First bores...

I took a quick trip down to my local Woodcraft yesterday morning so that the staff there could get there first look at the new Domino XL and I could do some side-by-side comparison with the 500. The staff at the New Castle Woodcraft (http://www.woodcraft.com/stores/store.aspx?id=551) is always super helpful so it was fun to share the new Domino with them!

Mike and crew were impressed with the new tweaks to the Domino. They were particularly impressed with the new paddle/pin design which is a major improvement over the 500.

So I came back home and finally plugged the beast in and started boring...

The first thing I wanted to do was make some sample blocks with the different cutters in their various settings.

I milled some cypress up for my sample blocks.










Thank you Peter Parfitt over in merry olde England for this idea! Here's a link to his reviews - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsyGqi-lR5c

The first thing I noticed was just how effective the dust collection is. I had the XL attached to my CT 26 with the suction set to full. Not a speck of dust left in the sample block mortises. I WAS able to overwhelm the dust extractor when I bored full depth (70mm) mortises with the 14mm cutter.

But as you can see. There really wasn't much dust left in even this mortise.

There's two settings for mortise widths on the new XL.

One designed to fit tightly...

...and one designed to allow for a bit of side-to-side play.

It's quite easy to bore through tenon holes. My sample blocks are 1 7/8" thick and all the cutters were able to fully pierce the block.

(NOTE: I did this with a backer block clamped on and my hand well out of the way!)









I think this ability will be very handy when building something like a set of traditional raised panels to line someone's library or study. Basically anywhere you have raised panels side by side and you have multiple rails sharing a stile.


More soon...