What is everyone's favorite dado blade and why???

[tom lucas]

Dealing with modern "1/4" plywood is problematic for most stack dado sets. Years back, Sears had the perfect wobble dado for this. I had one as my first dado set and eventually gave it away thinking my Freud set was far superior. It was to an extent, but the charm of this particular Sears product was that it would go down to 3/16" inch. That meant that I could dial the perfect groove to whatever thickness 1/4" plywood happened to be on that day. I recently found a vintage one for sale and bought it. Most, if not all, wobble dados these days will do 1/4" minimum and that's no help.

Below is a catalog cut from Sears' 1990 tool catalog. Note how many teeth are on this unit. That will be the tell-tale detail as to whether or not the dado set can be dialed down to 3/16".

Attachment 404066

I have one of these, hardly used. It's been sitting in a drawer for years after buying my dewalt set. Just last week I needed 3/16" and realized that my dewalt wouldn't do that. I had to use just one blade and offset it by half. I never even considered using my old sears. I was going to give it away or sell it. But now I think I'll keep it and try to remember this the next time I need 3/16".

[Rod Sheridan]

I use a dado on a saw with a brake, however it has 2 pins to prevent the cap screw from coming loose. I had to laugh at your description of stuff scattering across the floor, great sales moment.

regards, Rod.

[Charlie Hinton]

Jim and Randy, thanks. The dial-a-width doesn't work the way I thought it did. I won't ever get the chance, but I would like to try one out just to see how it compares to the stacked dado I have now.

The first dado set I had was a Craftsman stacked set (many many years ago) and the bottom cut quality was pretty terrible. I should have returned it because I just used the router to cut dados.

[Jim Becker]

Charlie, it's just a stacked dado like you know with the addition of a method for slightly varying width by turning the hub in either direction with the same effect as adding shims. Better than shims when you think about it because it can be "any" width within the supported range, not just certain fixed widths that finite thickness shims provide. That said, for wood, that might not matter so much...it's more of a convenience than handling the shims.

[Jon Nuckles]

I have been happy with my Freud 8" Super Dado set. It is much better than the first dado set I had, but I cannot recall what that one was. As has been said above, the outer blades of the Freud set do cut very slightly deeper than the chippers so the bottom is not truly flat.

[Ole Anderson]

Freud Dial-A-Width 8" dado stack, because you don't need to fool with shims, and it comes with a great wall chart.

[Peter Christensen]

Does the Freud Dial-A-Width set come in a version without the chip limiters for use in a SawStop?

Never mind. I went to the Freud site and it only comes with chip limiters.

[Phillip Gregory]

I have used several dado sets over the years ranging from an 8" Craftsman two-blade "dial-a-width" wobble set to a 12" Freud Super Dado set.

- Forget wobble blades. Wobble blades leave a concave-bottomed groove/dado which is only useful for full-width grooves and dados that have their ends hidden. You can't make lap joints, tenons, or rabbets with one and considering a cheap stack dado doesn't cost much more, wobble blades are best left in the dustbin of history. My Dad had one when I was growing up and I got to see its many limitations firsthand.

- A cheap stack dado vs. a nice stack dado is identical to a cheap saw blade vs. an expensive saw blade. A cheap stack dado will make the same cuts as an expensive stack dado but will generally not be as well jointed as a good stack dado (you'll see slight grooves in the bottom of the dado) and typically have more chipping in veneers and tear-out. I have a cheap 8" diameter, 5/8" bore stack dado in my cabinet saw that I got a long time ago. I got the inch bore 12" Freud Super Dado (SD512) set for my 16"/20" radial arm saw as it was one of the few dado sets that was large enough diameter so that the bottom of the motor wouldn't hit the workpiece before the blade teeth would. The difference in cut quality is noticeable between the Freud set on the RAS vs. the cheap set on the tablesaw. However, it's much less noticeable than between the cheap stack dado vs. a wobble dado.

- If you want the absolute cleanest/nicest joinery, a router or shaper yields notably nicer results than even a pricey dado set will. A router is noisy, slow, and messy and a shaper is limited to cuts within a few inches of the end or edges of the board, but if they can make the cut, they do it notably better than a dado stack will.

I personally use a shaper for rabbets, tenons, and bridle joints. I use the Freud stack dado on my RAS for half-laps and most dados and grooves that are safe to cut that way, and the cheap stack dado on the cabinet saw gets used for the very few things that I would have otherwise needed to use a router and straghtedge to accomplish (as long as the cut quality is sufficient for the task, which it often is in this case.)

[Martin Siebert]

Thanks for the replies fellas, all information is greatly appreciated!!! I tried out my Oshlun dado set today and it works perfect!! I am very happy with this set up. It fits the arbor very snug with no play at all and runs very, very smooth and quiet. It cut real nice perfect dados with a flat, non-grooved bottom and perfect square sides. The dados I cut this afternoon were dead on size based on the manual. I am certain there are probably many fine sets out there for sure, but I can say now with first hand experience that this one works just fine. Thanks again everyone!!!