Slot Cutting On TableSaw

[Brandon Boyd]

So I've been cutting some miter keys for a box I was building... All has been going well since I was making 1/4" slots. I was using my Freud dado blade and it makes a nice 1/4" flat bottom slots.

Now I want to cut an 1/8" and 3/16" slot for a miter key. Plus I'd also like to cut an 1/8" slot in some MDF and plywood for 1/8" hardboard on another project. My Freud thin-kerf is smaller than the 1/8".

What blade does everyone else use for cutting a flat bottomed slot on the tablesaw?

Thanks!
Brandon

[James Combs]

What's the thickness of your outside blades in your dado set? Mine are exactly 1/8". Just use one of them.

[glenn bradley]

I do what James does but, before I had a dado stack I used an 1/8" spiral bit in the router for clean routed cuts and a full kerf FTG rip blade for the tablesaw cuts but they are a bit rough on exit so use a backer.

[Brandon Boyd]

I thought about going the router way but my router table is horrible and the table saw is so much easier.

The outside blades on my dado are slightly over 3/16". The first time I cut a shot with one of them I thought it was 3/16" but the piece of hardboard just rattled in the slot. That's when I found out they're slightly oversize.

Thanks guys,
BB

[Frank Drew]

Brandon,

Rather than buy a special blade just to accomodate the hardboard, you can make spline material to suit whatever blade gives you the nicest cut; it's easy enough to rip then plane miles of the stuff if you have to.