Can I cut dado with sliding miter saw

[Ray Knight]

Can I cut dados with a sliding miter saw. Will dado stack safely fit on arbor? How big? Most sliding miter saws have adjustable depth stop. Looks like it could be done and would make nice dado station for narrow boards. Is this feasible? You would obviously be limited in board/panel width, and probably in dado width. Are there other issues or am I off base on this. Ray Knight

[Mike Spanbauer]

No MS that I know of accomodates a dado set, but you can usually set a stop (depth) on MS's and then take 1/8" nibbles.

others may chime in here.

mike

[frank shic]

ray, a radial arm saw would work much better.

[Eric Haycraft]

That and a RAS costs about half of a good dado blade... so, if you have the space, why not.

[Michael Schwartz]

Make a jig with a square fence out of scrap plywood and use a router. This basic jig can be adapted for sliding dovetails, tapered sliding dovetails, and a million other things.

Installing a dado stack on a SMCS would not be a good idea even if it could fit on the arbor as it would become dangerously close to the guard, and on these machines guard use is mandatory. Radial arm saw would be a better option, but there is a very good reason why radial arm saws are not popular anymore and why craigslist and flea markets are flooded with unwanted used ones.

[Jim Becker]

I believe there have been a very small number of SCMS that could take "some" dado capacity, but cannot remember any specific product. Further consideration needs to be made that the type of motors on these tools aren't really designed with the kind of power you need to have to use such a cutter, however, unlike a RAS.

For crosscutting dados and rabbets, I agree that the best solution is typically a router jig or if you want high end, a guided router system such as Festool or from other vendors.

[FRITZ STOOP]

The mounting bolt length (and limited room therefor) is the limiting factor. I used three 10", 30T carbide blades with the teeth woven into the empty spaces. Miter saws definitely are not designed for this purpose as indicated by the short mounting bolt and narrow blade guards. And the undersized motor, bearings, etc.

It worked for what I needed at the time, but I never did it again.

[Bob Feeser]

Specific to your question, I have never seen a dado blade on a miter saw, have never tried to mount one on it, and don't think it is in the works to do so. Using the standard blade, making multiple passes isn't even very good for the purpose. Sliding compound miter saws are not ideally designed for doing dados. The problem is twofold. One the saw is attached to a head that is designed to bob up and down, not stay constant, like when mounted in a table saw, or along a fixed channel like with a radial arm saw. Additionally, even if you press down on the front of the sliding miter saw, since it is actually on the end of a long arm, pressing down on it, can vary due to flex. (Even a few thousandths of flex can leave a grooved uneven bottom.)
Secondly, it is hard to set the depth properly on a compound slider, since the depth stop is closer to the knuckle of the arm, and any change is maginfied by the time it gets to the blade.
The short and sweet version, I tried to do it on my Makita 12" dual rail compound slider and the exactness was difficult because of the above mentioned items.
Conversely, I use an easy to be had cheap radial arm saw by Craftsman 10" pro. It is cheap because it it junk, but it makes a great permanent kerfing station, mounted with a dado blade. I bought an Avengar set for about $40 bucks. As long as you lock in the 90 degree setting and don't move it, you will have an accurate saw. The defaults, ripping option, and everything else about the saw (fill in expletive here) It does raise and lower well enough to be able to use locked into the 90 degree setting. It does hang up on the way down though, so even that (fill in expletive again) but if you go a little below the setting you want, then creep up to the proper setting it works fine. That to me is a nice inexpensive (can be had for about $75 in nice shape even though they went for $525 when I bought mine new) way to have a permanent kerfing station. There are old radial arm saws that are great. I haven't used a new Delta RAS that goes for about 1100 but I think that works great, and can be used for more than a locked in 90. I am starting to get into more information than you asked for. Hope this helps.

