wobble dado

[krw]

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary fix.

[krw]

The bat ears are intentional (glue recess), no?

[-MIKE-]

I would say no for various reasons. I believe they are a byproduct of the effort to cut clean edges. The pointy sides of the outside cutters are designed to score the sides of the cut. I don't think they could do so without being the slightest bit proud of the rest of the cutters.

Just my observation.

Leaving space for glue, IMO, is an old wives' tale. I think it just developed into something sloppy woodworkers use to give a reason for their sloppiness.

[Leon]

I doubt it, I almost always have some degree of squeeze out that the bat ears can not handle. BUT the bat ears are really only visible if you are looking for them and sometimes not even then. I do a LOT of cutting with my Forrest dado set and it still cuts extremely well after 12 years and thousands of feet of groves, dados, and rabbet joints.

[Leon]

I totally agree with that assessment of the bat ears.

[Doug Miller]

-MIKE- wrote in news:o5tdoa$fr5$ [e-mail]:

bought it

*All* dado saws leave bat ears. The best you can do is to minimize the size. And the Ridge Carbide set leaves the smallest ones I've ever seen.

Maybe so. I'm happy with what I have, though.

[Leon]

Swingman has the Dial's Dado and I think he is pleased with it. I use the shims with the Forrest. If you have a set of calipers the shim style dado sets are easy to adjust with out much guess work. I can typically be ready to cut dado's after one test cut. I do not think that Swingman always gets away with out a test cut.

I place the approximate set of dado cutters on the saw and finger tighten the arbor nut. I measure, with a digital caliper, the distance between the outer teeth and subtract that from the width of the material to be fitted into the dado. The difference is the size shim you need.

I don't see a clear advantage to either style, and I have seen him make multiple adjustments before cutting, mostly personal preference. I do wonder how and or if you have to return the Dial a Dado set to Freud to have it sharpened.

Having said that, if you could count on material being consistent in thickness from one job to the next the Dial A Dado could be consistently dialed in before mounting on the saw. But plywood is seldom consistent in thickness so the setting that worked on one sheet this week probably will not work on a sheet in a month. You are still going to have to do the math to get it right.

[-MIKE-]

I guess the only difference is not having to remove the arbor nut to adjust it. I think that's probably reason enough to buy one, all other things being equal. The final arbiter for me would be the bat-ears thing and evenness of the bottom cut.

The Freud dado set I have now is slightly stair-stepped and Freud never did take responsibility for it. They tried to blame everything short of the Russians for it. They brought up every excuse in the book except, "Hey, maybe you got a bad chipper."

[Leon]

It has been a while but IIRC he, on occasions, removed the outer blade to adjust it. I may just be easier to remove the blade. You do not have to tighten the blade on regular dado blades, finger tight is good enough to measure the cutting width.

I thought the dial a dado was a pretty cool idea but I would not grade my Forrest set for that feature.

Either the blade tips were not all ground to the same distance from the center of the blade or the holes are not a good fit, or both. :~)

And visiting the bat wings again, I'm pretty particular and would never consider the ones left by my Forrest set an issue to hide. There are far worse situations that some sets do not address.

[-MIKE-]

Freud's customer service and poor quality control just left a bad taste in my mouth. While overall, I've been very pleased with the quality and performance of their products, to get the shaft the one time I have an issue really makes me hesitant to pull the trigger on a higher priced item.

I've heard great things about the Forrest and Ridge sets. The fact that they are both US companies and offer their own sharpening service makes me lean in their direction.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I have and like the Ridge. As for sharpening, I sent my DeWalt miter saw blade and a Freud 10" blade and both came back better than when new.

[Martin Eastburn]

If you are buying a stack-up type - consider a Metric. Ply is metric and is sloppy in Imperial stack-ups. I got a nice set that with the complex set of shims I have both Metric & Imperial. Look at the box and pick the right set. More is better.

Consider using older wood and newer wood....

Mart> >

[krw]

I don't think it matters. You have to measure and use shims, in either case.

[-MIKE-]

So true. I've never had plywood from two different pallets be the same thickness anyway.

[DerbyDad03]

Stop building furniture from pallets and your problems might go away.

[krw]

Hmm, kinda like the stuff we had in college. My FIL called it "early orange crate". ;-) I wonder how many splinters you have to take out of your ass after sitting.

[Martin Eastburn]

But the shims are not all sizes. If you get Imperial - e.g. an old version - you can't get down to the metric 3/8" (imperial thinking) size of slot. You need a different mix.

If you are in 3/4 it isn't and wood plank - as well... Ply is coming from sites world wide. Some hardwood and some softwood.

Mart> >

[krw]

I have no idea what you're talking about. You make no sense.

Huh? You make no sense.

Who cares where it comes from? It's got the be measured. You can't assume nominal thickness. If you have to shim anyway, who cares if the set is metric or imperial?

[Leon]

I have no issue what so ever using the standard Forrest dado set to cut for any plywood. You do not need standard and metric. Any more, hardly any wood veneer plywood is consistent in thickness.

[-MIKE-]

I agree. Any more, if you get a sheet that is the exact specified thickness, they got lucky. :-)

Heck, you're probably better off having a metric set for "Imperial plywood" and an Imperial set for "metric plywood." Given the over-under of each, you're likely to get a better fit with the opposite set.