Stopped Dados?

[Mark Stutz]

Well, here is another in my series of "how to " posts. In two words...Stopped dados. I have made them on a numbr or projects, but alwasy with electrons. I have yet to figure out how to do them with hand tools however. I suspect it will be a "DOH, OF COURSE" moment, but for now it escapes me. :confused: Thanks in advance.

Mark

[Mark Singer]

Chisel along the stop line to the depth. This may mean you chop back into the waste side to attain the depth. Saw the sides with a back saw and plow out the dado with a router plane or a plow or rabet plane. If it is in the center of a wide board use a Tru Grip or wood fence to guide the plane.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Or, start like Mark says with the chiselling, then clamp on a batten and use a dado plane to clear out the dado. Or chisel and saw like Mark says, then use a chisel (bevel down generally works best for this type application, controls against tearout) to clear out most of the dado, then finish off with a router plane. Or.... :)

Pam

[James Mittlefehldt]

If it is short and I am starting from an edge, I use a mortising chisel to mark the stop as it has a bit more authority, saw as deep as I can with my favourite back saw and then simply strike the end with a chisel and mallet you will pop out a fairly substantial piece of the wood and then simply finish with your chisels or router plane. Obviously sawing a bit on the lean side and then chiseling to fit, (discovered that the hard way when the first one I cut was somewhat sloppy to say the least)

I did this last weekend on a couple of mortises in the end of some Yellow Poplar.

[Richard Gillespie]

I saw Roy Underhill do stopped dado's on one of his shows. He used a bit and brace to cut a stop hole. He then marked the dado's with a knife and using a chisel on both waste sides pared a groove. He then used a stair saw with the blade set to the desired depth. The groove helped guide the saw as it started. After that a router plane was used to remove the waste. It's been a while since I saw the show but I assume he used a chisel to square up the stop hole at the end.

[Jerry Palmer]

I was gonna mention one of these:


http://home.austin.rr.com/sawduster/Handsaws/My%20Stairsaw%202.JPG
would be beneficial, but Richard beat me to it. The stair saw is what I'm talking about but my router plane is also part of my dadoing set-up.

[Ellen Benkin]

Depending on where it is, you could drill out as much "waste" as possible (using electicity of hand power) and then chisel out the rest. Scoring the shoulders and the end with a chisel before you start is also a great idea, especially if the edges of the dado will show.

[Mark Stutz]

Thanks to all! Looks like a couple of new tools are in order, though stair saws don't grow on trees! I know that Leif made one--guess I'll need to look at his site again.

Thanks again.

Mark

[James Mittlefehldt]

I saw Roy Underhill do stopped dado's on one of his shows. He used a bit and brace to cut a stop hole. He then marked the dado's with a knife and using a chisel on both waste sides pared a groove. He then used a stair saw with the blade set to the desired depth. The groove helped guide the saw as it started. After that a router plane was used to remove the waste. It's been a while since I saw the show but I assume he used a chisel to square up the stop hole at the end.

Takes the flat of his hand and slaps himself on the side of the head, why didn't I think of that, it makes much sense and would work well then I could have used my router plane, I like using it very much, not sure why, but I do.

I am going to have to try and find some of Mr Underhill's videos to peruse that guy is great, but hard to find on the air around here.

[Jerry Palmer]

Thanks to all! Looks like a couple of new tools are in order, though stair saws don't grow on trees! I know that Leif made one--guess I'll need to look at his site again.

Thanks again.

Mark

I made that one based on info from Leif's site. The tuff part was figuring out how big one should be since I'd only seen them in pictures with nothing to reference them to.