Which Euro Slider has Dado Capability?

[David Weaver]

A friend of mine, who doesn't frequent forums, is starting to look at sliders, probably in the $15K range.

How many of the Euro style sliders allow you to use dado blades?

This is important to him, as he likes the speed of dadoing on the TS vs. doing it with a router.

[Jim Becker]

My MiniMax S315WS will take a dado blade. The vintage I have happens to have a 5/8" arbor, too, but the current version is 1". That only requires having the set bored. You'll also need to make your own table inserts...which is not quite as easy as with a cabinet saw as they are typically long, narrow and self-supporting on the slider side. Phenolic material is popular for that purpose.

Felder also provides for dado capability, but requires a special design cutter system...you can't use a "normal" stacked dado set.

I don't know about any other brands; typically, sliders do not support these cutters. MiniMax and Felder did their accommodations specifically for the US/NA market.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, Felder provide a "dado" cutter that looks like a shaper grooving cutter. It has scoring and hogging cutters, and produces a perfectly flat groove, just like a grooving cutter.

I've found these sort of cutters produce a much nicer cut than any standard dado cutter, although as Jim indicated, you could bore out a standard dado set for use on a 30mm spindle.

I'd check on required cutter diameter with Felder first however, as an 8 inch dado set won't have much projection (if any on a saw designed to use a 300mm blade).

Regards, Rod.

[David Weaver]

Thanks for the responses, guys. I'll pass the information along.

Jim - would your saw be useable in a space that's roughly 14x27? (i.e., is 27 feet long enough to have full travel of the carriage without running it into the wall?

The shop that the machine would be going in is a two-car garage (probably a 27 or 28 foot square with a post in the middle, which could probably be replaced by posts part of the way in from the walls on either end if it needed to be.

Everything else (planer, jointer, router table, CMS) would end up in the other half of the garage.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Every saw Felder makes can come with Dado. I have the Hammer K3 and the Dado is great.

The dado (& all other blades) for these machines have a 30 MM bore with two anti-rotation pin holes. The Machines use a hysteresis brake to stop the blade.
So if you are thinking of using your old dado cutters you need to have 'em re-bored. In the alternative Forrest and Ridge will sell you one they can bore out at the factory.

The three piece Hammer cutter is a flawless piece of equipment. I like it way far better than the 2 part Felder cutter. The build it so that you are limited in the size of the slot it'll produce. I took the roll forms pins out, drilled two extra anti kickback pin holes and I can now set it up however I please and I can make slots as wide as .900"

[Jim Becker]

Jim - would your saw be useable in a space that's roughly 14x27? (i.e., is 27 feet long enough to have full travel of the carriage without running it into the wall?

You need 19' total for the entire throw of the 8 1/2' slider for the S315WS. As long as you don't keep the larger outrigger on the machine all the time, you can also deal nicely with the 14' width. I only put the large outrigger on my machine when I am actually cutting sheet goods due to spacing. I may cut down my right-side extension table to get a little more room, too, since I really don't use or need that area.

BTW, I am informed by a friend at Felder that you can, indeed, use a traditional stacked dado set as long as you get it bored out to the specifics of the machine.

[Justin Bukoski]

Rojek also support a dado. The slider comes with a dado insert and you can use your standard dado head.

That said, I never use the dado cutter anymore. I either use the shaper or a Festool router on the guide rails. Much safer...