What is everyone's favorite dado blade and why???

[Martin Siebert]

I have a PM2000 10" table saw. I need a dado blade. I guess the first question is stacked or adjustable?? I see dado sets run anywhere from just under $100 to well over $400. What performance variables are there given a $300 spread??? I don't have a problem spending the money, what I don't want to do is spend on something that is not really going to do anything for me...I need all the help I can get as it is!!!Thanks in advance for any info.

[Jacob Reverb]

I just use a cheap Delta stack. I like that it's easily repeatable, and gives a flat bottom in the dado or groove (unlike a wobble dado).

There's a lot to be said for doing your dadoes with a router, too.

[Cary Falk]

I use the Delta 35-7670 as well. I think it is about $120. It has 4 tooth chippers as well as metal shims and a 1/32" chipper. There are more expensive options that are probably slightly better but I'm perfectly happy with the Delta.

[Bill Space]

I have an 8" Oshlun dado set that costs under $100 delivered and seems to work well.

I figured I would try something on the less expensive side, and buy a more expensive one if I found a reason. So far the Oshlun works well enough for my needs.

Bill

[Andrew Seemann]

I have the 8" Freud stacked dado, not sure what I paid for it a dozen years ago, probably $100. I like it because it has a 3/32 chipper for doing 1/32 undersized plywood. I also inherited the old mans Freud 1/4 - 3/8 box joint dado cutter. I always thought it was kind of dumb and not a good value, but now I use it all the time. It is handy to be able to do 1/4 and 3/8 dados just by grabbing it and not fiddling with chippers and such.

[Lisa Starr]

I have a Forrest Dado Stack. I like it because it allows you to cut undersize dados for plywood and it cuts flat bottoms. It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't the most expensive either. That's where I prefer to be in the price range for many things, woodworking and otherwise.

[Tom M King]

I use the Forrest stack, the already mentioned Dewalt stack, and even an old Craftsman wobbler, depending on the job. As already mentioned, the Dewalt is a lot better than you might think it is. If it's a tight fit on the arbor, the bottom of the cut will be as clean as the Forrest. It also comes in one of the few cases I've ever kept for anything. Keep the instruction sheet that came with it, that gives you the measurements of all the combinations. It saves a lot of trial and error with a cheap digital caliper to measure the piece that the groove is for. A set of magnetic shims, by any manufacturer, let's you fine tune it, and still leaves out the guesswork.

[Martin Siebert]

Thanks a million to everyone that has posted so far!!! It is greatly appreciated.

[Ray Newman]

Quick question on the Dewalt set: country of origin?

[Jamie Buxton]

I have a Freud 6” stack. Perhaps $80. It works just fine.

However, one thing makes me grumpy: it cannot make a dado which fits today’s quarter inch plywood. I know of no affordable dado stack which can do this obvious task. Aren’t tool manufacturers connected to the market?

To work with quarter inch ply, I had to buy a special stack from Forrest which cost nearly $200.

[Julie Moriarty]

Forrest dado stack and it's my favorite because it's the only one I own. But it doesn't cut a completely flat bottom. The outside blades cut a V deeper than the flat section in between.

[Rich Engelhardt]

6" Freud - $79 @ Lowes back in 2010 or so.

It's - ok - if I had to replace it, I believe it would be either with a DeWalt or Oshlun.


However, one thing makes me grumpy: it cannot make a dado which fits today’s quarter inch plywood. I know of no affordable dado stack which can do this obvious task. Aren’t tool manufacturers connected to the market?Just today, I was looking at - - - {{{{{ 1/4"}}}}} - "plywood" at Menards... 3/16", 5.2 mm, 5.5 mm, 6 mm - were all labeled 1/4".
Hard to blame the tool makers when the wood suppliers put out such a variation of sizes and call it all the same.

Plywood sizing is a pet peeve of mine. It drives me nuts!!!
It's almost enough to drive a person to use MDF instead :D :D :D - - - almost ;).

[tom lucas]

I have a dewalt set and love it. I suspect there are many that are good though.

[Tom Bain]

I don’t have it anymore but my favorite stack was an Infinity Dadonator. I sold it when I moved from a Unisaw to a slider and the slider couldn’t accommodate the the 8” stack. I have a smaller 6” Forrest Dado King currently and it does a fine job, but think the Infinity produced a flatter, cleaner dado.

[Jeff Heath]

I have a 8" Forrest Dado King for my 10" PM 66 that is 20 years old, and I have a more recent 12" Forrest Dado King for my 16" saw. They are excellent. Flat bottom cuts, cut very clean in ply without chipping, same in hardwood, and both sets have smaller chippers to fit the smaller plywood perfectly. Shim stock included with both, as well.

[Jim Becker]

I used a Forrest Dado-King when I had my cabinet saw. I was 110% pleased with it. That said, there are some really good options available these days in different price ranges. You can also save some money by going with a 6" set...most cuts by these stacked systems are not very deep unless being done on a radial arm saw for joinery cuts, so there is more than enough exposure available on a 6" stack to do the job for most folks and most situations. They require less power to run, too.

