more dado

6 inch dado versus 8 inch

6 inch should be plenty for me but i am wondering if there is any upside to 8 inch that i am not considering

besides all the obvious things like increased depth of cut faster blade rotation

any other things that make 8 inch better

Reply to
Electric Comet
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Electric Comet wrote in news:o5j8un$a9m$4 @dont-email.me:

Yeah - Sawstop only accepts 8". (learned the hard way on a Sunday afternoon)

Reply to
sawdustmaker

Can't you use the 6" dado without the "brake"?

Reply to
Bill

No. The saw will not start with out a brake. Being able to do so would be pretty short sighted.

Reply to
Leon

not a factor but interesting

over the holidays two non woodworkers knew about sawstop and asked about it

one thing is clear again the general public has a perception of table saws being very dangerous

but only table saws

they never worry about all the impaired drivers on the road now etc etc etc

Reply to
Electric Comet

Doubt you would notice the increased speed or depth of cut. It's unusual to be making deep dado cuts. It is more difficult to add and remove cutters on the bigger blades. Consider you are making a 3/8" deep dado and are doing test cuts adding/removing shims. The blade on the 8" is almost at the bottom of the travel so the bolt holding the blade is deeper on the 8" blade making it more difficult getting the bolt off and changing cutters than on a 6" blade. On the small blade the bolt is near the top of the saw and easy to get your hands in there to add and remove stuff.

I wore out a 7" dado and bought an 8" Freud and it is a lot harder putting on and removing blades than you would think. If I had it to do over, I would get the smaller blade.

Reply to
Jack

The trick is to adjust height "after" you get the width of cut nailed down.

An 8" blade is going to be better suited for notching 4x4's to receive

2x4 material. 8" cuts to about 2" deep, 6" is limited to about 1 deep.

One last tidbit, an 8" dado blade has almost 3 times the mass of a 6" dado blade. That mass will have more momentum to power through tough spots.

Reply to
Leon

Not sure the momentum helps but the tip speed difference adds significantly (+80%), too.

Reply to
krw

That's the trick, but an 8" blade is making a deep cut at the top of the lift where blade/knife/shim changing is easier. So tricks aside, you are doing a lot of raising and lowering of blades than with the smaller set.

True, and that would be important if you did a lot of this type of cabinet work. Myself, if I'm making 2" notches in 4x4's, I'm usually doing outside work, and use the band saw or circular saw, not my dado blade.

I guess if your making 2" deep cuts 3/4" inch wide it could be an issue, but if I made such cuts with a dado set, and I don't, I'd make them in multiple passes, much like you would with a router. 99.9999% of my dado cuts are less than 3/4" deep, mostly 1/4 to 1/2".

I've owned two sets, a 7" and a new 8" and I much prefer the 7" set. Never had any issues with the 7" set, but my Freud 8" set is a bitch to set up as well as change blades/knives/shims. You'd think 1" would make little difference, but it makes a lot of difference, and the Freud blade design is strange and not very intuitive, and as far as I can tell has zero advantages.

Reply to
Jack

Yet in real life usage, the difference is insignificant, at least for 7" vs 8".

Reply to
Jack

And really, you are only reaching 1/2" deeper for an 8" over a 7" but some times that is all it takes.

Reply to
Leon

Probably only significant if you are using a marginally powered saw to begin with.

Reply to
Leon

this is a good consideration

i got a 6 inch set and even that is not a slam dunk

now i wonder if there is a table saw out there with a proper access panel to make blade changing easier

and why has no one devised a blade cassette

there is no innovation in this regard that i know of

Reply to
Electric Comet

Electric Comet wrote in news:o6ge0a$646$1 @dont-email.me:

Sometimes the existing solution is so simple, so rugged, and so robust that innovation is unlikely to get off the ground. You've got a threaded shaft and nut on millions of table saws out there operating trouble free for forever, why change it?

Let's say you come up with this cassette thing. How does it work? Slot load like a CD? What happens if the spinning disk comes loose? Boom! it hits the sides and it's all ok. If the spinning blade comes loose, you've got this heavy thing with sharp teeth going in a random direction... I don't want to be within 20 miles of your shop if that happens!

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

I sometimes drop the arbor nut inside the saw and have to disconnect the dust collector to fish it out.

I just realized that I have one of those car antenna sort of things with a magnet on the end. Never thought of using it when I was grousing about dropping the nut. Again.

It would be nice to have, perhaps, but I wouldn't pay very much for it. As you said, the system works and it's simple and reliable.

Reply to
krw

All of them. If you whine about changing a dado set you need to find something else to.

Reply to
Leon

If I know the thickness of the part that fits into the dado (measure with calipers), I'll stack my dado and shims on a surface plate, press down, then measure the stack thickness. All done before mounting the blades in the saw. Typically I'll add a few thousandths to the stack thickness to get a precise fit (amount to add is based on trial/error).

Alternatively you could clamp your stack with a 5/8" bolt/nut and measure the stack thickness directly with the same calipers.

-BR

Reply to
Brewster

I do the same but stack the set on the arbor and hand tighten the arbor nut. I always make a test cut but seldom have to make any other adjustments.

Reply to
Leon

On a "surface plate"? You mean like the saw top? "Press down"? Doesn't that warp the cutters? The teeth are wider than the plate so it would tend to damage the bottom cutter, no? This sounds interesting but obviously I'm missing something.

Another good idea.

Reply to
krw

IMHO the safest place to test/measure a stacked dado width in on the arbor.

Reply to
Leon

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