Serious question, do you really need a domino machine for face frames?

Everyone at my local woodworking club in Akron keeps pushing the Domino like it's the only way to join face frames, but I built 14 cabinets last year with pocket screws and glue and not one call back. Last spring I helped a guy redo his kitchen in Cuyahoga Falls and he had a whole shelf of Festool stuff, the frames still lined up fine with my old Kreg jig. Seems like half the guys buying these $1,200 machines never actually tested if their work got better. What joint are you all actually running on your face frames?

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josephbailey10h ago

Watched a guy at the Akron club meeting last month spend 20 minutes dialing in his Domino to cut mortises for a face frame, and my old Kreg jig had that frame glued and screwed before he finished setting his fence. Reminded me of when I switched from a handsaw to a circular saw years back, the saw didn't make me a better carpenter, it just made me faster at the same mistakes. Pocket screws and glue have held up on every cabinet I've built, and nobody's ever called me back to fix a sagging frame. The Domino is a sweet tool for sure, but people act like it fixes bad measuring and sloppy clamping, and it doesn't. Half the guys pushing it on you probably never ran a side by side test on their own work. Use what gets you square frames and solid joints, and stop letting the tool aisle tell you what your shop needs.

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