[Justin Horne]

Infinity dadonator 8" ftw.

Cuts perfect flat bottom grooves, crosscuts through ply veneer cleanly.

[Charlie Hinton]

I have the Freud SD 508 and I like it a lot.
Good clean cuts.
Mostly just use it at 1/4" and 1/2".

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[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, I have a 6” FS Tools set which cuts a flat bottom groove....Rod

[Peter Christensen]

Hi, I have a 6” FS Tools set which cuts a flat bottom groove....Rod

I saw a set of those at Western Saw here in Saskatoon and the 8" set is over $450Can. I will have to wait a bit before the asking the Ministress of Finances about getting a set. Any Idea how they compare to the Dimar and Forrest sets?

[Martin Siebert]

Thanks again everyone for all the replies to this thread...all information is greatly appreciated!!! I pulled the trigger on an 8", 40 tooth Oshlun set. I will say that I am having trouble getting a dado insert for my saw. I googled "PM2000 dado insert" and it comes right up on Amazon for like $64.00, but that is not the correct one. My saw is a PM2000B and it takes a different insert. You would of course know full well that one is not available for another month. I will probably make an insert to try until I can get the correct one.
Someone remarked that "there is something to be said for doing dados with a router"...at this point I have to agree!!! Buy the blade set, buy the insert, wait for the insert, swap over the saw, cut the dados, swap everything back.....I am about ready to buy a router and make a jig and leave it set up!!! Thanks again fellas!!!!!

[Jim Becker]

Making your own insert can be "the correct one"... :)

[Robert Engel]

For any others, I recently bought the Dadonator from Infinity Tools.

I've been extremely happy with it. I think its a very good value.

Its best to make up several blank inserts for different widths.

[Bob Vaughan]

Dealing with modern "1/4" plywood is problematic for most stack dado sets. Years back, Sears had the perfect wobble dado for this. I had one as my first dado set and eventually gave it away thinking my Freud set was far superior. It was to an extent, but the charm of this particular Sears product was that it would go down to 3/16" inch. That meant that I could dial the perfect groove to whatever thickness 1/4" plywood happened to be on that day. I recently found a vintage one for sale and bought it. Most, if not all, wobble dados these days will do 1/4" minimum and that's no help.

Below is a catalog cut from Sears' 1990 tool catalog. Note how many teeth are on this unit. That will be the tell-tale detail as to whether or not the dado set can be dialed down to 3/16".

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[Chris Schoenthal]

Thanks again everyone for all the replies to this thread...all information is greatly appreciated!!! I pulled the trigger on an 8", 40 tooth Oshlun set.
I have had the Oshlun 8" set for years and am very pleased with it. 42 tooth blades and 6 tooth chippers make amazing cuts. The only thing that I didn't like about it is the cardboard box that it comes in.


I will say that I am having trouble getting a dado insert for my saw. .... I will probably make an insert to try until I can get the correct one.
Like many have said, make your own. They're great for all your cuts, not just dados. Best thing is to batch out a bunch of them at once while you're at it.

Chris

[John Patric]

The Freud SD508 is my favorite because its the only one I have.

Like Charlie said it gives good clean flat cuts that don't require cleanup afterwards. I have never used the shims that come with it and I have heard that if not careful they can be damaged / scrunched on the arbor when sliding the blades on and off. I paid $200 in 2015.

[John Patric]

While I can see how the cut would be clean and smooth, it's not obvious to me how the bottom can be flat.

I think you need to put chippers in as needed but the dial is for micron adjustment.

[Jim Becker]

I would love to see photos of the cut this dado blade makes.
While I can see how the cut would be clean and smooth, it's not obvious to me how the bottom can be flat.
Think of it as 'dial a shim', it's not a wobble set like was sold eons ago.

[Martin Siebert]

I have had the Oshlun 8" set for years and am very pleased with it. 42 tooth blades and 6 tooth chippers make amazing cuts. The only thing that I didn't like about it is the cardboard box that it comes in.


Like many have said, make your own. They're great for all your cuts, not just dados. Best thing is to batch out a bunch of them at once while you're at it.


Chris

Yes sir, and they are still supplying it with that cardboard box...something else I will have to make, a nice wooden box to store it in. Good idea on the batch of inserts. I did one today {well actually yesterday at this point} and it was easy enough...I think I will go ahead and knock out several next time I get a chance.

[Rick Potter]

I have a Forrest set that is great, and picked up a Freud 8" set on sale that works almost as good. I got the Freud because I was doing a lot of dado's with a RAS, and thought it would be a bit less likely to self feed, but it isn't.

When doing a lot of dados on melamine particle board for closet shelf units, I used an old Sears wobble like the one above in Bob Vaughn's post, to avoid damage to my good sets. When sharp, it worked well, and the slightly rounded bottoms were minor, with a very small amount of melamine chip out. I was pretty pleased with how well it worked, but wouldn't use it for furniture.

I never noticed how narrow a slot it would make. Gotta check it out.

