Thread: Dado Sets

Originally Posted by echnidna

Why on earth do so many forum members buy dado sets.
Or is it confined to the BMW brigade who thinks woodies gotta have fancy toys?

I regard dado cutters as high priced dangerous accessories

Its not hard to knock a clean dado out with a nice sharp chisel or a router.

G'day Echidna!

Couldn't agree more! Also, it's hard to find Dado sets to fit a one inch arbor

Cheers!

Originally Posted by echnidna

Why on earth do so many forum members buy dado sets.
Or is it confined to the BMW brigade who thinks woodies gotta have fancy toys?

I regard dado cutters as high priced dangerous accessories

Its not hard to knock a clean dado out with a nice sharp chisel or a router.

Echidna,
I have found my dado set very useful and I would not want to be without it. If you are making a chest of drawers, it is far quicker, easier, and less messy to cut the dadoes in the sides of the carcass with a dado set and crosscut sled than with a router. It is also much easier to achieve a dado of a non-standard width (say 18 mm for plywood) using a dado set than it is by routing with a smaller cutter and making two passes.

I also cut tenons by putting a spacer between the outer blades instead of the chipper blades, and using a tenoning jig. Once you have determined what shims you need to use with your spacer, it is easy to produce tenons in a single pass, that are exactly the right thickness to fit snugly into a routed mortice, without the need to adjust the tenon cheeks with a chisel or shoulder plane. I have spacers with which I can reliably produce 1/4", 5/16", 3/8" and 1/2" thick tenons with my dado set.

The third joint for which the dado set excels is the box joint. It is far easier to produce well fitting box joints of any specified size with a dado set and a box-joint jig (see Best of the Best for one of these), than by routing them.

As for danger, I cannot see that a dado set is any more (or less) dangerous than a regular table-saw blade.

Rocker

Echidna,
I have found my dado set very useful and I would not want to be without it. If you are making a chest of drawers, it is far quicker, easier, and less messy to cut the dadoes in the sides of the carcass with a dado set and crosscut sled than with a router. It is also much easier to achieve a dado of a non-standard width (say 18 mm for plywood) using a dado set than it is by routing with a smaller cutter and making two passes.

I also cut tenons by putting a spacer between the outer blades instead of the chipper blades, and using a tenoning jig. Once you have determined what shims you need to use with your spacer, it is easy to produce tenons in a single pass, that are exactly the right thickness to fit snugly into a routed mortice, without the need to adjust the tenon cheeks with a chisel or shoulder plane. I have spacers with which I can reliably produce 1/4", 5/16", 3/8" and 1/2" thick tenons with my dado set.

The third joint for which the dado set excels is the box joint. It is far easier to produce well fitting box joints of any specified size with a dado set and a box-joint jig (see Best of the Best for one of these), than by routing them.

As for danger, I cannot see that a dado set is any more (or less) dangerous than a regular table-saw blade.

Wongo

Sorry

Ditto the previous two posts!

Originally Posted by echnidna

Why on earth do so many forum members buy dado sets.
Or is it confined to the BMW brigade who thinks woodies gotta have fancy toys?

I regard dado cutters as high priced dangerous accessories

Its not hard to knock a clean dado out with a nice sharp chisel or a router.

You've made two statements against dado blades without particularly saying why you made them, or whether you were talking about a specific type i.e. wobblers.

From my point of view, I have limited time in the shop and can make a dado or plough much faster with a dado set than by hand or with a router. So, for the time it saves me it easily pays for itself - so I don't buy the "high priced" argument. e.g. Last weekend making the bessey racks I probably saved two hours using the dado blade.

In regard to safety, the main risk is with a kickback; stand out of the way and it should not be a cause for worry. You are unlikely to get cut as the blades are mostly buried in the cut and not exposed. So long as you use a push stick and remember the blade will reappear as it comes through you shouldn't get cut.

With regard to the "BMW brigade" comment, out of interest, what do you spend your money on: cars (worse - 4WDs), smoking, grog, HiFi equipment, home theatre, dining out? At what point do we become a BMW brigade person? If I use a LN instead of a Stanley? What about a LV tool, that's fancier than an old Falcon plane. If I ditch my tablesaw and go back to handsaws - is a Panther's Head out of the question, or should I drag out the froe? Please draw the line clearly, I wouldn't want to be seen as a "BMW brigade" member .

