Newbie question about rabbet on table saw

[David Huston]

Just starting out in woodworking and I have a question about cutting a rabbet in some plywood. I have a craftsmen table saw with a vega fence that I just got. I have a old craftsmen dial a dado but thinking about getting a freud stack set. I am going to be building some cabinets and just need some advice. I need to cut some 3/8 deep by 3/4 wide rabbets in the cabinet sides for the top and bottom. I know the dado set will go to 13/16 so should i try to just bury 1/16 in the sacrifical fence or should i cut this in two passes? Also, as far as burying the dado in the sac fence what is the best way to do that? I have seen cuts made with this setup but never seen it actually set up. I am assuming the you would raise the blade into the fence a little higher and a little wider than you need and then turn off saw and adjust height and fence. Is that how? One more question, would anybody have a recommendation for getting some inserts for my craftsmen table saw? I would really like a zero clearance for ripping down the plywood. Also would i need a zero clearance for the dado? Would it just be zero clearance on the widest setting or do most people a different insert for different width dados?

Thank you so much for any help!

[Mark Burnette]

If it were me I wouldn't even try to cut clean dadoes in a panel on a table saw, not if it will be seen. Certainly not if using the micron-thick-veneer plywood from the big box stores. You'll get much less chip-out if you do this with a router.

[Bill Huber]

I would go with the router also, much cleaner cuts and I think it is easier to do with the router then on the table saw.

IMHO that Craftsmen dial a dado is junk and the cut is really bad on the one I had years ago.

[Jeff Duncan]

I use either the table saw or the shaper for rabbets and dado's, not a fan of using the router as it's pretty slow. If you have a good dado set, like the Freud set for instance, you'll get clean chip free cuts in most materials. As for setting the fence up....you've pretty much got it. I keep a cutoff of pre-fin maple ply next to my saw along with a couple clamps. I toss it on for rabbets that need to go right to the edge. I'll set the fence where I want it, raise the blade into the sacrificial fence slowly, go just a bit higher than what I need then drop it down and go!

good luck,
JeffD

[Lee Schierer]

Another option is to do the rabbit in two cuts using a crosscut blade since you are cutting plywood. The cross cut blade will give you minimal tear out. You can also apply blue painters tape to the face and tear out will be even less. Make the 3/8 cut first and then stand the piece on edge and cut the 3/4" depth. Use a feather board when making the 3/4" cut to hold the piece against your fence.

You can easily make zero clearance inserts for your saw. I found on my Craftsman that the Luan ply under layment is exactly the right thickness for the recess in the table. I sometimes glue a rib underneath the insert for strength to keep the insert from sagging.

[Kevin Jenness]

A word of warning- if you use the two cut method as Lee suggests, be sure to make the second cut with the waste falling free, away from the fence. Trapping the offcut between fence and blade will cause kickback.

[Chris Rosenberger]

I have never used a dial a dado blade & never will.

I build lots of cabinets & cut 99% of the dados & rabbets on a table saw with a Forrest stack dado set. For rabbets, I do the process as David describes using a sacrificial fence.
I have been doing them this way for over 40 years. The only problem I have ever had is if the plywood has a slight bow in it & I do not get it pushed down tight to the table. the depth of the cut is not right.
A quick pass with a router plane solves the problem. Tear out is not an issue if you use a sharp quality dado blade set.

[glenn bradley]

Your wobble dado is for very rough work. By nature it will leave a crowned cut as opposed to the nice flat bottom you would probably prefer. As others have stated, tablesaw and dado stack for sheet goods is OK for rough work but, by the nature of the sheet material commonly available, getting a consistent depth is a challenge. Pressing down on the material as it passes the cutter only increases your possibility of injury as your bodily force is directly targeting, and closely located to, the cutting area.

A tablesaw is designed to cut flat and true. Running material across the feed path that is not flat and true (like properly milled hardwood for example) could lead to an irregular cut, tearout, kickback or worse. I would also choose a router for this task. IF you need a guide for the cut, mark a spot on your router's plate, clamp a straight piece of material along the path and offset by the distance between your cutter edge and the router plate edge. Keeping the mark on your router plate against the guide, make your cut. The purpose of the mark is to keep a consistent line of cut; many router plates are not truly round or truly centered. If you have taken care of that, keeping the plate in a certain position is not an issue.


