On 1/21/2017 11:05 AM, -MIKE- wrote:
On 1/21/17 10:03 AM, Leon wrote:
On 1/20/2017 10:59 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
-MIKE- wrote in
news
On 1/20/17 7:31 AM, Doug Miller wrote:
-MIKE- wrote in
news
[...]
Maybe one day I'll spend the cash for an excellent set of
dado blade that do, in fact, produce a perfectly straight and
square bottom withOUT bat ears and I won't feel the need to
clean the cut up with the router.
Check out the Northwoods Dado-Master from Ridge Carbide Tools
http://ridgecarbidetool.com/dado-set...do-master.html
I've had mine for about 15 years now, and have been completely
satisfied with it. I
bought it
at the Woodworking Show when both Forrest and Ridge were
exhibiting, and compared test cuts from the two side-by-side. I
couldn't see any point in the Forrest Dado King: why pay more
money for lesser results? The Ridge dado set is two-thirds the
price of the Forrest, and gives better cuts. The bottom is dead
flat, and the bat ears are almost imperceptible without a
magnifying glass, whereas the Forrest leaves tiny but still
readily visible bat ears.
That's one I have bookmarked. I've hear great things about that
set. Have to admit I'm not very happy to hear even those leave
bat ears, though.
*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.
The dial-a-dado is the other set on my list. I think the
convenience would be worth the extra money.
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.
I guess the only difference is not having to remove the arbor nut to
adjust it.
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 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.
I thought the dial a dado was a pretty cool idea but I would not grade
my Forrest set for that feature.
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."
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.