Typical of dado sets (or is mine not so good)?

[toller]

I bought a Freud S208 on eBay for $74.

I used it last week to cut some 3/4" dados in butternut. It was perfect.

Today I did some 5/16" in red oak. The bottom was uneven (I used the 1/16" cutter, last week I didn't; maybe it cuts high?) and there was serious tearout on the ends.

This was my first time with a dado set; I have always used a router before. Is it typical, or is the S208 just not ready for prime time? (or am I doing something wrong?)

Thanks.

[patriarch]

"toller" wrote in news:4n9qd.4871$ [e-mail]:

It may have been the red oak. It's not the most tool friendly of woods, and is much more prone to tear out than butternut, or similarly, walnut.

If you have a scrap of that butternut around, try the same setup on that.

There's always the router method. Or you could neander the dado...

Patriarch

[patriarch]

"toller" wrote in news:4n9qd.4871$ [e-mail]:

I just had another thought...

DAMHIKT, but if one were to inadvertantly swap the right and left blades in the SD208 set, a really sorry-@$$ dado is the result. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

And no self-respecting wooddorker would ever do this, you understand. At least not intentionally.

But the arrows are on the side for a reason. Or so I have been led to believe.

Patriarch

[toller]

Thank you for mentioning it, though it isn't the problem.

Years ago I sold 3,500 door viewers to a college. They called a few weeks later to say they had installed them, but they were defective; they could see the inside of the room clearly. I told him I would get back to him.

I checked our viewers and found that while you could see into the room, it was a dim fuzzy view of a small area; certainly not a problem. I was telling someone about this and happened to say that it was like he had installed them backwards. Hearing myself say it....

I called him back and explained which end faced out. He said that was ridiculous but would get back to me. I never heard from him again.

He had installed 3,500 doorviewers backwards. So, having the blades in backwards is not so impossible.

[loutent]

Hi Toller,

I mentioned this a few months ago in another thread, but I (a 16+ year amateur woodworker) was ripping 1/4 inch oak ply and getting a lot of tearout, but not ridiculous. "Dull blade" I thought.

After lunch, I just happened to look at the blade and sure enough, I intalled it backwards.

I was amazed that it cut at all!

BTW, I hear that this is a great way to cut plastics (like vinyl siding) - backwards blade.

Live & learn.

Lou

[TWS]

Of course if you clean your dado blades with Simple Green the markings on the Freud blades comes off and then you don't know which is the outside unless you pay attention to the tooth angle.

But, as you say, everyone would pay attention to this ;-)

I wouldn't be surprised if OP's set had been resharpened on all the blades but the 1/16 chipper.

TWS

[Lewis]

Hmmm... I've got a "no-name" dado set, and don't see any markings on the blades to indicate which is which. How can I tell from the tooth angle? Thanks, Lewis

[bridger]

the teeth point forward and down at the front, with the long points to the outside of the dado- that is, the one next to the flange has the long points on the flange side and the one next to the washer has the long points next to the washer.