First try at hand cut dados

[john davey]

Well, I am going to be building a few cabinets for the house and needed to practice this joint as I only have ever done it on the table saw. My work flow is to scribe a deep line with the knife then a second line at the width needed. Then with a chisel cut down slightly to make a nice level fence so to speak for my cc carcass saw. Use the 70 1/2 to mark the depth on the sides and saw to the depth. Then chisel out the middle and clean up with the 70 1/2. The first try had a little to much slop in it and some blow out. Second try was a nice fit and no blow out as I went in both directions with the 70 1/2. The depth line I made with the 70 1/2 was to long and looks crappy on the second but other than that I think it would be a usable joint. I will obviously practice this many more times but I am kinda happy with what I got after about 20 minutes and just two tries :). Don't mind the crappy piece of ply I used. The dados were cut in a scrap of cherry.... Any suggestions on the process would be appreciated.... Thanks, John.

230118230119230120230121230122

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

The one time I did this, I solved the tearout problem by not jointing the far edge until after the grooves where cut. Marking deeply and nibbling a bit out with a chisel at the beginning also helps.

[Chris Griggs]

To stop prevent blowout I find it's best to approach the work from both sides. When you waste out the material leave a bit in at the other side, then turn the piece of wood around and knock the wast out from the other side. If you are always cutting inward, toward the center of the piece, there is nothing to blow out. This applies with both the chisel and the router plane.

[James Owen]

Looking good....and great advice from the other posters on reducing blow-out.

My only suggestion would be to make a sawing guide. It will speed the cutting of the side walls and will give you a consistency that is hard to get sawing freehand. Otherwise, it looks like you have the process down.

[Jim Koepke]

John,

One way to avoid blowout at the end of the dado is to have a stopped dado.

Here is a post of mine about how my dados were made with chisel and router plane plus how to make the shelf joinery look a lot better:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?108191-Best-way-to-make-a-dado-by-hand&p=1091524#post1091524

One thing that is not clear in the post is that the chamfer is on the waste material.

Also if you use a chisel the exact width of the dado, the edge may have more chipping than if a chisel smaller than the dado is used.

jtk

[Tony Shea]

One of the best tricks I've learned after many dado's whether by hand or machine, is to make the dado a bit smaller than the anticipated width of the material being fit inside the dado. After you are done cleaning up the dado and all the edges are nice and crisp, the piece (shelf or other part) should not quite fit yet. And I'm talking about a few thousandths of an inch here. To get your final fit I will take a smoothing plane and smooth the board to go inside the dado until I get nice fitting joint. Once I went with this method I have tight fitting dado's every time.

[James Owen]

Interesting....
I also make my dados slightly undersized to the part that will fit into them, but instead of thinning the part slightly, I prefer to widen the dado just a hair, by use of side rabbet planes, to fit the part's exact thickness.
Same end result, just a slightly different means of getting there......

[Andrew Nielsen]

http://thevillagewoodworker.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/elegant-jelly-cabinet-construction-part_19.html

[Michael Ray Smith]

After trying a lot of things, I've settled on pretty much the same method you use, with the only significant difference being that I like to use a stair saw to get kerfs with a controlled depth. The tradeoff with a stair saw is that you can't see where you're cutting, and I tried several different tricks for tracking the knife line. Eventually, I found that all I needed was a little practice -- and a wide, sharp chisel to cut the bevel on the waste side of the line. If the chisel is sharp, just a light push at about a 45 degree angle downward lifts out a slice of wood to leave a clean "fence" on the other side of the knife line, and using a wide chisel makes that step go fairly quickly. After I got that step right, I found that I could keep the stair saw on track by feel, even though I can't see the saw blade itself.

[john davey]

Here is a pic of a little thing I did after more practice. I had many problems with the pine but that is all detailed in another thread.....John

230537

[Zach Dillinger]

One of the best tricks I've learned after many dado's whether by hand or machine, is to make the dado a bit smaller than the anticipated width of the material being fit inside the dado. After you are done cleaning up the dado and all the edges are nice and crisp, the piece (shelf or other part) should not quite fit yet. And I'm talking about a few thousandths of an inch here. To get your final fit I will take a smoothing plane and smooth the board to go inside the dado until I get nice fitting joint. Once I went with this method I have tight fitting dado's every time.


+1 for this method.

