I’ve been researching a little on dados and it appears that Forest has a great blade, but so is the price (about $240-269). Any opinions out there on other less expensive dados? After reading all the reviews in so many sources, I’m left wondering what direction to take. I’d also like to stay away from a wobble blade based on what I’ve researched. I plan on using it a moderate amount and am wondering if investing in the top end is worth it. Any brief thoughts would be appreciated.
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Replies
Definitely stay away from the wobble sets. Freud makes an excellent dado set, and you can get the Dial-a-Width (true stacked dado set with a dial) for less than you would pay for the Forrest. I think the regular Safety Dado 6" runs around $170-$180.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
How many dadoes are you going to cut? If you're doing woodworking for a living, get the best blades you can afford. I had a one-time need for a dado set - - building our own kitchen cabinets. Got the $40.00 Chinese set from Lowe's (I think, maybe HD). Got lucky, got a set with round blades that didn't vibrate. Made the cabinets and the dado set is in a box in the shop - - somewhere :-) I normally use a router with a straight edge for cutting a dado or rabbets.
Good feedback. It makes sense to get the best if one will use them often. I don't plan to use them too much; will go the router way most of the time.
That was my dad's advice, my hand tools are the best, my machinery is whatever will get the job done ;-)
I second (loudly) the advice on skipping the wobble dado blades. (see the link below)
I have reviews of both the Freud Dial-A-Width dado and the Infinity "Dadonator" in the Tool Reviews section of my site also. both get high marks from woodworkers. While both are not free, they are a one-time investment that make your dado life much easier and your projects much better. I think this is an area that is worthy of spending a little extra cash to get right the first time.
http://www.newwoodworker.com/reviews/wobbledado.html
Tom Hintz
Because there is always more to learn!
If you want the best go with Forrest.
C.
Consider the Infinity Dadonator at $180. I do not have a Dadonator but it has received good reviews in Wood Magazine and FW. I have some Infinity shaper cutters and they cut very nice.
http://www.newwoodworker.com/reviews/wobbledado.html
http://www.onlinetoolreviews.com/reviews/infinitydadonator.htm
Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans .
Edited 9/21/2006 12:38 pm ET by JerryPacMan
Hi All,New guy on board.I second the recommendation of the Dadonator.I have one, its awesome.regards,wyo
I have a number of the infinity router bits and like them a lot. I have a Freud stack set that is 15 years old and I like that a lot, but if I were buying today I would buy the Infinity.
" There'll be no living with her now" - Captain Jack Sparrow
Festool equipment is first class whether or not you like the messengers who proclaim it to be so.
You simply can't go wrong with anything they make.
You wrote, "Festool equipment is first class whether or not you like the messengers who proclaim it to be so."
I find it interesting that we have to inform Knots members how to separate the tools from the customers who buy the tools!
Edited 10/6/2006 11:16 am ET by MatthewSchenker
A mystery that will never be solved.
I've been really happy with the DeWalt DW7670. It has 24T cutters, and 4T chippers, and will leave a cleaner cut than those with 12T cutters/2T chippers. ~ $100.
I got the $50 set from Grizzly and have been very pleased with it. The chippers are a solid disk, instead of the wings you see on most set. I don't have enough experience to say if it's true or not, but the claim is that cuts down on vibration. I like that the included shims are copper and are labeled. I've cut about 50 grooves in ply and cherry and they have all been very smooth with almost no tearout (and I haven't been doing anything to prevent tearout)
From their site: http://www.grizzly.com/products/h7777
Solid body chip cutting blanks with 5 tooth cutters provide this stack 8" Dado Blade Set with more mass, better balance and more cuts per revolution than other dado sets, resulting in smooth, clean cuts. The set includes two 1/8" wide 30 tooth blades, four 1/8" wide chip cutters, one 3/32" wide chip cutter, one 1/16" wide chip cutter and two each copper shims in .005", .010", .015" and .020" thicknesses. Bore is 5/8". Can cut dados from 1/8" to 3/4"
faithrider,
Hate to go against the grain, but why not use a router. If I want to make a dado for a shelf, I put the side to be dadoed on the workbench, and stand the shelf up at the place to be dadoed, and put a clamp a board on each side of it, and then use a plunge router with a pattern bit. It just doesn't get any more precise than that, and you can save the cost of a set of dado blades.
I probably didn't explain it very well but there is a nice FWW video of the Pat Warner setting up and making the cut.
Enjoy,
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
I second the idea of using a router for dadoes. This is how I do all my dadoes. I don't own a dado blade for my table saw, and do not intend to do so!Running dadoes with the router is easy, allows great visibility, it's safer (I don't have to remove the guard from my table saw), and it's cheaper (I just need a router bit). I use a Festool system with a guide rail, but you can make your own guide rail for any hand-held router.Of course, I'm speaking as a serious hobbiest. Perhaps if someone's a professional, the equation changes.
