I haven't used one, but I think an upspiral bit will help a lot here.
With a groove this wide, you'll want multiple passes, I expect.
The router bit stops much more cleanly than the blades, if you don't want
the dado to go all the way across.
This is an area where the RAS really shines. The board stays still and
supported for cross dados and is easily guided along the fence for dados of
any length in the rip direction! You don't have to worry about the work
lifting either.
Wilson

wrote in message
...
In article ,
petebert wrote:
I'm a novice with woodworking. Want to build a microwave stand with
cabinets
and other shelves that will be about 6' tall. I figure using a dado blade
of
some sort would be best for the slots for the shelves. Is the blades for
my
table saw the best option for making the straight line? How hard would it
be
with a hand held router? Right now I dont own the blade set or a router
and
trying to figure out what I'm going to buy for this project. Thought the
router because I want to use it for other stuff on this project too, just
not sure if its a good idea for doing the straight lines with.



A dado set for the TS is great when you are doing a lot of straight
dados, talking about many feet of dados here. However, the router has
so many uses I would recommend purshasing it first. It is easy to cut
a straigt dado with the router by using a guide clamped to the work.
Also, if you are cutting dados for shelves in long boards, it is not
always that easy to do on the TS, particularly for a long board where
the dado is close to the end.

You can search on the internet or check out a ww book from the library
that will explain using the straight edge. Basically just clamp it to
the work and run the router base against it. Make sue you understand
the concept of what is the correct direction to move the router, i.e,
wou want the reaction of the bit against the wood to move the router
towards the staightedge (fence), not away from it.



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Larry Wasserman Baltimore, Maryland