What size dadoe?

[Tom Young]

I am shopping for a dadoe blade and noticed that they come in either 6" or 8 ". I have a 10" contractors saw and need guidance on which to purchase.

Thanks

Tom

[Sammy]

Don't get the kind that wobbles. Get a stackable.

[Rumpty]

A 6 inch is fine for a TS, a 8" should be used for the RAS.

[Traves W. Coppock]

On Thu, 2 Oct 2003 06:45:09 -0500, "Tom Young" Crawled out of the shop and said. . .:

The usual rule of thumb for a stacked dado set is this. for contractor types, get a 6" for cabinet types get an 8" reason being, it takes less HP to spin the smaller blades.

get the biggest set your saw can handle.

that said, i have an 8" set on my contractors saw, i purchased mine before i learned this "rule" my TS does not have much trouble running the larger size, but as i have never had need of a deeper dado than 3/4" , the 6" would have been fine.

Traves

[Bob S.]

Tom,

Good suggestions in the other posts I've read so far. A good stackable dado setup will serve you well for a long time so long as its not abused. Even when I had my Delta CS, I decided on the 8" Freud 508. I was told that the motor on the CS wasn't enough to swing that much mass when fully loaded - horse pucky, it worked like a charm and never slowed down even on hard maple.

You may not need the extra depth an 8" set provides but I did. Eventually you may upgrade to a cabinet saw (3HP) and may need the extra depth for making large mortises, half-laps etc. Exactly what I did and don't regret spending the extra $50 for the 8". If you don't think you'll upgrade or ever need the extra depth - then the 6" will satisfy your needs.

Bob S.

[Gene]

What is the deepest dado that you indend to cut? If most of your dados will be less than an inch deep, the 6 inch blade will most likely be just fine and will save you a few bucks.

Gene