Tear out from dado blade

[Jason Scott]

Hey all,

While milling the legs for my coffee table I was making the notches in the legs with my new Freud dado set. I noticed that there is a lot of tear out on the back side of the dado. I tried scoring it first but that only seems to help a small amount. Is this normal? Is there a way to prevent it? Would putting blue painters tape on it help? Thanks,

jason

[Greg Cole]

Jason,
One thing you will find very useful is a bunch of shop made ZCI's for the common dado widths you use. Make'em from BB ply or other scrap material (mdf etc) the same thickness as the stock throat plate. or if you are feeling flush in the wallet, but some phenolic ones and customize them....
I have 3-4 of them for the various dado sizes I make on the TS, made from UHMW scrap from the day job.
Routing them with spiral bits is another option with lesser damage.
Walnut is splintery isn't it.....:cool:

Cheers.
Greg

[Charles McCracken]

Blow out on the exit of a dado is common but can be minimized/eliminated. The most effective solution is to always use a sacrificial backer board. Also helpful is to make multiple light cuts when cutting deeper dadoes

[Jason Scott]

Thanks guys, Charles, I didn't even think of that, will do that for the rest of them, thanks again,

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Could also be a misaligned fence.

[David Duke]

As usual Charles has it right......the sacrificial backer board will most apt cure your problems.