A Domino gives you all of the strength of a dowel type join and also gives you the added bonus of being usable in much smaller joins unlike a biscuit. A Domino joiner is somewhat of a hybrid between two different types of joins; a biscuit join and a more tradition dowel joint. A Festool Domino joiner is extremely expensive and a high quality biscuit joiner can be up to 1/5 the rice of the introductory Festool model.
With the Domino, I have done loose tenon joints in the last piece I made that replaced all standard mortise and tenon joints, plunged slots into the face of the bottom shelf which permitted the shelf to appear as if “Floating”, edge glued boards for the top and shelf with Dominos. In short, all joints in the piece were Domino loose tenon joints. To speak to the original question, for me the Domino is clearly the superior tool for this job.
biscuit joiner vs domino Related Question:
Is a biscuit joiner the same as a domino?
While a biscuit joiner will AT MOST go 1/2″ into each side of the wood, a domino joiner will go almost 3″ into each side (remember, 1/2″ the tenon length goes into each piece). Which means a domino joiner will assist with both alignment AND structural rigidity of the joints.
Is a domino stronger than a biscuit?
The biscuit joiner cutter is shallower than the domino limiting the lateral strength compared to Festool Domino. Biscuits are made from beech wood and have a short grain which is not as strong as a timber with a straight grain which I make my Festool dominos from. The Festool Domino has a greater glue area.
Are biscuit joiners worth it?
Biscuits joints serve best as a quick and easy way to keep glue-up parts in alignment, and that they add appreciable pull-apart to strength joints that would be otherwise too weak to stand on their own – like butt joints and miter joints.
Is the domino joint strong?
Traditional mortise and tenon rated near the top with a breaking strength of 1444 pounds followed very closely by floating tenon at 1396 pounds The bad news is that the domino placed #14 out of 18 at a lowly 597 pounds, just above biscuits at 545 pounds.