262073

[David Huston]

Thank you so much for all the input. Think I will start looking for a good stacked dado set. The cabinets I am building are for a little mud area in my house. It would be a lot more set up time with the router. With the table saw I can set it up and cut all the pieces at once. The longest rabbet I have to cut is 24 inches but I have several to do.

Just for clarification - would you bury 1/16 in the fence for the 3/4 cut?

[Michael Dunn]

I've done rabbets on my TS and my Freud dado stack with good results using the blue tape method. I think a router with a sheer cut plywood sized bearing guided rabbet bit would offer a much cleaner cut.

Which raises the question... Does a bearing guided, sheer cutting, plywood sized router bit even exist? I have some plywood sized straight bits.

[glenn bradley]

Just for clarification - would you bury 1/16 in the fence for the 3/4 cut?

Yes, I would.

[Chris Rosenberger]

Thank you so much for all the input. Think I will start looking for a good stacked dado set. The cabinets I am building are for a little mud area in my house. It would be a lot more set up time with the router. With the table saw I can set it up and cut all the pieces at once. The longest rabbet I have to cut is 24 inches but I have several to do.

Just for clarification - would you bury 1/16 in the fence for the 3/4 cut?

I use a 3/4" piece of wood for the sacrificial fence. Put your dado blade on the saw. Set the fence about 1/8" from the blade. Lower the blade. Mount the sacrificial fence. Turn on the saw & slowly raise the blade to about 7/16" above the table. Turn off the saw & set the depth of cut for the rabbet. I then use a scrap of the material that will be going in the rabbet as a gauge to set the blade for the width of the rabbet.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Just for clarification - would you bury 1/16 in the fence for the 3/4 cut?
Maybe....

It all depends..

Are you using that 3/8" figure because it's 1/2 of the 3/4" plywood thickness?
If so, then you're going to be off since the thickness of the plywood is less than 3/4".

[David Huston]

The 3/8 would be the depth of the rabbet which I could make 1/4 I guess. The width would be 3/4 to accept the plywood bottom and the plywood nailers for the walnut top I plan on making. The plywood I plan on using is some birch from a local big box that I have used before. It is decent stuff haven't had any really badly warped pieces of any with a lot of voids. It was a full 3/4 last time I bought some. The lumber yard I will get the maple for the face frames from has some plywood that is also a full 3/4 but is MDF core. Would the MDF core be better? My thoughts are that it would be pretty heavy and I worry about nailing the FF into the MDF edges. I will try to post my sketch up plans if I have time on Monday.

Thanks again for all the help!

Love this place!

[Rich Engelhardt]

I only mention the size because I got bit by that on one of my first projects.

[David Huston]

Rich - thank you for the reminder on the thickness of the plywood. I have plans drawn up for 3/4 and I realized that most ply is undersized. Really don't want to have to redo my plans but I might. Any thoughts on the MDF core?

[Joseph Tarantino]

i've worked some with MDF. i like it as it's stable and flat, but i question it's ability to retain screws. i'd prefer multi layer wood core plywood.

[Gordon Eyre]

I have cut many a rabbet with my stacked Forrest blades and results have always been excellent. Yes the Forrest set is pricey but then I only had to buy it once. If you purchase the Freud set it should work fine as well. If you are worried about chipout just make one very light skim cut with a cross cut blade and then go to it with the dado set.

[Pete Duffy]

I agree with the Forrest recommendation. I have the stacked dado set and I forget what I paid for it, because the quality is so good. No pre-scoring or blue tape needed even on crosscut dados in oak plywood. There just is NO chipout.

Also, make your own zero clearance inserts. It's not that hard and you will love having them.

[Kevin Groenke]

The Oshlun dado set is a VERY good value. Check the reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/Oshlun-SDS-0842-8-Inch-Tooth-Stack/dp/B0012YF25Q