[Mark Singer]

If you scribe the limits , you can use the sliding saw to take out the center creating the dado with multiple passes. My Hitachi has a depth screw limit

[Ray Knight]

Appreciate the answers. I anticipated several of the responses. I have enough space that I would like a dedicated dado station. A dedicated TS is a bit expensive, haven't mastered the router guide yet, have an old Dewalt 770 from the mid 70s that was left in a old house I bought, but it scares the bejeezus out of me. Got intrigued that I could do the same with a sliding miter saw. I was concerned about the precision, but glad to know I wasn't the only one to think of it or try it. Sounds like I ought to get a decent guard on the old DW RAS and give it a try. Thanks for the input. Ray

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello Ray,
I "nibbled" a dado on my SCMS.
It turned out terrible. There's no good way to set the depth since you're working 100% against the way the mechanism is designed to operate.
I also suspect that no matter how much you lay out for a SCMS, the slide mechanism isn't at a true 90* to the table.

[Anthony Whitesell]

The kerf angle on most TS dado sets will have a positive kerf angle and RAS, SCMS, and other MS use 0 to negative. I don't think I would try this unles you could find a negative kerf angle dado blade, which might be a tough find.

[Bill White]

Make a jig with a square fence out of scrap plywood and use a router. This basic jig can be adapted for sliding dovetails, tapered sliding dovetails, and a million other things.

Installing a dado stack on a SMCS would not be a good idea even if it could fit on the arbor as it would become dangerously close to the guard, and on these machines guard use is mandatory. Radial arm saw would be a better option, but there is a very good reason why radial arm saws are not popular anymore and why craigslist and flea markets are flooded with unwanted used ones.


WAAHHHHH! You're talkin' about my RAS. I JUST got my first TS last year, and wouldn't think of junkin' my RAS for crosscut and dado work. Shame on you for beating up on my poor, defenseless RAS.
Bill (with tongue in cheek)

[Matthew Voss]

Yes - if you have the Kapex:rolleyes:

[Bob Feeser]

Appreciate the answers. I anticipated several of the responses. I have enough space that I would like a dedicated dado station. A dedicated TS is a bit expensive, haven't mastered the router guide yet, have an old Dewalt 770 from the mid 70s that was left in a old house I bought, but it scares the bejeezus out of me. Got intrigued that I could do the same with a sliding miter saw. I was concerned about the precision, but glad to know I wasn't the only one to think of it or try it. Sounds like I ought to get a decent guard on the old DW RAS and give it a try. Thanks for the input. Ray

It is good to be scared of the radial arm saw, knowing that the mechanics of the way it is put together forces you to have the blade want to jump at you. The only thing to be afraid of when doing cross cuts is to never get your hand in line, or across the blade tracking line. If you have your right hand on the saw, and your left hand holding the stock against the fence, keep your left hand away from the saw, and never in front of it, or your arm or anything else. If the saw jumps, you won't be in the way.
When making dados with it, don't succumb to the temptation to hold the workpiece real close to where the balde is, use a clamp instead. Quick Grip makes nice fast easy to grip and ungrip clamps. I must admit, when trying to find the edge of a line for the final pass, it is frustrating to clamp and unclamp, while you are teasing the edge, but if your piece is small, and you can't get away from the blade, use the clamp, or draw some lines to know where the mark is ahead of time. The danger is that if you hold it by hand, and I must admit I do that more often than not, you run the risk of the piece binding, and trying to throw it through the fence, or kick the saw back at you. If you have to get your hand real close to the blade, even though it may not be in front of it, your knee jerk reaction to a reacing piece, may cause you to move your arm, or hand in a less than desirable way, possibly putting you in harms way.
A good rule of thumb is if it doesn't feel right, it isn't.
Also don't even consider using it for rip cutting, by turning the head sideways. You get into all kinds of dangers there. A table saw is much safer, and easier to control for rip cuts. You mention that you don't want to get a TS (table saw) because of how expensive it is. Even a cheap 100 or 200 dollar used contractors saw is better than nothing. The table saw, above and beyond all other tools is the thing to get first. It is the heart of your shop. Tying to do woodwork without one is like trying to change your oil, without the oil. It doesn't work. Once you use one for a while, you will realize just how important it is and why it is worth a little sacrifice to get one with a little more power, and a good fence, flat top etc.
So if you already have a dewalt, RAS, then you have what you need. Is it dangerous? Yes, a kitchen knife is dangerous, unless you know how to use it. Google some other sources on RAS use, best habits, and practices for some tips and tricks for effectively using it.

