Another vote for Forrest here - love mine
Might be discontinued, but my set by SystiMatic is a heckuva tool. Chippers are on full-circle plates, both the four 1/8” the 1/16” one. That’s a lot of concentric metal mass. The bottom of the dado is grooved, but the router plane makes short work of flattening it out.
No one ever mentions these.
I use the Freud Dial a Width, really easy to get exact width without messing around with shims. Also nice clean cut.
Forrest Dado King. Slightly OT I lost a tooth in a sawstop stop block. Forrest was able to repair the tooth and re-grind the set. works like new
That explains it. Glad I got one before then.
Are there any current models with full-circle chippers?
I have a Freud Sd 206 - which might explain why I prefer to use a router instead of a dado blade.
I also have a Freud box joint blade - which I use a lot more than either the SD 206 or the router.
The box joint blade makes dead flat dados.
My granddad always said, :As one door closes, another opens".
Wonderful man, terrible cabinet maker...
Dados are delicate. You can’t be clanking them together. You have to align them carefully. Some of them will roll around …like other
unbalanced stuff . I have used masking tape to keep them in place until tightened . In commercial shops there are always at least one
nut-case who wants to set a new world record for speedy set -up . If you can’t abide a minute of tedium, grab a broom and set a new
shop sweep up record.
Ridge Carbide
https://ridgecarbidetool.com/collect...er-dado-master
Just a reminder....
Someone on an earlier thread noted that SS recommends using a dado set that does not have the safety nibs. I believe he said the stop mechanism works better for some reason.
I never looked in the manual myself, as I have never used the SS for dado's, still use my Unisaw for that.
I do know that my Forrest set has no nibs, and my Freud set has them.
Rick Potter
DIY journeyman,
FWW wannabe.
AKA Village Idiot.
A good sharpening service can assess and possibly repair the stack you have for a fraction of new. I've run a Freud SD508 and 208 for years. I also have the DeWalt 7670 which does a nice job. I pretty much use the 208 for ply and composites, the 508 for hardwoods and the 7670 as a spare.
Last edited by glenn bradley; 09-16-2023 at 10:35 AM.
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler