Folks -
Back when I was just starting to make firewood, I purchased a HF wobble dado, not knowing any better. To make matters worse, I was using my dad's Atlas-Power King 7" 1/2 HP (Sears: 6 HP) and it only had a 1/2" arbor - I didn't know any difference... I didn't want to use arbor adapters cause it just didn't feel safe, and so the blade went up on a shelf.
Today, I needed to cut some dados and usually use the router for that, but remembered a couple of things: 1) New Saw! and 2) Old/New dado blade.
I knew that the dadoes might not be first rate and would have a coved bottom, but for a face framed shop cabinet, I figured it was worth a try.
Well surpriiiiise, surpriiiiise! There was some fuzzing along the cut edge, but no tearout of baltic birch ply, and I was able in just a couple of minutes to "dial in" the width of the cut perfectly. The fuzz cleaned up with a pass o' the sanding block and I was good to go. I had the carcass parts cut, dadoed, fitted, glued and clamped in well under an hour. It might have taken me that long just to find the fence for my router...
I would use this blade where the dado would be fully concealed, such as a face frame, because of the curved bottom. I don't know if it is up to doing a good job in solid wood or a "mission critical" cut, but for a handy "shop use" doo-dad I give it 4 stars. Especially since I 've been drooling over the Freud "dial a width" flat bottom dado with BINFORD technology at what,
3 large?
It's agreed that most of what HF sells is junk, but there are some gems. I think this is one of them. I paid 20 bucks for it quite a while ago and a quick check of their website still has it at that price. Whoo -hooooo!
YMMV,
John Moorhead
Here are the links -
Ply