[Charlie Stanford]

Saw the shoulders to depth. Nothing touches them after this. Be careful not to bump the shoulders with the router plane cutter post or you risk unwanted rounding and loss of crispness.

Clean up the bottoms coming from both ends with a chisel. Get close with a chisel (don't let the chisel go below depth in the middle of the housing which is very easy to do), finish with a router plane if you have it.

If not, chisel toward the middle leaving a central mound then take it down flat. If you try to pare the middle portion flat first you'll almost always go below depth (the chisel will dive). Come in from both sides chiseling a slope to the middle to be just brought to finished flatness as the last set of paring strokes.

[Charlie Stanford]

Here is a pic of a little thing I did after more practice. I had many problems with the pine but that is all detailed in another thread.....John

230537

These little projects are harder than they look and great to learn on.

[john davey]

Not going to confuse anybody with fine woodworking but I guess I'll post a pic of the completed project in use. I am happy with the results of the dados. Not so much with the finish but hey that is another skill I need to learn :)

233753233754

[Chris Griggs]

These little projects are harder than they look and great to learn on.

Looks good John. Charlie is right. Little things like this are always harder then they look - the details (and mistakes) are more obvious. Well done sir!

[Charlie Stanford]

Well, I am going to be building a few cabinets for the house and needed to practice this joint as I only have ever done it on the table saw. My work flow is to scribe a deep line with the knife then a second line at the width needed. Then with a chisel cut down slightly to make a nice level fence so to speak for my cc carcass saw. Use the 70 1/2 to mark the depth on the sides and saw to the depth. Then chisel out the middle and clean up with the 70 1/2. The first try had a little to much slop in it and some blow out. Second try was a nice fit and no blow out as I went in both directions with the 70 1/2. The depth line I made with the 70 1/2 was to long and looks crappy on the second but other than that I think it would be a usable joint. I will obviously practice this many more times but I am kinda happy with what I got after about 20 minutes and just two tries :). Don't mind the crappy piece of ply I used. The dados were cut in a scrap of cherry.... Any suggestions on the process would be appreciated.... Thanks, John.

230118230119230120230121230122

Leave some extra width and plane both edges to reach final width. This will make everything look nice and crisp and remove traces of your marking out that might remain.

Use a guide-board for the saw to make sure your walls are vertical. I think this is a better and less fiddly approach than paring a slope to fit the saw in, though you can do that as an adjunct but you shouldn't really need to if you use a guide board; 90* walls are important for fit.

Approach from both sides with the router plane to prevent massive spelching which wouldn't be cleaned up by planing to final width. Be careful using the router plane to not damage the walls or undercut them. You want a crisp 90* junction between wall and floor with no bruising from the router plane. If ever a power tool did a better job on a joint it's this one - power router for dado joints and rabbet joints.

[john davey]

Thanks guys. One other thing I bought that to frigging big phone after I made this. My old phone fit fine :(

[Jim Koepke]

Looks like it fills a need.

Every task undertaken can be a learning experience toward all of one's future tasks.

jtk

[Charlie Stanford]

Not going to confuse anybody with fine woodworking but I guess I'll post a pic of the completed project in use. I am happy with the results of the dados. Not so much with the finish but hey that is another skill I need to learn :)

233753233754

These kinds of projects can be very elegant but you're going to need to do a better job of proportioning - the stock is way too thick for the form and size of the project.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I do agree with Charlie, that the stock is a bit thick for the design. I've been guilty of this myself. I think just having thinned the inner divider down may have helped a lot there. That said, regardless, good on you for making this and sharing! That's a hell of a lot farther than I get a lot of days. . .

[john davey]

I agree on the proportions. The mag I copied this from used 3/8 lumber but I went with 3/4 to test the dados. they did not use dados and just nailed it together. It does look thick but it was really a learning thing for me so I am happy...John

[Charlie Stanford]

I agree on the proportions. The mag I copied this from used 3/8 lumber but I went with 3/4 to test the dados. they did not use dados and just nailed it together. It does look thick but it was really a learning thing for me so I am happy...John

Just remember that stock thicknesses are a large part of what makes a project look custom and not like 'off the rack' furniture. I avoid 3/4" like the plague. It's ubiquitous. 3/8's is almost as bad. It's amazing what a little over/little under stock dimensions can do for a piece.

[john davey]

Thanks Charlie, that is good advice.