Freud Dial-a-Width Dado

I'm looking at purchasing a dado set in the near future and am seriously considering the Freud Dial-a-Width dado set. Is this set worth the money? Thanks in advance. Tony

Reply to
Tony Weikert
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Tony -

Whooo-eeeee! YES! I purchased the set about 4 months ago - I've only had the occasion to use it a few times, but boy-oh-boy.... Click, click... BOOM! No shims, no foolin' around and deadly clean cuts.

Go for it!

John

Reply to
John Moorhead

FWIW, I have a Sears "excalibur" adjustable dado (about 10 years now). I don't know how the Freud works, but trying to "adjust" this dado is a very inexact science. It is difficult to see the measurements and if you do get it lined up, it still may not be exactly what you set it to. Still, for about $75 it has & still serves well.

A few months ago, I decided to upgrade to a Freud 508 stacker set which I got at Amazon for $150 or so (on sale). I find it better/easier etc to simply stack up the size you want and go with it instead of dialing it in. It is a very good set and is light years better than what I was using.

I'm sure the Freud Dial dado is a much better product than the Sears, but I don't see a big advantage to this type of system.

Just my 2ç.

Lou

Reply to
loutent

I have the Freud and like it. Clean cuts and those last minute adjustments are a lot easier than juggling shims. mahalo, jo4hn

Reply to
jo4hn

I do not have the SD608, but I have read about it, and read what other people have had to say about it. Two things come to mind.

  1. The "adjustability" is only a few thousandths of an inch. IIRC, each click of the adjuster moves the outer blade .004". I don't remember right off hand just how much total adjustablility there is, but it isn't much. Something along the lines of 1/64". The purpose, of couse, is to get the perfect fit. If you have stock that is exactly 3/4 inch thick, and your dado is exactly 3/4" wide, the two pieces will be too tight and there will be no room for glue. Just loosen the arbor nut a little, give the dado a click or two, and you have widened the dado enough to accomodate glue. Oh yeah, retighten the nut. :-)
  2. The second thing that I have heard a few people mention is that their arbor wasn't long enough to accomodate the blade at maximum width. The adjusting collar is fairly wide and on some saws it doesn't leave enough threads to tighten the nut.

Other than that it seems to be an excellant blade set and as soon as I can save enough pennies I will be getting one myself. My SD208 is still doing a good job, but who can pass up buying bigger better tools. :-)

Wayne

Reply to
NoOne N Particular

Reply to
jditto

The Sears POS is probably a wobble dado - not even close to the quality of the stacked Freud set.

Greg G.

Reply to
Greg G.

Reply to
Wayne K.

not sure if it's the same as my trusty old Craftsman adjustable dado, but I find that the wider the dado, the more the bottom of the cut is rounded.. I know that this is because of the "wobble blade" design as opposed to stacking chippers, but it's usually not a big deal..

On a recent project with 3/4 dados on a set of shelves, I ended up cleaning them up with a 3/4' straight router bit.. just a few extra minutes that were probably as time efficient as setting up a stack...

For cuts of less than 1/2", it cuts a pretty flat bottomed groove... not bad for a 20+ year old setup that's never been sharpened..

Mac

Reply to
mac davis

I have no experience with this product, HOWEVER:

Today's mail brought a flyer for the Woodworking Shows' annual visit to our area. One of the vendors has this setup advertised for $249 w/coupon.

Reply to
patriarch

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