When cutting dados for 3/4" plywood, do you make them 3/4" wide (easy setup)
or 23/23" wide (PITA setup with shims, etc.)? I want to do a good job but do
not want to expend effort unnecessarily.
Thanks,
Dick Fitzwell
My Freud set has the necessary chippers to handle that problem on the table
saw.
If I'm cutting them with a router, I always use an undersize bit and make a
pass in each direction against a fence on each side of the dado.
Had a router get away from me and climb cut when using a full size bit ONCE
which obviously screwed up a piece of very expensive wood.
That is the last time that happened.
HTH
--
Lew
S/A: Challenge, The Bullet Proof Boat, (Under Construction in the Southland)
to do a good job you have to expend SOME effort. :) ie. check the
thickness of your "3/4" thick ply, and set up the dado to be a good fit
with the ACTUAL ply, as opposed to the advertised thickness.
dave
Dick Fitzwell wrote:
Hi Mark,
Yes, I was out of town for a while for the holidays. Now I'm busy in
the shop, so I'm keeping a low profile here for a bit. Did I miss
anything extraordinarily interesting?
dave
Mark wrote:
if the joint is going to get glue you want it to slide neatly
together. the glue needs a tiny bit of space(a few thousandths)
On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 22:02:33 GMT, "Dick Fitzwell"
setup)
do
I start small then shim to the point where a dado in a scrap fits the way I
want it too. Plywood isn't made exactly the size they say it is and can
vary from sheet to sheet, especially if you buy cheap plywood. I never
trust any measurement, just the fit. What may seem unnecessary effort now
will pay off in the end with better craftsmanship.
Try to cut a test piece a little oversize on the width. Find which shim
fits in the gap between the test piece and the plywood that is going
into the dado. Remove that size shim from the dado. Has anybody with a
stacked set tried this??? Mark
Dick Fitzwell wrote:
What he said. Plus don't scrimp on the length of the test scrap as a short
one may fit fine but the longer real piece will not because the plywood is
wavy.
setup)
do
Snug for glued jobs - my setup for the stack dado is to lay the stack on the
iron saw top next to a piece of the same plywood the project is coming from.
Add shims on the teeth until it's a bit over the ply. Mount the set and
test - I get about a 75% fit rate without reshimming.
As you can tell, there was no Starrett dial indicator under my tree!
Eric
Depends on if you want nice, snug fit or a sloppy one. Measure
whatever is going in the dado and adjust for that width plus a few
thousanths
John
On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 22:02:33 GMT, "Dick Fitzwell"
rather than make the dado match the ply, consider doing the opposite.
Machine a tongue on the edge of the plywood to match whatever size
groove seems right for the job and is easy to produce with one pass
from a standard router cutter or unshimmed stack dado. This is often
less fiddly and more accurate.
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