Hi all! Im in the market for a Dado stack to cut tenons and need something that cuts flat bottom dados. Anyone got an opinion? hehe Oh yeah, Im not lookin to spend $300 either! No wobbles
Maybe I should be more specific – 8″, 30 or 40 teeth, some good carbide
Anyone got a secret tool supplier that sells stuff cheap?
Edited 5/25/2006 12:39 am ET by hdgis1
Replies
I have a Freud super dado and I have been happy with it. Watch on e-bay sometimes they come up for sale there at a good price. I have heard good things about the Infinity brand also and they are often on sale on their web site.
Have Fun
Troy
Freud will probably give you the best dado at a reasonable price. Any particular reason you're aiming for 8" instead of 6"?? Big difference in price.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I suppose largely because of the lmitations of using them with a sled. However, as I am only cutting tenons, I suppose that wont be an issue. My biggest concern is that it cuts an absolutley flat bottom. Width isnt so much of an issue at it will be set at max. Do most companies make their dadoes available in 6" versions?
"Do most companies make their dadoes available in 6" versions?" I believe they do. I have the Freud Safety Dado.
Since you have a pretty healthy chunk o' change set aside for this, I'll suggest you consider the Freud Dial-a-Width (click) dado set, which would make life much easier down the road. This is a true stacked dado, not a wobble dado. There are a few people here that have one, so you should be able to get feedback on them.
PS: It comes in 6" and 8". What kind of saw do you have?
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 5/25/2006 11:08 am by forestgirl
right tilt unisaw. 3hp
Is this right or are they just nuts?
http://www.majorwoodworking.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=48_63&products_id=469
Edited 5/25/2006 11:24 pm ET by hdgis1
They're not but you are if you pay that much, I found six suppliers around the $250 mark. Here's one (no endorsement, just the first one I came across).http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AXVU5G/ref=nosim/002-7902144-6332041?n=228013
Since the house is on fire let us warm ourselves. ~Italian Proverb
Weird, that's even higher than the so-called "list price." forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Note that they are located in Australia, so I would assume the price is in AUD. Converting from AUD to USD, the price is still over $400 US.
Note that they are located in Australia.. I was there.. BEER expensive! Well compared to water cheeper?
View Image
Here's the price on the Rockler website: $259.99
-Jazzdogg-
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Gil Bailie
Edited 5/28/2006 9:05 pm by jazzdogg
Well, thank you all for your input. While in an ideal world, it would be nice to be able to rack up each set in my saw and test it out, I cant afford to nor am I near someplace that would let me do that. SO, having read all of the posts here, I think I will go for the SD608.
I just got a Freud Dial a dado 8'. Very happy with the results. Leaves a nice flat bottom. Just finished cutting 8 box joints. joints nice and tight. I does'nt leave any groves on the bottom of the cut also. flat bottom. I think if you look around, it can be had for the low $200 s. Dial feature is excellent. very quick to get correct width.
Joe P
new dado stack.. Why I use my router tables!
I use an Amana 8" dado set with 46 teeth on the outers, 2 T per chipper. Cuts clean bottoms, no bat ears. Coastal Tools has them for a reasonable price. I've been happy with all of my Amana blades (30Tooth glue-line rip, 50 T Combo, 60 T x-cut). My local saw shop recommends them highly, and they sell all brands.
http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/amana/dado_blades.htm?L+coastest+gdkt7618ffccedcc+1148708939
Bob,Not to sound argumentative, but you said that your dado leaves no bat ears while the page you linked to says of the dado you recommended:
"Outside blades are hollow-ground for proper clearance and alternate top bevel grind with every sixth tooth flat ground". The bevel teeth have to leave bat ears or they would not be there.
Charles M
Freud America, Inc.
doesnt the flat top grind take care of that?
The flats contribute to a flat bottom but if the bevels aren't taller than the flats they are ineffective at shearing fibers. The difference in height is equal to the height of the bat ears. In high quality dado sets the bat ears are minimal but they do exist. In Freud dado sets this height is less than 0.008".
