Box Joint With a Dado Set

[Ken Krawford]

I'm about to dip my toes in the box joint water and am considering using my 8" Freud dado set. Since the teeth on the outer pair of blades are beveled, is this going to produce a less than idea joint? Any other caveats to be aware of?

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Freud advertises that the dado set produces a flat bottom. I suspect it will do a good job. Getting the indexing dialed in is is tricky. I use a stack of Skill-Saw blades and a home made jig. It is decent. I have not tried it for fine furniture yet.

[Justin Rapp]

I'm about to dip my toes in the box joint water and am considering using my 8" Freud dado set. Since the teeth on the outer pair of blades are beveled, is this going to produce a less than idea joint? Any other caveats to be aware of?

I use a different branded dado stack but it leaves a flat cut. I don't think any dado stack would be useful if it left grooves in the bottom of the cut. Like Maurice mentions, it takes a while to dial in. I used a few of the shims and kept changing them until I got exactly 0.25 on my dial indicator for a 1/4" box joint. I tested a bunch on scrap and still had to adjust a 0.005 over of an inch to make the joint slip together well.

[Robert Hayward]

I just looked at my Freud 8" dado set and only every other outer tooth is beveled. The other half of the outer teeth are flat ground. You will be okay with that.

[Lee Schierer]

Freud makes a set of blades specific for box joints. The set will cut 1/2 or 3/8 inch slots.

[Keegan Shields]

Yep your dado stack will work. My Infinity 8" Dadonador set is similar.

I used the jig in this video by William Ng to make all of the drawer boxes in my shop. Works great.

https://youtu.be/NutwD7B6tmE

Just make sure the use a backer on each cut.

[Jamie Buxton]

...Just make sure the use a backer on each cut.

+1 on this. Dado blades chip out the exit badly unless you do this. The chip out is way more observable and ugly than the little V's from the tooth profile.

[Dave VanDewerker]

Your dado stack will work but everyone I have used will leave "bat ears" on both outside edges. For drawers and such it doesn't matter but if you are going to make a nice box they will be noticeable.

[Brian Tymchak]

Your dado stack will work but everyone I have used will leave "bat ears" on both outside edges. For drawers and such it doesn't matter but if you are going to make a nice box they will be noticeable.

The solution to that is to send the dado set out for sharpening by a clueless sharpener...

[Alex Zeller]

I have a CMT dado set with the batwings so I bought the Freud box joint set. If you can afford it get the box joint set. You're limited to 1/4" and 3/8" widths without getting tricky but it leaves a perfect cut.

[Lisa Starr]

I used a Box joint set of blades until recently, and they worked really well as long as I used a backer.

[Warren Lake]

dadoes came in different rake angles.

[Dan Rude]

I just ordered a Freud heavy duty Rip blade 1/8" kerf. I wanted to be able to do some narrower slots, with a flat bottom. Infinity Tools has a 1/4" and 5/32" Dado single blade. I just have not wanted to spend that much on 1 blade.

[Ken Krawford]

Thanks everyone for your feedback and suggestions. I have a Sawstop and will need to purchase a dado brake as well.
Keegan, I watched the William Ng video. He sure makes it look easy. I think I'll start with his technique and see how it goes.
As long as I've opened Pandora's box, any router table fans here? Why do you prefer it over the table saw?

[Justin Rapp]

Thanks everyone for your feedback and suggestions. I have a Sawstop and will need to purchase a dado brake as well.
Keegan, I watched the William Ng video. He sure makes it look easy. I think I'll start with his technique and see how it goes.
As long as I've opened Pandora's box, any router table fans here? Why do you prefer it over the table saw?

There are some jigs that do a good job on the router table but I find it quicker on the table saw.