Craftsman 8" table saw w/ 6

[Will Boulware]

For starters, I'm new to this hobby. I've done some basic projects with a circular saw, etc. but no table saw work. I inherited an 8" craftsman jobsite saw from my grandfather and I tossed the blade that came with it. Replaced it with a 7 1/4 freud avanti (the Italian one, not a new chinese one). I also got a 6" dado set for it, but I'm seriously considering returning it. Will a 6" blade give me enough workable height to do anything with? Will this saw even reasonably spin the thing, or is it going to be a hazard?

Thanks in advance. Just don't want to use my garage window (or worse, me! :D) to stop a kick-back if I can help it!

Edit: Apologies about the thread title. Hit post accidentally before re-reading it.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, I don't know anything about your saw.

Is it a belt drive machine?

What size of motor does it have?

Dado cutters are normally smaller in diameter than main blades.

They can also require more power because of the amount of material they are removing.

A dado is normally shallow, in the 1/4" to 1/2" deep range, so a large diameter dado blade isn't required.

If your machine has a long enough arbour to mount the cutter, a table insert for a dado, you should try it out.

A dado cut is shallow, and the feed rate is slow. You may be just fine.


Regards, Rod.

P.S. I just purchased a saw that takes a 12" main blade, and a 7" dado.

On another subject, if your saw doesn't have a guard and splitter, buy or make them for your saw.

[Will Boulware]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I should elaborate. It's a direct drive saw, and I think the motor is a whopping 8 amps (:confused:). I ripped a few 2x6's last night with a thin kerf freud blade and it did ok, but it performed poorly with the factory blade it had on it previously. For some reason, the thing frightens me. I'm a bit of a car guy, so tools and shop safety aren't new things to me. I'm no stranger to grinders, welding, air tools, or things catching on fire, but this saw just looks like trouble for some reason. It has no blade guard, splitter, or other safety parts. . The fence only attaches from one side (factory diagrams show this to be the complete assembly. No rear attachment point at all), and it flexes noticeably when you put slight pressure on it. It's kind of jumpy on start-up too. Don't know if that means anything. (nickel test? Forget it.)

I'm wondering if I should return the dado set, cut my losses and get a better (safer) saw rather than taking a chance on this underpowered, sketchy one.

Thanks again!

[glenn bradley]

*** Sorry, I was typing this as you posted ***

Rod has given you some good info and you'll want to review those points. You will need enough arbor to allow the nut to fully engage the threads with the dado on (you do not need the outer washer). This can sometimes mean that you cannot use the whole stack but, that is not a reason to not use a stack. I generally use my stack narrower than I require and make multiple passes. I find this easier than shimming the stack but, that's me.

As to power and ability to operate; your intended use comes into play. If you primarily do shallow dado's like most of us, a 6" will probably be fine if you have the power to spin it. If underpowered, slowing your feed rate can compensate. If underpowered to the point where the requirement of the wide cut is too much, spend your money on router bits and do your dados that way ;-)

I do some rather deep cuts in my pieces so the 8" works out better for me. If not for those occasional but necessary cuts, a 6" would work well for me. My saw is a hybrid with 1-3/4HP and I can take a 3/4" wide 1" tall cut out of hardwoods without a problem although I generally take multiple passes just to be nice to my tools.

If you see yourself doing a lot of dados in sheet goods or larger panels, again a router is a better solution for this as large panels can be a challenge to control on a table saw your size. Inconsistent depth of cut is the most common problem and a router pretty much eliminates that.

[Pat Germain]

I think the name of that saw is correct. It is for the job site. You will probably have a lot of trouble using that saw if you want to make furniture. I'm saying this as the owner of a Craftsman contractor saw. While my contractor saw is functional, it requires a lot of modifications, including a new fence, to make it workable for building furniture.

So, if you really want to get into serious woodworking, I would recommend finding a nice, used table saw. While a cabinet saw is the defacto standard, you can also get good results with a nice hybrid saw or even something smaller like the Ridgid bench top saw.

Unfortunately, many of the Craftsman table saws going back twenty years were lackluster at best.