New Toy, er tool on the way

[pellcorp]

Hi,

While I am impatiently waiting for postie sometime this week ....

After only a few months of using my MBS 300 12" table saw, I have gotten sick of trying to do dado's with the router and lap joints with a single blade! I splurged and bought the 5/8 arbor extension and a stacked dado set from Northwood tools.

Northwood Tool Company - AZH-6842 8 inch x 42 Tooth Dado Blade set (http://www.toolco.com.au/shopexd.asp?id=1642&bc=no)

Can't wait to give it a go hopefully this weekend. The northwood stacked dado set got good reviews from a couple of you guys including I think Big Shed and Dean.

Anyway, until I actually have them in my possession, talking about it helps ease the pain (of not having it yet!) :q

I am saving myself $70 by making my own zero clearance inserts for the dado set.

Surely I am not the only one who gets really impatient over internet orders.

[Ozkaban]

Nice one! Always fun to ahve a new toy to play with!



Surely I am not the only one who gets really impatient over internet orders.

Tell me about it. I bought just a vicmarc lathe on ebay and had to wait over a week to pick it up. Sheer torture!

Cheers,
Dave

[pellcorp]

The arbor extension has arrived and I installed that already. Very nice design on the MBS300. With a 30mm -> 5/8" bush my freud combo blade runs nice too on this 5/8 arbor.

I have made myself a 16mm MDF zero clearance insert. I found I had to use a strip of hardwood glued to the back to stiffen it. Its an extremely tight fit, but I screwed a large washer on the back anyway so it can't be thrown at me.

I used the same kind of screws that the bought ZCI use - not sure what they are called - the ones with no recognisable screw head, just a allen key slot. Anyway I managed to get it pretty good. I guess I will need to make a few of them for the various sizes of dado blade.

Now just waiting on the blades which left queensland last night.

Cheers
Jason

[pellcorp]

I used the same kind of screws that the bought ZCI use - not sure what they are called - the ones with no recognisable screw head, just a allen key slot.

They are called grub or set screws

Set screw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_screw)

[Dengue]

Just be wary of the blade setup. I got a set of Freud dados from the same company, and I find that a 1/2" dado width setup cuts a width that is actually less than that, and for every setup I have to use shims to get the correct width. This is OK , because often the thickness of ply or or other timber is less than the nominal width. Have a look here (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f153/dado-blade-manufacturing-error-108741/) too

[pellcorp]

Just be wary of the blade setup. I got a set of Freud dados from the same company, and I find that a 1/2" dado width setup cuts a width that is actually less than that, and for every setup I have to use shims to get the correct width. This is OK , because often the thickness of ply or or other timber is less than the nominal width.Have a look here (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f153/dado-blade-manufacturing-error-108741/) too

Thanks for the info, good to reset my expectations to something more reasonable.

The link you gave me was quite interesting, funny the comment about the variable width of MDF too. I have digital calipers and was not expecting 32mm MDF to be closer to 32.5mm when I measured it. Makes using a bit of MDF as a fence stop block a pain :~

[pellcorp]

Dado set finally arrived, now for a friday night full of saw dust :2tsup: Ooh what an exciting life I have! :doh:

[Dengue]

Hi Pellcorp, just a few suggestions.

Make sure you have a good wide and flat push board to press down on the dado to get a uniform depth, and keep your hanbds away from the blades.

I use the wooden floats they use for concrete, and glue a non-slip rubber sheet to it - get both from Bunnies.

During the course of the night , I suggest that you take a 300 x 100 piece of timber, and do a dado for each combination of chiprer and cutters, then measure the width of the dado accurately with a vernier caliper. Mark it on the board - the blades used, and the width - it would be your constant companion in the future.

Have a good night, and be safe.

[pellcorp]

Have a good night, and be safe.

Unfortunately work kept me late, so I could not get into the shed last night. Today sometime hopefully.

[pellcorp]

I am officially scared of my table saw again. I can understand why dado's are something to respect even more than a standard blade. I have managed to do both cross cuts (dado's) and rips (grooves) and the rips especially are quite scary to do. I don't mind the cross cuts as my fingers don't get near the blades, but cutting grooves is an exercise in almost sh***ing my pants :C

For now I am going to stick with the cross cuts for lap joints as that is the main reason I got the dado blade set.

I can't have my splitter installed while I am doing them either which troubles me.

I think I might have to watch some more video's on dado techniques before I venture to do grooves again.

[Dengue]

Get a couple of big wooden floats used for concrete levelling, glue some non-slip rubber underneath, and push the workpiece with them on top. Your hands and fingers are no where near the dado blades. Just push it slowly, as there is a lot of timber to be removed. :wink: Too easy.

The trick with the dado is to keep the workpiece pushed down hard to get the same depth along the groove or the rabbett.

[pellcorp]

Is it me or does this US dado set look very much like the one provided by Northwood that is a northwood manufactured set (as I understood it)

Oshlun 8'' Stack Dado Set - Rockler Woodworking Tools (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=17335&utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=V0738)

130327

Northwood Tool Company - AZH-6842 8 inch x 42 Tooth Dado Blade set (http://www.toolco.com.au/shopexd.asp?id=1642&bc=no)

130326

The sets configuration are slightly different they just look very much alike. The Oshlund has an additional 3/32" for imperial plywood. Does anyone know if we have the same issues here with plywood being undersized? I guess in the case of dado sets the real issue is trying to size an imperial set to a metric measurement! :?

Does anyone know what postage from Rocker for a 7KG dado kit would have been? The set is currently on special at $59.95.

I ended up paying $169.95 ($20 p+h)