dado blades

hello all ' i am looking for a good but not outrageously priced 8 inch dado blade for my table saw. also i'm not sure exactly what type (stacked dado, craftsman excaliber, or other) to buy. if anyone could maybe tell me what kind of dado blade you have and maybe tell me the pros and cons that would be very helpfull to me or to anyone else interested in this topic. thanks for your help ' harry

Reply to
Harry De Witt
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I got the Freud 8" stack dado and never looked back.

It does a very good job for me.

HTH

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

Stay away from wobble dados. Stay away from Craftsman blades. The Freud adjustable is nice, but I've heard it won't work in Craftsman saws (if that's what you have). It's also about $250. The Freud Professional (or something like that) would be a great stacked dado but is around $150. The Freud regular (not its name) is about $85, and I don't see how you could go wrong with it. Forrest makes them. Amana makes them.

It's mostly how much you want to spend, or what your price/performance goals are.

Still, I think the $85 Freud is a really good choice. (I think it's about $83 at Amazon and you can opt for free shipping)

- - LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

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Reply to
LRod

On Tue 15 Jun 2004 08:26:02p, "Lew Hodgett" wrote in news:KkNzc.1781$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:

For stuff in the Freud price range and up, you don't have to worry about your blade speed. For dado blades below that, like the Avenger, check your rpms before you buy. The Avenger set is rated for 4500 and I had to change the pulleys on my Grizzly 1022 to use it without worrying.

I paid 50 bucks for that set on sale at Woodcraft and it's done just fine. I make very few dados, though.

Dan

Reply to
Dan

I have a Ridge Carbide and like it very much. Bought it at a show along with a combination blade and got a good deal..

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Check out Fine Woodworking from maybe a month ago. They did some blade comparisons. and there are a few good ones out there. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net

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Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

The Freud "professional" model number SD208 is the $90 one. The better one is called the "super" dado, model number SD508 and it is like $165. The SD608 "dial-a-width" is the same blade as the SD508 but with the shimless feature, and it costs about $230. That said, I have the SD208 and it performs well in most respects. There is a little more scoring in the corners than I'd like, and the shims aren't marked as to which is what thickness, but it's really reasonable for the price. Plus my local Lowe's stocks them. It's actually the best dado blade in the store.

I'll second that reccomendation.

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie Mraz

I have the Freud SD208 8" Stacked set Very good for the asking price. Around $100

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Reply to
Woodcrafter

FWIW, I'd avoid the Excalibur. For openers, out of the box it doesn't adjust--the Governator might be able to turn the adjustment ring but no ordinary mortal can --take it apart and clean all the preservative off of it and lubricate it properly and then it adjusts, sort of. Not just mine--the one they have on display in the store is the same way. Still stiff enough to need the wrench that they provide and the adjusting ring doesn't have any good flats to put the wrench on. It has a huge center hub that limits the cut depth--it won't cut any deeper than a 6" on most saws and on some it won't cut as deep. It has lots of small parts that look to have been designed to get lost in the sawdust.

Some of the parts are aluminum or some other soft alloy with no surface treatment. Touch them and the next morning they have permanently engraved black fingerprints on them. Doesn't affect function but makes me wonder how long they'll hold up in regular use and it looks like Hell.

However, contrary to what some claim, it's not a wobble dado--the three blades are always parallel. All three have offset teeth that form the rakers--effectively there are anywhere from 2 to 6 raker teeth active at a given position depending on the width of the cut.

I've got one that I'd like to take back but I'm still looking for the screw that fell in the sawdust.

You can get the high-end of the Forrest or Freud lines for not a whole lot more than the Excalibur--if you're going to spend that kind of money I'd go for one of them.

After finding out that the Excalibur wouldn't do what I wanted to do, I debated the Freud SD608 or the Forrest Dado King and finally what decided me was that I had to drive 45 minutes past the place that had the Forrest to look at the Freud and that day I just didn't feel like the drive. So far I'm happy with the Forrest. Very clean, very precise cut.

Reply to
J. Clarke

I bought a couple of Freud dados.

I bought a Freud SD208 and an SD308 dado. The SD208 is touted as the dado for woodworkers in the magazines. I found that the SD308 was the best for my purposes (no blowout in crosscut of solid woods.). The concept of what a negative hook and positive hook tooth does does not seem to be well known. You can find info on the SD208 and the SD508 and now there has been a lot of interest generated in the SD608 (all negative hook blades). The SD308 is called the "safety dado". What the heck does that title do for me? I think the real message should be that it does a great job in solid wood with little chip-out for a reasonable price...oh, yes it also has an anti-kickback design (to me not the number one specification).

I purchased the SD308 dado from the recommendations of a Freud technical representative. I used this to put grooves in the sides of a set of drawers about 3/4 inch wide by 1/4 inch deep. Let me tell you. Using this dado over the SD208 dado was safer, faster and less nerve wracking than using the SD208. The reason it was safer was not just the anti-kickback feature. It was also because it was easier to feed and I could do the dado in one pass where it took about 3 passes to do it with the SD208. I realize that the easier feed pressure could necessitate the anti-kickback design, but why is that the primary feature?

Trim saw blades

In researching blades for the Dewalt trim saw, I was completely confused. The Woodcraft Supply and local wood machine suppliers do not really know the difference in blades that are available for this saw and the literature I have seen is not clear. Freud says that their TK004 is the BEST for plywood. I wonder if there are other people out there that would love to know that. I don't know where I can find that blade in the local area (Ann Arbor, MI). Electric Tool and Supply on State Street was the only place locally that I know that had the TK003.

In the full-line Freud catalog, the 5 3/8 trim saw blades are described. Although the specifications are shown in detail, there is no performance distinction between the TK003 and TK004. Is that really true? I believe that if I were very concerned about plywood, I would want the TK004 (which no one sells locally and I would have to buy on the Internet). I bought the TK003, but I think I would gladly pay the difference in price (about $18 for TK003 vs. $24 for the TK004) for (what I perceive would be) the difference in performance in plywood.

Reply to
Eric Anderson

many thanks to all that replied.

Reply to
Harry De Witt

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