased the Domino as a home hobbyist and I sell a few items as well. The reason I purchased it was I believed it would save me time as I only have the weekend that I can make noise and get projects cut and then I do my finishing after hours. It is a huge time saver and incredibly accurate. It makes clamping up simple and accurate. I have no… Read more ·  1

regrets about the purchase price as it allows me to get the projects finished without having to wait until the next weekend.

Amazing tool – I bought this tool to replace a mortising jig (Mortise Pal) whose company went out of business and consequently I couldn't find replacement templates for. The main reason was that in a typical chair with 24 mortises, it took ages to do. What used to take me around 2-3 hours to do with a router and mortising jig can now be done in under 1/2 hour… Read more

easily, with less strain on my back too.

One of the main features I like is that there are preset depths stops so there's no chance of going beyond that, unlike using a router where sometimes the depth stop/rod slips. This tool saves a lot of time, but you also need to have some sort of table with bench dog holes in it and clamps to hold work in place whilst you mortise, something that needs to be considered when saving up for one. It does allow you to mortise small pieces with an accessory which is easy to use. Otherwise, the stock isn't held down properly and the mortise widens.

The tolerances are very small (no wobble in the plunge mechanism) leading to accurate mortising. The design has also been well thought out. One plunge rod is longer than the other so when reattaching the motor assembly, it's much easier to do. I've had it for around 8 months and no problems or rust.

One downside is the ergonomics. I'm not sure why don't they didn't opt to use a handle (a bit like the larger XL version). It would have been far easier to handle. Also, the tenons they sell are also only for the narrow width setting. I often need wider tenons which I make myself. (sort of missed an opportunity there). And there's some weird combinations of depths which can be a bit annoying. For example a 10mm tenon @ 50mm long can't be offset (only 2 x 25mm mortises, not one say at 20, other at 30 because there's no 30mm depth stop). I'm not sure why they didn't just go in 5mm increments starting from 10 all the way up to 30mm. I don't really use the paddle stops either (which are 37mm in from each end - not sure what the significance of that is)

I didn't get sucked in (pardon the pun) to using Festool vacuums, being so ridiculously expensive. I ended up buying a Shop Vac Pro from Total Tools and a Universal Dust Port hose from Carbatec, which both use a 2 1/4" connection.

Another thing is that the face being mortised is adjacent to the face that is marked (not the same face). So I ended up buying a saddle square to keep track of which mortises go where.

All in all it's an incredibly accurate tool which saves a huge amount of time in both machining and dust cleanup.