Anyone use a dado blade to cut dovetails?

[scott spencer]

I'm doing my first handcut through dovetails. While working away at chiseling out alot of meat between the pins, I was thinking how much faster a stacked dado would be. I finished the task using the dado and cleaned it up with a chisel...it seemed to work out fine, and I probably could have done the entire task with the dado set and a miter gauge. Anyone else use a dado for dovetails? Any drawbacks I missed?

p.s. The "petrified celery" characteristics of red elm make it a poor choice for the handcut dovetails! :rolleyes:

[Lance Norris]

Well... no, but I do have a comment. I use my scroll saw. The table on my ss tilts both ways to 45 degrees, so I use it. My 14" bandsaw table tilts to 10 degrees left, and I have used it for hardwood dovetails, but the scroll saw seems to be a little more accurate.

[Jim Becker]

A coping saw with a narrow blade is pretty quick and easy...may be faster than all the setups to get the table saw method accurate enough...

[Gary Herrmann]

Agree with Jim. Marking knife to outline the cuts, saw to the line, then cope out 90% of the waste, chisel for the rest.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Get a hold of a copy of Mark Dugenskie's video "Mastering Wood Working Machines" and see how he does this with TS and bandsaw. NEAT!

[Doug Shepard]

FWW had an article quite a while back where a TS blade (not a dado) with an angled grind was used to cut the sides but I dont recall how they were taking the middle section out. The article claimed it was faster and more accurate but I haven't tried it. Forrest started listing blades with angled grinds after that (dont use this on aluminum:D )
http://www.forrestsawbladesonline.com/category_37_Custom_Woodworker_II.html

[Larry Fox]

FWW had an article quite a while back where a TS blade (not a dado) with an angled grind

Doug - I recall this article as well. Author was Steve Latta if it is the one I am thinking about. Really a neat idea.

[willie sobat]

I have used a dado set with a tall fence to cut pins. It works quite well. The tall fence was actually a right angle sled that I attached to the miter gauge. I used the same sled to cut the tails on a router table. It was for a project that required a lot of dovetails.

74236

However, it required extensive setups and test cuts. I only cut them by hand now.

[Doug Shepard]

Doug - I recall this article as well. Author was Steve Latta if it is the one I am thinking about. Really a neat idea.

You're right. Couldn't recall who wrote it but was able to locate it with Latta's name
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesPDF.aspx?id=2748

[Jim Kountz]

Ive used a dado to hog out the waste then cleaned up with a chisel. It works fine on larger spacings but for the small stuff the above mentioned coping saw works better.

[Greg Hines, MD]

There is a jig on the Wood Workers Edge website where Huey uses it to cut the pins on a router table.

http://www.woodworkersedge.com/DovetailRouterJig.htm

I would assume that you could use it with a dado blade too, though a router bit would be a lot safer to use.

Doc