Thread: Dado Set Metric or Imperial

I don't think its worth it

The whole idea of a dado stack is that, through the use of blades, chippers and spacers it's infinitely adjustable. I can't see any advantage to a metric blade set, and as for paying more for one, "Tell 'em they're dreamin".

There would be no advantage to you in having a metric dado set rather than an imperial one, except at the minimum and maximum width settings. Outside these two extremes. you should be able to set blades, chippers and shims to achieve any cut width, imperial or metric. But if you need say a 6mm dado and have an imperial set with a minimum 1/4inch (6.35mm) width, your dadoes would be loose. My suggestion would be to make absolutely certain you know what widths you need to produce, and that whatever set you consider can handle that.

Another option if you need to get to a whole number metric dimension just below the minimum that an imperial set would provide would be to have a saw doctor touch up the edges of both outer blades of an imperial set so that they could cut say 5.8mm when side by side without shimming, so could be lightly shimmed to give the required metric sized dado. Whether this was viable or not would depend on how much the chips overhang the outer side of the disks, and would likely be variable between brands, so it would pay to be able to physically examine a set before purchase to establish suitability. By slightly reducing the chip overhang, you would marginally reduce the effective cutting diameter of the outers, so they may not be a perfect match for the chipper diameter, but in my experience they rarely are truly perfectly matched anyway.

A final option for narrow metric dadoes might be to use a pair of finger jointing blades with some shimming between them to spread them to get the exact width required. Again totally dependant on the chip placement relative to the disk, and likely to be variable brand to brand, so you would need to physically see a set before purchase to establish whether this is viable or not.

Originally Posted by malb

There would be no advantage to you in having a metric dado set rather than an imperial one, except at the minimum and maximum width settings.

thanks mal for explanation in that case I will just go an imperial set, now to work out from who lol.

As someone who is looking to buy one soon, I found and saved away the link to the Timbecon metric Dado stack.

Why?

My entire setup has intentionally been done in metric - metric Incra setup, etc etc.

I figure it only takes a few miscalculations from imperial to metric to bugger up enough material to pay for the difference in an imperial versus the metric dado stack.

Just my humble opinion and purchasing intention.

Originally Posted by Midnight Man

As someone who is looking to buy one soon, I found and saved away the link to the Timbecon metric Dado stack.
Why?
My entire setup has intentionally been done in metric - metric Incra setup, etc etc.

I figure it only takes a few miscalculations from imperial to metric to bugger up enough material to pay for the difference in an imperial versus the metric dado stack.

Just my humble opinion and purchasing intention.

Do you have an Ibox Mid?

Originally Posted by WillyInBris

Do you have an Ibox Mid?

No, I bought TS-LS Joinery System (https://www.incra.com/table_saw_fenc...s_joinery.html) for the Saw Stop PCS, and added a router table and lift to the right side.

In my experience of using a dado stack you always have to do some test cuts and adjustments to get a good fit. You can't just build a stack of the appropriate sized components and expect the fit to be perfect, it just doesn't work that way. It effectively makes no difference whether the blades and chippers are a metric or imperial kerf. To pay extra money for a stack of metric kerf blades, not even a premium brand at that, is just plain silly.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Yes you do have to check, but you should be really close and probably on the money from the get go; with the supplied quality stainless steel shims (Timbecon's words).

I too have a complete metric workshop, I don't even have an imperial rule or tape in the place; this would appeal to me but I don't have a saw that can take a dado blade set.

It is a Torquata set of dado blades according to the pictures and their blurb; would they not be of reasonable quality?

Mick.

Originally Posted by Optimark

It is a Torquata set of dado blades according to the pictures and their blurb; would they not be of reasonable quality?

Mick.

Torquata is Timbecon's in-house brand, they put their brand on products that they source from various manufacturers. This blade set will almost certainly be sourced from Taiwan or China. I would expect it to be good quality, but you shouldn't be paying more than the price charged for premium brands, Freud or CMT for instance. You can buy a non-premium 8" (sorry, 203.2mm) dado stack for a bit over $100, the wobble style are even cheaper, so the Torquata set at $299 would seem to me to be particularly poor value. On an Imperial set the main blades and chippers have a kerf of just under 3.2mm each. The fact that adjustments will almost certainly have to be made anyway and the width of of the stack can be measured once installed before you've even turned the saw on means that any grave miscalculation will be detected. The maths isn't that hard.

If you're failing to do a preliminary test cut you'll more likely than not be wasting a lot of your material regardless of whether you're using a Metric or Imperial set.

Midnight Man, I've never understood the point of having a metric Incra fence on a router table unless you have no intention of ever using it to cut dovetails. Because all the cutters available are Imperial the number of joints you can cut with a Metric system are extremely compromised. There's twice as many templates available in Imperial - 51 compared to 26!

Originally Posted by aldav

Midnight Man, I've never understood the point of having a metric Incra fence on a router table unless you have no intention of ever using it to cut dovetails. Because all the cutters available are Imperial the number of joints you can cut with a Metric system are extremely compromised. There's twice as many templates available in Imperial - 51 compared to 26!

Thanks for the input

I did a LOT of research on this before buying, though to be fair, metric dovetail bits were not on my radar - thanks for pointing that out!

In terms of the Imperial vs Metric Incra arguement, I found this post quite enlightening: incra metric vs imperial router fence I am positive I read in another thread that the poster (Graham) was heavily involved in the Incra Metric version development (please don't quote me on that, it's in my memory only).

That said, we digress - the topic at hand is Dado Stacks, and I shall pull my head in now, and keep quiet on other stuff

I wholeheartedly agree with Aldav on this. Whether its imperial or metric they are basically infinitely adjustable whatever you get. It makes no sense to buy a metric set just because you mainly use metric. I have made a board of sample cuts of all the standard widths of timber and tracks eg 12mm, 18mm and noted down the combination of chippers and shims I've used. That's my starting point. I then make a sample cut using the exact timber and adjust from there and thanks to that sample board I often don't need to adjust.
On a side note, if you have a Sawstop then that dado stack from Timbecon would not slow fast enough to avoid injury because of its weight and full plate chippers. Sawstop have a list of recommended stacks and I use one of them (imperial). If you don't you are defeating the purpose of buying an expensive Sawstop. Incidentally I bought a Sawstop from Timbecon and not once did they say their dado stack wasn't suitable. I did question them on that but got a "we'll get back to you" response
If you don't have a Sawstop then buy any good quality stack eg Freud, CMT, Infinity, Forrest whether its imperial or metric.

Thanks everyone so who supplies a good set preferably under the $300 mark as thats what I was looking at spending i have seen them from $100 upwards i aint a snob but also dont want to buy crap either

https://www.woodworksupplies.com.au/...8/1/freud.html

This model is also approved for Sawstop and gets great reviews, however most of the top brands are over $300. eg https://www.carbatec.com.au/search?P...rch=230-524-08
I bought this https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DW7670...s%2C383&sr=8-2 because it was Sawstop approved and had a good price including delivery and really like it but it had to come from USA. Australia doesn't have many at all
Here's another from a place closer to you but have a look at the price. Forrest is one of the best out there.
https://www.gregmach.com/product/for...ing-blade-set/