Getting the Most Out of the Veritas Domino Joinery Table

Woodworker Charles Mak shows how he made an octagonal frame with his new Domino joinery table

Loose-tenon joinery – executed through a Domino joiner – is the joinery of choice for most of my furniture projects these days. The machine itself is well designed to handle loose-tenon joints using its fence for registration, but it can be difficult or sometimes impossible to register accurately on the workpieces in the following situations.

1. Pieces may be too narrow for the use of the spring stops, which offer repeatable and precise alignment.


2. Narrow pieces, especially miters or angled ones, have small registration surfaces to work with.


3. Moldings or profiled pieces do not have a flat surface for proper registration (Photo 1).

Photo 1 – The Domino fence needs to rest on a flat surface for proper support.

The solution to the above challenges is to use the Domino joiner’s bottom, or the base plate, rather than the fence as the reference tool for the machine. With my Domino machine installed in the Domino joinery table, I can do exactly that, ensuring that the mortise is milled precisely in mating locations on either side of the joint.

The Veritas Domino Joinery Table is supplied with a right-angle guide fence designed to do butt joints and miters. In this article, I will show two ways of cutting angled joints other than at 45° or 90°.

Milling Mortises in Angled Pieces With a Custom-Made Guide Fence

In the first method, to cut mortises at a specific angle, simply make a custom guide fence at the desired angle. In this example, I made a guide fence at 22.5° for an octagonal frame (Photo 2).

Photo 2 – A 3/8" dia. hole is drilled on the custom guide fence with the center point located 1/2" from the base and 1 1/2" from the angle corner for the offset gauge.

The milling procedures for the octagonal pieces are identical to those for cutting mortises in miter joints. After making the necessary reference marks on the first octagonal piece and installing the Domino joiner in the table, simply follow these steps to cut the mating mortises.

1. Clamp the first member piece in place on the table with the hold-down (Photo 3).


2. Slide the custom guide fence against the work, and clamp the fence in place (Photo 4).


3. Cut the mortise on the piece (Photo 5).

Photo 3 – Align the reference mark with the center-line mark on the face of the Domino.

Photo 4 – Ensure the custom-made fence is also tight against the fixed fence before clamping.

Photo 5 – Always use dust extraction when operating the Domino joiner.

4. Replace the mortised piece with the next member, and proceed to cut the mortise.


5. Repeat step #4 until all the pieces are milled.


6. Remove the last piece, and place the offset gauge in the hole in the custom guide fence.


7. Slide the gauge until the cursor registers against the inside surface of the outermost spring stop on the front face of the Domino joiner (Photo 6).


8. Lock the offset gauge’s setting, remove the gauge, and set it aside.


9. Flip the custom guide fence over to the other side of the Domino joiner, and place the offset gauge in the hole in the guide fence.


10. Slide the custom fence/gauge assembly until the cursor is in contact with the inside surface of the outermost spring stop (Photo 7).


11. Clamp the custom fence in place.


12. Proceed to mill the mortises on all the pieces.


13. You can now dry-fit all the members – and see how tight the joints are cut!

Photo 6 – Tighten the thumbscrew to lock the offset gauge setting.

Photo 7 – Remove the offset gauge once the custom fence is clamped in position.

Milling Mortises in Angled Pieces With an Adjustable Guide Fence

If you plan to work on many projects, such as another triangular or hexagonal frame, that call for mortising pieces at different angles, it is worth making an adjustable guide fence like an adjustable drafting square. I made my adjustable fence from scrap wood and hardware (Photo 8).

Photo 8 – Refer to the diagram for the suggested measurements for making an adjustable fence.

To set the adjustable fence to an angle, you can use a protractor or one of the workpieces that have already been cut to the desired angle (at 22.5° in this example) (Photos 9 & 10). Once the adjustable guide fence is mounted in position on the table, the mortising procedures are exactly the same as those described in the previous section using the custom guide fence (Photos 11 & 12).

Photo 9 – Set the guide fence with a protractor and lock the arm on the fence.

Photo 10 – You can also use one of the angled workpieces to set the guide.

Photo 11 – The adjustable guide fence works no differently from the fixed angle fence.

Photo 12 – The hold-down in the center ensures that the work does not move during mortising.

Armed with the supplied right-angle fence and one of the shop-made fence options illustrated here, you can now produce precise mating mortises in a rapid and accurate fashion for any angle of joints in narrow members. Time to go and make some challenging angled joinery, and show off those Domino joints that are supposed to be quite difficult to handle freehand!