not sure why I bought a domino

Great video amd i like the way you have sort to use a methodology to provide your advice. Brilliant and i wish we had more of this type of video.

I would not consider a domino as a jointing tool, rather more of an alignment tool especially for panels.
Now, if time is so important, then strength is not your goal.
Every joinery has its reason and not all things are equal.
So the only thing this nice video proves, is that biscuits are not for joinery, they are for alignment/leveling of flat surfaces.

My daughter wanted to sell lemonade at our garage sale. We didn't have a table, but I had some scrap 2bys and some plywood. The Kreg K2 pocket hole jig was...'So easy, even a 6 year old could use it!" So we put together a table, pocket-jointing skirts to legs, even made a Lucy Van Pelt style sign above the table. Didn't glue a thing. The table lasted until we ran out of room and I disassembled it. and used the wood for her playhouse.
.
I also built a dog house using pocket screws. It held up well enough until an 8" dia tree branch fell on it, and then it went SPLAT! but I honestly don't think pinned mortise and tenon joints would have held either.

Seemed to me that the timber failed with the biscuit joint, not the joint

so, all dowel jigs under 450 bucks are junk, eh? glad you are helping the average guy get the tools that work.

Thank You Scott, this was extremely helpful. Hope to see more product reviews from you - got the DowellMax as my first ever choice in joinery.

It doesn't really matter if one method is stronger than the other. What matters is if the method you are using is strong enough for that application. People concentrate on absolutes too often.

In my experience biscuits are much faster than pocket screws. I can usually do a butt joint like pictured here in under 20 seconds, not sure why you were closer to a minute and a half. Biscuits are perfect for shelf nosing, miters in door/window casing, cabinetry etc. Domino is better for furniture applications in my opinion, but could be used for the same applications I mentioned. Maybe one day I'll get a domino, but for now biscuits are my go to. I'm a finish carpenter, not a furniture maker though.

As a hobbyists, a dowel scribe is the cheapest option for me :-)

Mhh as someone who either has self made furniture or 200+year old furniture at home, I disagree with that. Still have a lot of old stuff from my grandparents.

The biscuit didn't break the wood around it did 😔

Cheap ass dowels it is.

Bought a Festool domino machine ( very expensive ), returned it a week later, not a needed power tool at all,,, pocket screws and dowels are quite sufficient done properly

Buy the grizzly dual dowel maker. It’s $129.

It’s also manufactured… good enough. So, simple fix. Take one of the dowel bits out making it a single dowel plunging machine. Now you have something that is 90% festool domino.

Super fast. Super easy. And super cheap.

All in, all three bit sizes. Plus the unit. It’s like $220. On sale. It’s cheaper.

But it works super well and super fast.

a great scenario for me would be to sell my Leigh super jig 18, my Dowelmax system that does not include the half inch jig and my Kreg Pocket hole system and buy the Festool Domino for a dust free situation my lungs, my throat and sinuses do appreciate.

I found a way to turn a pocket hole into a dowel joint. I wonder if you are willing to do a testing on that type of joint too.

It would have been interesting to throw a traditional mortise and tenon joint in. I'd guest cheapest, strongest, and slowest. I've never been happy with dowels, but maybe because I've never had a good alignment jig. Biscuits are ok, and I like pocket hole screws for quick and dirty, but I just got a Festool domino and am thrilled with it. I had a project that was going to do traditional mortise and tenon on, but really didn't want to spend the time for the 28 joints,, and wow, the Domino was awesome.

Excellent video Scott. Thank you.

"only about a 100 dollars"

For 100 year furniture, I like to use way too many screws, too much glue, and make it so goddamn heavy nobody can move it.

Great post. I still use biscuits for panel glue ups, but I use a biscuit slot cutter on my router, makes good time when doing more production work. I will add dowels to the quiver

So what did we Learn:

Biscuits belong in the kitchen with warm butter and jelly or jam.

Biscuits are straight trash.

I have never found a situation where a joint could be done faster, cheaper, stronger than a pocket joint.

I'm a carpenter. I"ve got some 1820 furniture that is in excellent condition. The drawers were put together with exposed dowels (back then they called them pegs). They are SO tight it is amazing. I've only been the owner of 2 of these pieces for about 40 or 50 years. But,..the curious thing about them. The dowels are not put in straight. They are at a very slight angle. I assume the angle has to do with why they have not degraded over time. I can't tell you the number of fine drawers on antique furniture with dovetailed drawer joints...THESE DOVETAIL DRAWER JOINTS ARE LOOSE AS HELL.. But holding together just fine. So the difference between these two old methods is that the dowels (pegs) are rock solid after over 200 years. One thing to remember. If you want your dowels at a slight angle, you cannot have concealed dowels. Also, You use fairly long dowels... we usually but 3 foot long pieces and just cut them down.

How to totally miss the point of biscuits. If they are a sloppy fit they are not good quality.

No mortise tenon? I'm disappointed

I purchased a full Jessum kit 3 different size dowels. The reason I chose the Jessum is the versatility of its application. I did not have a domino at the time or I might have purchased the dowel Max. They are both great jigs. I use all of these methods in my shop. I build cabinets , built ins and do millwork. Thank you for your excellent content Scott.

My kitchen table top is 60" round made with 2x8 dimensional lumber, biscuits, and glue. 10 years later of being abused and still solid as a rock.

I love my domino joiner, but one nice thing about pocket holes, is you can easily add things after the fact. For example, I recently built some cabinets with dominos and decided after gluing them up that I wanted an extra stretcher to one of them. I pocket holes make the most sense in that specific example

As a professional joiner i have used tens of thousands of biscuits in many different situations, never yet had one fail me. Once you have any joinery with rebates and mouldings and probably staggered shoulders, or just something needing real strength, you can't beat a wedged mortice and tenon.

Great video and very ingenious test setup with regular household items.

Good video but flawed on joint strength as the biscuit joint held but the wood split !!!!

Biscuits are strong enough until glue dries.

Yes but you can also eat the biscuits while working, tasty. 😅

We need to see the bottle jack test with a mortise & tenon joint in 16/4 hickory! 😂

My go to is to cut 1/4 inch slots 1/4 inch deep in each piece with a router and use 1/2 inch wide 1/4 inch hardboard spines. Pretty strong flexible and cheap. Speed probably a little faster than dowels.

You're comparing apples and oranges. Useless video.

I have two dowelmax jigs and that works well for me.

Nobody needs furnitures that can survive nuclear war

Buy Lamello biscuits. I’ve never had a loose one like you showed. Maybe it’s also your machine. I have a Lamello joiner. The results are always perfect.

Yes! I want my grandparents furniture!

Did I want my grandparents' mid century modern furniture? Are you kidding me? Absolutely, I did. Maybe my grandparents just had better style than most.

I have used a Porter-Cable biscuit jointer for years. Built cabinets, table tops, and lots of other things. Never had anything come apart or the joint to fail. Used dowels when I wanted more strength, and they worked fine. Mostly use machines, but try to do handwork when in the mood. Think people tend to get overly excited about the next new thing to come along. Folks have been making wood products for eons using whatever style that worked for them or whatever they had. Don't think how it is done is as important as just doing it.