I have a Freud SD 308 dado blade and it works very nice except for one exception. When I make a tusked tenon the blade leaves score lines on the tenon that remain unless I leave the tenon oversize and sand them down to final size. Is there a dado set that will give me a smooth tenon cut to final dimension without score marks? Life would be a lot simpler if this were possible. Thanks in advance for any advice.
The outer blades on pretty much any dado are slightly higher than the chippers, causing your problem.
You could try moving the piece perpendicular to the blade, thus shaving the whole surface with the outer blades.
Alternately, leave it a bit thick and take it down to final thickness with with a flat-bottom bit in a router table. Or a hand plane, for the neander-inclined.
Chris
bitternut wrote: > I have a Freud SD 308 dado blade and it works very nice except for one > exception. When I make a tusked tenon the blade leaves score lines on the > tenon that remain unless I leave the tenon oversize and sand them down to > final size. Is there a dado set that will give me a smooth tenon cut to > final dimension without score marks? Life would be a lot simpler if this > were possible. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Use a tenoning jig and a standard blade to make cheek cuts if tenon must be smooth.
Lew
Which may not be a problem for non-tusked tenons. A sight undercut at the shoulder of a tenon helps to insure that it seats flat onto the area surrounding the mortise.
I have a Forrest dado set and do not see any grooves.
I am curious as to what Forrest dado you have, as on mine the rakers are slightly smaller in diameter than the blades, and documented to be so, so making tenons wider than the capacity of the set there is at least one groove across the tenon. The documentation states that that groove should be 1/100 inch deep.
Well it looks like either the Forrest blade or either of the two top end Freud blades will do the job for me. I will have to go shopping now for price. Not sure if the Freud 608 will fit my saw arbor so maybe I will not consider that one if I can not get a definitive answer ( my saw is a General
350 ).I have a Delta tenon jig that I use with good success but it is less cutting and set up with a dado blade so less chance of an error. Since a tusk tenon is usually about 1-3/4" in length I prefer to cut the tenon cheeks with the piece flat with a dado set. Only one set up is required. Like I mentioned the blade I have now does a great job except for the score marks left by the outer blades. This score line is what prevents chip out.
Thanks to all who replied.............I now know what I want for Christmas.
Check the Ridge Carbide "Northwoods" dado set too: http://199.236.94.5/html/dado_northwoods.htmIt's about 2/3 the price of the Forrest dado set, and gives slightly flatter bottoms. The Forrest set leaves very tiny "bat wings" at the bottom corners. The Ridge set leaves bat wings so small you almost need a magnifying glass to see them. Ridge claims "perfectly flat". It isn't quite, but it's darn close.
John-
It's a Dado-King. I just compared the Rakers to the blade and I'll be darned if i can see any difference. However, 1/100th is mighty small so possibly I would not be able to compare them by eye. I have never noticed a score line in my work but again, at those tolerances I might not see it.. At the same time, I would think that 1/100th" would not be an issue for the OP...??
Structurally it shouldn't be, but the score line is there to get clean edges and I find it quite noticeable if I've had to make two passes to get the width I need.
Anyway, next time I set-up for Dado's I'll have a closer look and post the findings.
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