Routing dados

[Tom Peterson]

Has anyone tried the router guide produced by Accurate Woodworking Tools? http://www.accuratewoodtools.com/ Basically uses material thickness to offset teh router for the second pass to give exact width.

[Joe Chritz]

I have not used it but it looks like it would work fine.

I use a shelf scrap for a spacer all the time with clamp on guides. It is fast, easy and impossible to screw up if the clamps are tight. I have never looked at buying a router jig for dados when it is easy to make one from scrap.

If I was going to buy anything I would get a micro fence. I think they have a lot of potential. It is on my "to buy" list just down a ways.

If you end up with one be sure to post a report.

Joe

[Tom Peterson]

Joe,
Thanks I had not really heard of the micro fence before. While a few more bucks, I like the adjustability with the micrometer. Perhaps this is a better solution.

[Hoa Dinh]

Has anyone tried the router guide produced by Accurate Woodworking Tools? http://www.accuratewoodtools.com/ Basically uses material thickness to offset teh router for the second pass to give exact width.
Hi Tom,

I used it, and found it work well.

But if you already own an EZSmart router kit and are willing to invest an hour or two of your time to make a router square base with indicator lines, you can have a better setup using the same principle.

Please read my posts in this thread (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=20270).

The EZ Router kit in the photos are of old version. I since updated to the current one (Thanks, Dino).

[Mike Tempel]

I don't have one of these or any experience with them but I do have a DadoWiz and have had some very nice results out of it. It rides on a TruGrip type clamp and is very easy to set up and use.

[Doug Shepard]

I've got one of those Accurate jigs that I picked up on a sale last fall. Unfortunately I haven't done any projects with dados since I bought it so I can't really give you an opinion yet. I've also got a Micro-Fence and can't say enough good things about it. However, I'm not sure you can really make a straight comparison between the two. The MF can certainly cut your dado widths to 1/1000th's of an inch tolerance but in terms of being able to use a piece of your shelf stock to set the cutter spacing, I think the Accurate jig might have a slight edge for out-of-the-box ease of use. Course it's not as versatile as the MF either. Do a SMC search for Microfence (or Micro-Fence ?) and look for a thread by Dev Emch. I think he had a pretty good write-up fairly recently for doing the dado cuts with the MF. The Accurate jig looks very well made and also comes with an instruction DVD which is a nice touch. There have also been quite a few articles in WW mags over the years for shop-made versions of what the Accurate Jig does.

[Dev Emch]

For the most part, I prefer the micro fence. I can can snap together joints with little effort. No sloppy fits. The level of control is unreal. And it does lots more things than just dados and rabbits. It actually makes a hand held router an accurate tool.

[Chris Haney]

You can find a review of the guide on the newwoodworker.com website. Unfortunately, I think the SMC TOS prevent me from including a link in this post.

[Tom Hintz]

I have been using the Accurate Guide for a while now and it really does work. I thought the deal about adding a piece of paper to the spacer was a gimick at first but it really does cut that closely.
I have a review of the Accurate Guide at the link below with photos and more details on it (and a short video) if that would help.

http://www.newwoodworker.com/reviews/accurateguidervu.html

[Bill Huber]

A little up date:

It looks like the company is no longer around but...

I was at Woodcraft the other day and noticed one on the bottom shelf under some other items.
I had them check it in their computer and it is mark as do not carry any more.

I love the tool and it works so nice I use it with the All-In-One clamp and it is a very nice set up. The last cabinet I made I used it for all the dadoes and made them all in 2 passes with the tool.

So if you are looking for one you may want to check out a Woodcraft store and see if they have any left in the store.