Rocker, Wongo,

Now that you have justified that a Dado set is a good thing and why we all need them. What brand/type/size of dado sets do you use. Also how much were they? Sounds like I need a set for Xmas to fill my lack of a BMW urge.

I drive a Merc.


P.S. but I dont have a dado set or even a table saw.

I find its another invaluable tool that you'll find once you've got use to having it you'll wonder what you did without it!

GL, I have a Freud 8"dial'a'width dado set(no shims needed,US$250), does flat bottomed cuts with a very smooth almost polished finish... but they cant be used for cutting both sides of a tennon with a spacer.
Theres quite a few joints that benifit with the speed from a dado set, half laps are simlpe and super fast... they take only a few seconds to make, cut a 15X20mm rebate 2000mm long in 20 seconds flat with a single pass... it'll take about 4-5 passes with a router.
And the safety aspect... "Is in the eye of the beholder" common sense will always prevail

Originally Posted by GregLee

Rocker, Wongo,

Now that you have justified that a Dado set is a good thing and why we all need them. What brand/type/size of dado sets do you use. Also how much were they? Sounds like I need a set for Xmas to fill my lack of a BMW urge.

Greg,

I have an 8" Jesada dado set, which cost about $250, I think. But I believe Jesada no longer trade in Australia. I find the tenoning function very useful; but you might be a bit limited as to the length of tenon you would be able to cut with a 6" dado set. For the same reason I would avoid the Freud no-shim set. Dado sets were reviewed in FW #176. The best overall 8" set was the Freud SD 508 (US$200) and the best value was the Infinity Dadonator (US$180).

Rocker

Originally Posted by echnidna

Or is it confined to the BMW brigade who thinks woodies gotta have fancy toys?

Got the dado set, now where can I sign up for a BMW, gotta love the german precision involved, sorta like a well setup dado system, & I can see Bobs' analogy and agree, if one lusts after well made precise equipment why the heck not?

Bob some like model Tees and even old blitzs' are restored, me I appreciate them, check them out ohh and ahh over them, even admire those who have chosen that tangent, but drive one no thanks not again.

Harry72, does the Freud fit all saws or is there only a few that it will go onto. I remember reading somewhere that it needs a long arbour do you know if that's correct.

Marty

As a dyed in the wool member of the BMW set, I'm happy to welcome anyone on board who has a dado set as well into my personal and oh so rarified circle.

Like BMW owners, Dado Blade owners know that there are some things that other people just won't understand, things like precision, ease of operation and the ability to repeat tasks endlessly without effort.

Yes, there are other ways of getting there, they take longer, aren't as much fun, mostly not as efficient either, but after all they are only there to get you from point A to B, aren't they.

Pictures show:
1) my (wife's) BMW
2) part of our screen fencing (LHS of pic) 35mm square lattice, 3,500 checks; perhaps a radial arm or SCMS with a trenching head would have been more efficient, but they'd be for the Ferrari set I guess.
3) my downdraft grid. Yep, I could have used a router, but then I would have needed to mill my timber to match a standard bit size..... where's the fun in that?

So Bob, how DO you adjust the width of your router cut by a few thou?

Cheers,

P (more than 1,000,000 k's in BMW's but who's counting?)

Hey Groggy!
Thanks!! No the Downdraft table isn't in the kitchen, but you can choose from the following options

a) I'm BMW driving, Dado Blade owning tosser who must be seen to have the absolute best and most expensive of everything even if that includes custom laminated workbenches.

b) I'm the king of the scroungers and couldn't let about 20 metres of laminated bench top go to the tip! The Timber grid is made from bits recovered from an old tile pallet.

If you picked b) you should also guess that I swapped 14 metres of it for all the white melamine drawers and cupboards in the workshop as well!

Cheers,

P (but I'd prefer you all thought of me as an a) )

Originally Posted by bitingmidge

b) I'm the king of the scroungers and couldn't let about 20 metres of laminated bench top go to the tip! The Timber grid is made from bits recovered from an old tile pallet.

If you picked b) you should also guess that I swapped 14 metres of it for all the white melamine drawers and cupboards in the workshop as well!

Ya lucky basket - nice score! I saw a kitchen on the side of the road last month and practiced my emergency stop (with 3 other cars). Closer inspection showed the nong had removed it with a sledge. Bulging and cracks in just about every surface and the drawers had been wracked out of true by a pry bar.