Charles M
Freud America, Inc.
.008 Now that's a tiny bat! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Got reps? Anyone from the other companies to make this a bit more of an exciting discussion?
I've never seen CharlesM be negative or misleading about other brands. I think he's a great example of a polite, informative vendor guy, and a helpful, valuable forum member. He should take a consulting job, giving ethics training to the reps for Laguna. Heh.My goal is for my work to outlast me. Expect my joinery to get simpler as time goes by.
Zounds! Robin! This dado set makes such small bat ears that no one will notice them as design features once we glue and finish our piece.
Yes, as I typed my original answer, I thought of the fact that the outside bevel cut teeth leave a small nicks as they sliced fibers, but opted not to bother with describing that they're generally not noticeable. I could have said that the nick is small enough that most observers would fail to notice, and that an interested observer might find it difficult to see a traditionally shaped bat ear. But, as you explained, a bevel cut tooth will cut a bevel. (BTW, under 10X magnification, my box joints show a traditional bat-ear.) And now I'm laughing at myself for censoring my usual tendency to describe what most folks might think as obvious:)
I have always enjoyed and appreciated your input to the group, so I'm not being defensive because I don't feel attacked, but I would guess that .008 height difference between the bevels and the flats becomes insignificant in the big picture. However, I must now wonder about the other posts that describe the Freud set with a "flat bottom." The original poster wanted an "absolutely flat" bottom; I was merely attempting to say that the Amana set would meet his requirements--I didn't take too literally the notion of +/- 0 deviation.
I also left off that I have the optional 3/32" chipper that allows for 1/32" width adjustments as it didn't seem germane. I think the Amana's have beefy carbide, etc, but I left that out. I guess I was saying that he could get a high quality dado set and gave a source that works for me, and figured that he could do his own comparison shopping, as did I when I decided on a stack. And I suggested an etailer even though I bought my stack at Eastside Saw in Bellevue, WA because they showed me the various goods, and answered my questions; but that didn't seem germane since I didn't know where the poster lives. I also didn't mention that the bat house I put up four years ago still has no residents, hence no noticeable bat ears there,either :(^---^{ v }
Bob,I agree that the tiny bevel grooves are almost insignificant in most applications. And I agree that they don't usually affect the ability to produce a flat bottom. One notable exception is when making overlapping dado cuts for wide grooves and the bevel grooves become very evident. Also, for those that are bothered by those grooves, I don't want them to be mislead into thinking that there is a stacked dado that gives clean cuts across grain without the bevels. That's why I felt it was important to point it out.
Charles M
Freud America, Inc.
:>) You're absolutely right, Charles. On a forum such as this, one cannot know the questioner's expectations, and another (eg, me) should not assume what tolerances are acceptable to the questioner. I guess the correct answer would end up in the area of "cut your tenons .016 over, then using a plane or some other thang, remove .008" from each side."
On a separate note, you have piqued my curiosity to the point I may mount one of the outside dado blades on the saw, and use a dial indicator to (attempt to) determine the height difference of the bevel- and flat-ground teeth. And then I could say "on my set, which might or might not be representative, I measured ..., which might or might not be accurate...."
<Big delay while visiting with friend who dropped-by emoticon> Well, I'm back, and it's clear I'm not a metrologist, although I can tell that it's raining outside. That there's a height difference between the bevel teeth and the flat ground, I can say 'yes'; the amount I can't say accurately. So, I mounted the entire stack of stock blades, grabbed a piece of kiln-dried alder scrap, and made three passes to cut one side of a tenon. Attached are three <not great photography emoticon> jpegs.
Tenon1 shows the piece with some raking light. The bevel scratches are clearly seen.
Tenon2 has a combo square sitting on the edge. The bat ear (of which I said there were none) is visible at the corner.
Tenon3--look carefully--has a 0.7mm pencil-lead just to the left of the square, to give some perspective of size. 0.7mm is 0.0276 and (I would say) the bat ears are substantially smaller, and will not affect the look of an assembled piece.
And best of all, I'm not bleeding or missing any parts!
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