Stack Dado setup gage

One of the things I hated about using a stack dado was getting the stack to the right width. Sometimes it took me several attempts to get the right width. I used to just dread having to set up the dado especially on odd sized plywood.

I had a gage in mind but kept putting of making it. Finally one day I gave in and made my gage. After using it a few times I just had to wonder why I waited so long to do this! It took 30 minutes maybe and it has saved me that many times over!



There are some details on my web site. It's pretty simple to make but it is WELL WORTH the time!

Dado setup gage

Jeff,

That's a neat idea! I was cutting some this weekend, and I could have used something like that.

I do have a silly question, though: I don't have a lot of experience with dados, and I only have this set: http://pricecutter.com/12-piece8-dado-set-/p/601-3000/

On saturday, when I was doing the setup, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the thing aligned without using shims outside the chippers and inside the blades. No matter what, the carbide teeth were always interfering with each other if I didn't shim. Is this just because it's a cheap dado set, or something stupid I was doing, or just the nature of all such beasts?

I don't want to give the wrong impression, they were the best fitting dados I've ever gotten, and dead on accurate. I was just a little frustrated by the set up process...

Thanks,

Bill

I have the same set. It's a decent set. I will replace it one day with a better one. To answer your question I have to ask an obvious question. Were you making sure the carbides were in the gullet (opening) of the outside blades? Mine fit in there no problem.

Now, when I run the two with no chipper they do touch slightly but I just let them touch. But a chipper I never have a problem.

Thanks Jeff. Another wonderful example of a short amount of extra time spent saving volumes of time in the future.

Good idea, Jeff. Thanks for sharing.

BTW, a pencil would cause carbon dust floating around in the spaceship. That would be bad for the instruments and people. But I do get your comment about excessive complexity.

Jeff, that is a good suggestion, I assume you list the componants on each of the guage slots. (maybe I should read your site)

Bill, even the cheapest of Dado sets has an extra wide Gullet on each of the outer blades to allow room for the chipper blades to nestle in w/o contact to the other teeth. Check to be sure you are placing them in correctly. (common error)

This is what I use, simple design a 5/8" bolt through a piece of wood but allows me to try different componants w/o having to reach in the saw and as much trouble as it is to on/off with the arbor , etc. Brings it up front and in view of my sore eyes and woreout back. You can see in this picture that the chippers are located in the Wide gullets provided.

But I do like the idea of prepraed info and then you don't have to figure it out each time. Good thinking and thanks for the posting.

Jeff,

Did Woodworker's Journal "steal" your idea?

Hard to say ... but check out their take on the dado gauge [HERE].

I think they did!!

Oh well, Not like I could patent it and make money on it.

Not to be a jerk at all here, but I seem to live without a dado cutter just fine. Maybe I am missing something, but it always seemed to me to be faster to make my dado's with my radial arm saw or tablesaw by making several cuts with the regular blade installed. I then clean up the bottoms with a shoulder plane and I'm done.

As I said I am not trying to trump your idea Jeff in any way, it just seems like everyone uses these blades but me. Am I missing something? It just seems to take too much time to change blades back and forth all the time when you can get by with multiple passes with a regular blade and finish up with a chisel or shoulder plane.

Maybe its the dado stack I got. Its a cheap set and I always seem to get rippled bottoms on my dado's.

"Bill, even the cheapest of Dado sets has an extra wide Gullet on each of the outer blades to allow room for the chipper blades to nestle in w/o contact to the other teeth. Check to be sure you are placing them in correctly. (common error)"

Bill, I saw that and went right out to the shop to check. I must have a *really* cheap set... all the gullets are exactly the same.

Curses, foiled again!

Thanks,

Bill

Hey Bill. Guess who? You can run, but you can not hide.

Are the evenly spaced gullets not far enough apart to get the outermost chippers in between?

I'm not much of a dado stack user myself. Guess if I had a piece requiring a bunch of dados I'd go to the trouble. I'll generally use the router with the next undersized bit size for dados and grooves or a few passes with the regular blade on the table saw. Fiddling with chippers and shims to get just the right size has always been a PITA. A couple passes with a neanderthal router plane cleans the floors and makes them all the same depth.

Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!

It's great to see your name on my screen! Don't know how I missed your sign-on message. I was just thinking about you the other day, while I was reading a thread about table saw blade alignment (you'll be happy to know the thread got me to finally order one of them new fangled PALS doo-dads, so you won't have to listen to me complaining about my saw much longer...

Anyway, I was about to tell how I have thought my saw was aligned well enough, only to discover later that good enough doesn't always cut it, when I remembered you told me a couple years ago "you'll go through several epiphanies of sharp" when learning how to sharpen a plane blade...

Oh, well, that dado set is giving me fits. Cut a few the other night, *with exactly the same set of chippers and spacers I'd used the week before*, for plywood from the same exact stack (even checked to make sure the ply was exactly the same width), and they came out loose. Why? Because the teeth settled in in a slightly different way! Dang! If I wasn't so cheap, I'd buy a dial-a-dado, and be done with it!

Guess I better go post a welcome message in the new members section...

Thanks,

Bill