Half inch drawers with dominoes

[JosephThomas]

I bought the 4mm domino bit with the intention of using it to make a bunch of 1/2" thick drawers (butt joints with two 4mm dominos captured between the front/back and sides).  I can't figure out the best way to easily align the domino for both plunges....the dealer also told me there was some video online that explained how best to use the 4mm bit, but I can't find it. 

Anyone done this before, or know of a good link explaining? 

Note: I do not have a domiplate and I'm not waiting to get one shipped here, going to work on this today.

[Barron]

The simplest way is to glue up the sides, then plunge from the outside. The edge of the domino shows, but it does not look bad (at least to me).  

[JosephThomas]

1 hour ago, Barron said:

The simplest way is to glue up the sides, then plunge from the outside. The edge of the domino shows, but it does not look bad (at least to me).  

Yes that's a good point, I did not think of that. I ended up making a little throw away jig that worked out...basically just enough 1/4" ply to offset the base of the domino relative to the workpiece...this one had some blowout but they turned out all right.

 

[wdwerker]

The 4 mm dominos are so small  I switched to using 5/8 Baltic for drawers  . It's actually 15 mm thick so a 5 mm Domino centers up beautifully. I use the 1/2" side of my Domiplate with 2 layers of plastic laminate under it as shims.

5mm x 30 Dominos fit in a 15 mm deep mortice in the ends of the drawer front & back with a 12mm deep mortice plunged into the face of the sides of 5/8 Baltic. Both settings actually go enough deeper to make it work.

[Just Bob]

A couple of days ago I used my dovetail jig to hold the drawer sides.  This is 3/4 ply but the concept should be the same for 1/2. 

Here is the video that helped me.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxnuDLBTXgI

 

[JosephThomas]

The 4 mm dominos are so small  I switched to using 5/8 Baltic for drawers  . It's actually 15 mm thick so a 5 mm Domino centers up beautifully. I use the 1/2" side of my Domiplate with 2 layers of plastic laminate under it as shims.

5mm x 30 Dominos fit in a 15 mm deep mortice in the ends of the drawer front & back with a 12mm deep mortice plunged into the face of the sides of 5/8 Baltic. Both settings actually go enough deeper to make it work.

Yeah I would prefer to do the same, but my lumber yards 5/8 BB is a big jump on price from both 1/2 and even more than 3/4.. Guessing it's a volume thing. These are light duty anyway so I went with the shop birch.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

A couple of days ago I used my dovetail jig to hold the drawer sides.  This is 3/4 ply but the concept should be the same for 1/2. 

Here is the video that helped me. 

 

I saw that video too while looking for ideas. I'll probably do that in the future but I wanted to try it without being able to see the dominos this time.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Just Bob]

42 minutes ago, JosephThomas said:

I'll probably do that in the future but I wanted to try it without being able to see the dominos this time.

Makes sense, these are shop drawers and I didn't care the dominos showed.