Edited 10/4/2006 10:56 am ET by MatthewSchenker
Matthew,
I felt like a salmon swimming downstream when I posted my response. All the other fish were going the other way. Glad to see that there are at least two people in the world who use the router for dadoes. I bought a dado set a few decades ago, but it soon became obvious that it is much easier to get a perfectly sized dado with a router than it is to get an adequately sized dado with the table saw. It is fun to think back to when I got started about 35 years ago. I did my woodworking on a hastily built workbench on the porch of my apartment in Binghamton, NY. I didn't have a router yet. I ran a Craftsan circular saw along a piece of plywood that I used for a fence, and I kept moving the fence until the dado was wide enough. It worked! Then I got a router. Haven't been the same since. Thanks for writing.
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
Matthew I tend to use both router and a dado blade. For rabbets across the grain such as in shelfs or really long boards I think they are great. But for long groves or rip direction dados I like the table saw better. Also I do not know if anybody has done any comparisons but you can remove a lot more wood with a dado blade compared with the router. Also I think the router bits whare out faster. Troy
With the Festool system I use, running dadoes and grooves are equally easy. I use a guide rail and a Festool router, and I am able to run perfectly straight grooves up to eight feet long. Not that I have ever run a groove that long, but I could! Personally, I would never run a groove on a table saw. I'm just not comfortable doing that.
Using the Festool MFT and router, I very easily rout dadoes in stock up to 24" wide. If I need to "sneak up" on a dado size, that's easy to do as well.
Sometimes I do need to make dadoes in two passes with the router. But not always.
I cut all rabbets on my router table (Porter+Cable 7518 and an Incra LS Positioner/PRL by Woodpecker).
I run dadoes so easily using the router (either hand held or table mounted), I've never even considered using the table saw for it.
For the cost of a good dado set, I bought a router lift!
Edited 10/4/2006 4:28 pm ET by MatthewSchenker
Sounds neat. I am afraid that I might like the Festol stuff to much;)
Troy
Troy,Yes, high-quality tools can be very enticing! Look at me, I started a discussion group based on how impressed I was with the tools.
My suggestion would be to start with just the Festool plunge saw and dust extractor. Start small. But still, with this setup, you can replace the table saw for a bunch of woodworking steps and the Festool quickly earns its keep! Festool has package deals that are pretty good.
Matt, I will shortly move my shop to my retirement house in the South. I have done extensive planning and a part of that is a system of wall cases(6 or more) of soft maple, each of a depth as required by the tools stored in each, using a mitered glue joint corner and a rabeted 1/2" cabinet ply back, glued and screwed due to the weight of some with plexiglass in framed doors. They will be mounted anywhere in the 24' x 48' shop on a french cleat system as required.
As I will have to cut 1/2" x 1/2" rabbets on as much a 100'+ of case stock I have many choices.
1- Being a hand tool guy I could use my wood rabbet planes -straight, left or right skew- my Stanley #45 or #55, my Record #778 and trim them up with my #92-98-99.
2-Run the rabbets on my Lee Valley router table with the Mikwaukee 3 1/2 hp. router.
3-Run the rabbets on either my 1 1/2 hp. contractors saw or the 3 hp. Unisaw using a Forrest dado king setup.
The footage could increase as I plan past one case each for Bedrock planes, Bailey types and block planes, combination and spcialty planes, hand chisles and carving tools, measuring devices, braces and drilling tools, spokeshaves/drawknives-spoon bits and special hand tools. After that I will look at what is left that is not stored in sight, that should be. I belive that if there is not a visible place for serious tools to be stored, they will never be put away . What do you think? Pat
Paddy,You offer a lot of detail in that message! Could you please explain a little more what you are asking?
Matt, I thought that it was a clear that I am faced with many feet of 1/2" x 1/2" rabbets and I might add lots and lots of rabbets for interior case mounts that I had over looked and as you had a perspective on rabbets or dados that I should properly explaine the need, the facilities that I have, my perspective as to their purpose (or the need to do them at all) and solicit your opinion as to perhaps a better way to solve my work task. Clear to me, how about you? Thanks, Pat
How we all choose to go about accomplishing tasks is personal, so I wouldn't want to dictate what's best for you.As I have said earlier, I run all my rabbets and dadoes with a router.
Edited 10/8/2006 9:24 am ET by MatthewSchenker
Matt, thanks. I think that I will do the rabbets for the first two cases on the big saw and the dado mounts with a pc 694 hand held to get a perspsctive on labor, efficency and safety. Pat
Replacing a straight router bit will cost around twenty bucks, to resharpen a dado saw blade set will cost upwards of a hundred.
