Dado blade

Hi Jason,

I have been a amateur woodworker (for want of a better
term) for almost 15 years now. I bought my first dado
like yours about 10 years ago (Sears Excalibur) for about
$75. It is not perfect and requires numerous adjustments
to get a decent fit. However, I have used it on everything
from pressure treated 2 x 12 for garden/deck to fine
Pennsylvania cherry for a raised panel blanket chest for
my wife's 50th. Sure, I had to chisel some flat bottoms
etc, but it has served well for these years.

I must have arrived at another level of woodworking or something,
because I tired of all the minor inconvenience and bought a Freud
SD508 for about $160 (Amazon) - just last week - has not
arrived yet.

If I was sure that I would progress with woodworking, I could
have saved myself $85 and some grief over the years.

On the other hand, now have the Sears for "rough" projects &
the Freud for fine furniture.

Just my 2ç.

Lou

As has been extensively reported here, you take your chances with HF
dado blades. For the exact same stock number, some are pretty good and
some stink. I lucked out and got a good one, but there's a lot who
have gotten $20-60 worth of Chinese junk.

I've come to the conclusion that made in Chinese isn't necessarily
going to mean it's junk. It just that the chances of it being junk are
better than average. They seem to have a pretty crappy quality control
system.

I'm guessing that the better quality suppliers pick and choose the
bettter stuff and dump the poorer quality stuff down hill.

On Sun, 02 May 2004 10:06:52 -0400, [email protected]
wrote:

>Chect out www.harborfreight.com We have a store here in Raleigh and you
>can get internet priced from the store with a copy of the page. I
>bought one (from the internet, it was not available in the store) on
>sale for around $29 it is an 8" stacked carbide tipped. I haven't used
>it yet, but it looks pretty good.
>Frank
>
>Jason Paul wrote:
>
>> I'm not a pro, hell I'm not even really a hobyist. To make
>> a long story short, I've recently picked up a dado blade
>> for my table saw. It's one of those rotating, expando type
>> with two blades. I've got minor problems at the extremes
>> of width (slightly concave/convex dados) - but I can live
>> with that for the types of projects I'm working on.
snipped

Ummmmm..........yard art?

Go get a good stacked dado set. There is no compromise here. The money
will be well spent and savings in not messing up good wood will be worth it.

Jason Paul wrote:
> I'm not a pro, hell I'm not even really a hobyist. To make
> a long story short, I've recently picked up a dado blade
> for my table saw. It's one of those rotating, expando type
> with two blades. I've got minor problems at the extremes
> of width (slightly concave/convex dados) - but I can live
> with that for the types of projects I'm working on.
>
> I have one issue, however, that I can't live with. The blade
> width is set by rotating the two halves against each other
> and the width expands/contracts to whatever width you
> want.
>
> Herein lies the problem. No matter how tight I crank the
> nut when mounting the blade, there's slippage in the two
> halves of the blade that cause the width to expand (it always
> expands and never contracts. No matter what width I set
> it at, or how hard I crank the nut after it's mounted, the
> slippage occurs. I can't keep it set on any width as very
> soon after it starts spinning, it starts slipping and starts
> to open up.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jason W. Paul
>
>

Chect out www.harborfreight.com We have a store here in Raleigh and you
can get internet priced from the store with a copy of the page. I
bought one (from the internet, it was not available in the store) on
sale for around $29 it is an 8" stacked carbide tipped. I haven't used
it yet, but it looks pretty good.
Frank

Jason Paul wrote:

> I'm not a pro, hell I'm not even really a hobyist. To make
> a long story short, I've recently picked up a dado blade
> for my table saw. It's one of those rotating, expando type
> with two blades. I've got minor problems at the extremes
> of width (slightly concave/convex dados) - but I can live
> with that for the types of projects I'm working on.
>
> I have one issue, however, that I can't live with. The blade
> width is set by rotating the two halves against each other
> and the width expands/contracts to whatever width you
> want.
>
> Herein lies the problem. No matter how tight I crank the
> nut when mounting the blade, there's slippage in the two
> halves of the blade that cause the width to expand (it always
> expands and never contracts. No matter what width I set
> it at, or how hard I crank the nut after it's mounted, the
> slippage occurs. I can't keep it set on any width as very
> soon after it starts spinning, it starts slipping and starts
> to open up.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jason W. Paul

Clarification for a newbie...

Would the blade on this link be a stached dado that you speak of?

http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=123863-000061089-SD2
08

Thanks

"Edwin Pawlowski" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
> "Jason Paul" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> >
> > Any suggestions?
> >
>
> I suggest they outlaw that type of dado blade. I think you will get much
> better results from a stacked set, even a cheap one.
> Ed
>
>

"Corey" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Clarification for a newbie...
>
> Would the blade on this link be a stached dado that you speak of?
>
>
http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=123863-000061089-SD2
> 08

Yep, that's is a "stacked" dado set.

Simply a _set_ of saw blades, usually 6" or 8" in diameter, consisting of
two outside blades that look like your typical table saw blade; a number of
varying thickness "chippers", with two or more teeth, that are mounted
between the two outside blades on the table saw's arbor; and a set of
"shims", plastic or metal, that are mounted between the blades and chippers
to adjust the "stack" for a desired width of cut.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 4/13/04

"Jason Paul" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> Any suggestions?
>

I suggest they outlaw that type of dado blade. I think you will get much
better results from a stacked set, even a cheap one.
Ed