The Festools DOMINO - The "packages", what's in them and their "Introductory Prices")
Let's start with what you get for how much money and then get to the details.
The basic package will let you do 5 mm thick mortises. You can do side grain and end grain mortises but YOU'RE responsible for keeping the parts where you want them and you have to make your own "dominos". NEVER call the loose tenons "biscuits" - their similar but quite different grooves on the sides for glue squeeze out and they compress a little for a really nice snug fit. You CAN make your own "dominos" if you've got a planer. But a 5 mm thick tenon - that's 0.19 inches thick - pretty thin. OK for small boxes and picture frame sized stuff - but not too good for table apron to leg joints.
With these two "accessories" you get a lot more control of the stock and the location of the mortise. More on them later
This rounds out the whole package - a spare 5 mm bit and the other three the DOMINO can use. With this last addition you can get the machine, come home and start cutting mortises and begin assembling any loose tenon mortise and tenoned piece immediately - with the ease of biscuit joining but the advantages and strength of mortise and tenon joints. If you do Stickley or Greene & Greene or other Arts and Crafts pieces with tons of mortise and tenon joints this is the answer to a dream. If you do chairs this will make some tricky joints a LOT easier to do.
Sticker Shock? Let's put the price tag in a context.
There are many ways to cut mortises - neander them with mallet and chisel, hollow chisel and bit mortising machines in the $250 to $900 range, router jigs from $275 for the TREND M&T Jig to the $800 to pushing $1000 for the Leigh FMT jig - PLUS a router and bits, and the $2,700 "plus" MultiRouter. With that perspective, the DOMINO's $920 "introductory price" isn't really a heart stopper. Might make your heart skip a beat or two though.
"But it looks like a biscuit joiner I can get for about $200. Why is this thing so pricey?"
Well, this definitely ain't no biscuit joiner. At 7 pounds it doesn't FEEL like a biscuit jointer. 400 (or maybeit's 440) watts comes out to over a half a horse power. And as you go over the features it's clear that it ain't a biscuit joiner, or if it is, then it's one on a LOT OF STEROIDS - with some very slick features.