Definaley cheeper to replace one router bit than to sharpen one dado blade I just don't know if you get more cutting between sharpenings of the saw blades verses replaceing the router bits. Also the ware and tear of the tools themselves. Anyway they both seem to have advantages and as I said earlier I have done it both ways. So I am not to big an advocate for either.Have funTroy
I agree. I don't think dados are legal herein Europe (though dildos are) - I've never seen one in a catlogue in recent years, and my table saw doesn't have an arbor long enough for anything but a blade. i did once have a set for a de Walt radial arm saw and boy was that scary.
A router is much better. I cobbled up a guide from plastic and aluminium angle and it works fine - makes doing stopped dados very easy.
I had heard that dado bades where not legal in Europe and was wondering why? There are some cuts that are easier on a table saw than with a router. Troy
I believe that in Europe non-through cuts are frowned upon generally. A dado is a non-through cut.
I am wondering why non-through cuts are so frowned upon? Is it only the kickback issue? It seems like a power feeder and a guide could deal with most of that. (I'm not arguing... just ignorant and asking.)
I'd agree with you there. In the trade we in Europe are supposed to carry-out a safety assessment on our actions (yes, really, so you can imagine how many people do that.......) and a power feeder on a rip saw makes perfect sense to me, but if you are in the kind of shop which has a power feeder on a rip saw you'd probably also be in the kind of shop which has a power feeder on its spindle moulder (shaper) - a generally more powerful machine which with the right tooling (skew-cut TCT rebate block) will give a better result than a rip saw/dado head....... and which can be guarded more easily. In any case your spindle moulder probably has a power feeder on it, doesn't it?
If on the other hand you are going to cross cut through housings (dados) you probably couldn't use a power feeder because the stock would only have a short edge to run against the rip fence (12in wide x 6ft long won't power feed at all well), so you use the mitre gauge, crosscut sled or better still a sliding table with throw-over stops. But then you hit the problem of guarding. How do you guard the dado head adequately as it exits the cut? The most damaging thing that can happen is that you trip or overbalance and put your hand out to break the fall - straight onto the unguarded spinning dado head. Ouch!
That's why I agree with tinkerer, a RAS is a far safer option for cutting through housings (dados)
Scrit
quietude,
Good question...I don't do dadoes on a table saw because I have what I feel is a safer way to do it. Same goes for other cuts besides dadoes.A power feeder would certainly take care of a lot of the issues we've been discussing here. The price of a good power feeder is beyond my means. Besides, I've developed a non-table saw method anyway.
We have a slightly different approach over here. What is frowned on (and proscribed in professional shops in 99% of cases) is the removal of the crown guard and riving knife/splitter - necessary to use a dado head. It is possible to use a dado head on a table saw, but we have much more stringent safety regulations with regard to anti-kickback tooling, chip-limitation tooling, brakes, etc, which make it easier to think in terms of using a spindle moulder (shaper) or single-end tenoner if doing edge/end rebates or hand router and jig if doing either housings (dados) or edge/end rebates. Because all machinery, DIY and trade, is governed by the same design/safety regulations there is almost no difference in the safety standards adopted in the designs being sold - so since the late 1970s less and less saw benches have been sold with long arbors because dado heads are fundamentally so difficult to guard adequately.
Whilst RASs with dado heads are still in use and are permitted with the appropriate guarding, etc. they have fallen out of favour with smaller shops as biscuit jointing, dowels and KD fittings have come to the fore, and the big shops are all on CNC, generally with KD or dowel joining. With the introduction of the Festool Domino this trend can only continue!
Scrit
Thanks for the answer.Troy
Dadoes not legal in Europe. I have seen that before and have wondered why. I have used the dado on my RAS for cross dadoing on odd jobs for over forty years and consider it to be one one of the safest tool uses in my shop. Maybe I'm missing something but how can one get hurt unless he takes his hand off the workpiece and sticks it in the turning blades.
I think everybody who enjoys an adrenaline rush ought to run a wobbler at least once in their life.
But to do good work (and you intend to use machinery) you need a stacked dado set or a set up that will allow you to use a router.
Edited 10/3/2006 3:07 pm ET by CStanford
I see we must have shared a thrill. Did you put the wobbler on a table saw or radial arm? I put one on a radial arm. I switched it off before full speed was attained and ran out the garage door! Later, I actually used it on a table saw -- narrow dadoes only. Made dadoes with a dished bottom and wasn't near the thrill.Cadiddlehopper
For a VERY big rush, run a wobbler on a radial arm. Yeow !!Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Bruce, I had a friend who wanted to show me his NEW super dado blade on his RAS. A wobble dado, a new revolutionary method from Sears. Now realize I had a 10" old sears RAS(the heavy built ones) and used a 6" steel stacked set as I had no nerve to hang a big 8"(in the late 60's") at the time and the carbides were way over a young sailors budget. That demonstration was the most exciting thing . Even then I knew this is dumb, as green as I was. Enjoy, Pat
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