[Mike Spanbauer]

Many miter saws have a depth stop on them (Makita, Dewalt, Milwaukee, more?) and my DW708 has a screw on the right side that limits the depth of cut (effectively creating a dado). I am NOT advocating this as a good solution, just that it can be done.... most just don't realize that it's there as I myself did not for 3 years :o

mike

[Alan Ennis]

Hi, this is my first post here, great site.
Funnily enough I just tried this the day before I found this post. I just moved house and there is a garage on the side that I am setting up as a workshop to teach myself some carpentry/woodwork. After getting a little frustrated with the router table for dado's and rabbets I realised that the Mitre saw had a depth stop ( http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/skins/popups/scene7.jsp?skuId=9296068 ) in it and I could use that.
It didn't work so well.
Firstly it is impossible to use any kind of normal size ruler to measure the distance between the blade and the bed as the guards and all the gubbins in the head get in the way, so I took a piece of 1x2 and chiseled it down to the right size and set the blade on that to set the depth stop. Couple of problem here, there is a bar with a hole in it that acts as the depth stop, when it is in place the bolt goes through a hole in the bar. To engage the depth stop you move the bar so that the hole is out of alignment with the bolt, thus stopping the head. The problem is that the bar is flexible, you can push on the cutting handle and the bar will flex, this makes the depth somewhat variable resulting in quite pronounced grooves in the bed of the dado, there will always be cleanup after the cut but this was a little excessive. Another problem is that the blade, guard, motor etc are all at the end of the arm ( as somebody in a previous post pointed out ) this makes for a setup that flexes as you slide the saw to and from the fence ( presumably something that radial arm saws fix ) also the walls of the dado were not square with the fence. My saw is out of true you would say except that each wall was out in a different direction, presumably due to movement in the slide or blade.
I'm going back to the router.

The problems I encountered:
Hard to set the depth accurately
Depth was not consistent,
Walls and bed were all out of square with the fence and each other due to flexing and movement.
No two cuts were the same
The router is not so scary to be doing that close much work with, also, not so loud.

Thanks for all the great advice on the site and I hope this helps.

Alan.
Ireland/Dublin

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Depends on the arbor doesn't it?
Is it long enough?

[Bruce Benjamin]

The kerf angle on most TS dado sets will have a positive kerf angle and RAS, SCMS, and other MS use 0 to negative. I don't think I would try this unles you could find a negative kerf angle dado blade, which might be a tough find.

A dado blade with a negative rake isn't hard to find at all. Infinity makes the best dado blade available that is consistently rated at the top of the heap in reviews and it has a 5 degree negative rake. http://www.infinitytools.com/products.asp?dept=1167 I have it and love it.

I have a RAS that is mostly used for dados now and this is the dado set that I use on it. I have several other methods of making dados including my tablesaw, my router table and my router on the EZ Smart. But for fast and quick dados, half laps, and rabbets within the range of my RAS, the RAS is my go-to tool. If you follow Bob Feeser's safety advice it's safer than a tablesaw, in my opinion. The router on the EZ Smart is still the safest way out there but I'm very comfortable with the RAS and the Dadonator.

Bruce

[Alan Ennis]

I forgot to mention that the when the work piece is up against the fence and you prevent the cutting head from going all the way through with the depth stop then the blade will only cut about 90% of the way through the width of the piece. So you have to have a scrap piece of wood between the work piece and the fence, so if that isn't square etc.. etc...

Alan
Ireland/Dublin