PS: For melamine shelving I did try a router, using a Woodline slanted edge straight bit. Wow, did that bit go dull fast. One shot across a 4' sheet, and I could tell it was going dull. It would probably be fine in real wood.

[tom lucas]

Dealing with modern "1/4" plywood is problematic for most stack dado sets. Years back, Sears had the perfect wobble dado for this. I had one as my first dado set and eventually gave it away thinking my Freud set was far superior. It was to an extent, but the charm of this particular Sears product was that it would go down to 3/16" inch. That meant that I could dial the perfect groove to whatever thickness 1/4" plywood happened to be on that day. I recently found a vintage one for sale and bought it. Most, if not all, wobble dados these days will do 1/4" minimum and that's no help.

Below is a catalog cut from Sears' 1990 tool catalog. Note how many teeth are on this unit. That will be the tell-tale detail as to whether or not the dado set can be dialed down to 3/16".

404066


I have one of these, hardly used. It's been sitting in a drawer for years after buying my dewalt set. Just last week I needed 3/16" and realized that my dewalt wouldn't do that. I had to use just one blade and offset it by half. I never even considered using my old sears. I was going to give it away or sell it. But now I think I'll keep it and try to remember this the next time I need 3/16".

[Rod Sheridan]

I use a dado on a saw with a brake, however it has 2 pins to prevent the cap screw from coming loose. I had to laugh at your description of stuff scattering across the floor, great sales moment.

regards, Rod.

[Charlie Hinton]

Jim and Randy, thanks. The dial-a-width doesn't work the way I thought it did. I won't ever get the chance, but I would like to try one out just to see how it compares to the stacked dado I have now.

The first dado set I had was a Craftsman stacked set (many many years ago) and the bottom cut quality was pretty terrible. I should have returned it because I just used the router to cut dados.

[Jim Becker]

Charlie, it's just a stacked dado like you know with the addition of a method for slightly varying width by turning the hub in either direction with the same effect as adding shims. Better than shims when you think about it because it can be "any" width within the supported range, not just certain fixed widths that finite thickness shims provide. That said, for wood, that might not matter so much...it's more of a convenience than handling the shims.

[Jon Nuckles]

I have been happy with my Freud 8" Super Dado set. It is much better than the first dado set I had, but I cannot recall what that one was. As has been said above, the outer blades of the Freud set do cut very slightly deeper than the chippers so the bottom is not truly flat.

[Ole Anderson]

Freud Dial-A-Width 8" dado stack, because you don't need to fool with shims, and it comes with a great wall chart.

[Peter Christensen]

Does the Freud Dial-A-Width set come in a version without the chip limiters for use in a SawStop?

Never mind. I went to the Freud site and it only comes with chip limiters.

[Phillip Gregory]

I have used several dado sets over the years ranging from an 8" Craftsman two-blade "dial-a-width" wobble set to a 12" Freud Super Dado set.

- Forget wobble blades. Wobble blades leave a concave-bottomed groove/dado which is only useful for full-width grooves and dados that have their ends hidden. You can't make lap joints, tenons, or rabbets with one and considering a cheap stack dado doesn't cost much more, wobble blades are best left in the dustbin of history. My Dad had one when I was growing up and I got to see its many limitations firsthand.

- A cheap stack dado vs. a nice stack dado is identical to a cheap saw blade vs. an expensive saw blade. A cheap stack dado will make the same cuts as an expensive stack dado but will generally not be as well jointed as a good stack dado (you'll see slight grooves in the bottom of the dado) and typically have more chipping in veneers and tear-out. I have a cheap 8" diameter, 5/8" bore stack dado in my cabinet saw that I got a long time ago. I got the inch bore 12" Freud Super Dado (SD512) set for my 16"/20" radial arm saw as it was one of the few dado sets that was large enough diameter so that the bottom of the motor wouldn't hit the workpiece before the blade teeth would. The difference in cut quality is noticeable between the Freud set on the RAS vs. the cheap set on the tablesaw. However, it's much less noticeable than between the cheap stack dado vs. a wobble dado.

- If you want the absolute cleanest/nicest joinery, a router or shaper yields notably nicer results than even a pricey dado set will. A router is noisy, slow, and messy and a shaper is limited to cuts within a few inches of the end or edges of the board, but if they can make the cut, they do it notably better than a dado stack will.

I personally use a shaper for rabbets, tenons, and bridle joints. I use the Freud stack dado on my RAS for half-laps and most dados and grooves that are safe to cut that way, and the cheap stack dado on the cabinet saw gets used for the very few things that I would have otherwise needed to use a router and straghtedge to accomplish (as long as the cut quality is sufficient for the task, which it often is in this case.)

[Martin Siebert]

Thanks for the replies fellas, all information is greatly appreciated!!! I tried out my Oshlun dado set today and it works perfect!! I am very happy with this set up. It fits the arbor very snug with no play at all and runs very, very smooth and quiet. It cut real nice perfect dados with a flat, non-grooved bottom and perfect square sides. The dados I cut this afternoon were dead on size based on the manual. I am certain there are probably many fine sets out there for sure, but I can say now with first hand experience that this one works just fine. Thanks again everyone!!!