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I have the SS stacked dado set and have been very dissatisfied with the quality of cuts it makes. The bottoms are very rough and uneven. Do others have similar problems or do I have a "lemon"? Are there other brands you are more satisfied with?

gregwarren wrote:I have the SS stacked dado set and have been very dissatisfied with the quality of cuts it makes. The bottoms are very rough and uneven. Do others have similar problems or do I have a "lemon"? Are there other brands you are more satisfied with?

I have a Craftsman, does the same thing.

I was never happy with my SS dado set. I bought a Freud set and it's great.

It's just like regular saw blades. My SS worked but the cuts always required jointer or sanding to clean up and the unit was 'laboring' on long thick rip cuts. With my Forrest WWII my edges are much cleaner and I can rip thicker stock.

All that said, more and more I'm using a router to cut dados and not the stacked dado set.

I'm probably extreme, but if the dados have to be perfect; I hog out an undersized dado with my cheap craftman stacked dado set and then flatten the bottom and trim the sides on the router table.

This way, I'm not making so many passess on the router table, but I'm still getting quality dados. I also have a micro adjustment on my router table fence so I can "sneak up" on the final width. I guess I am a little obsessed -- I should just buy a set of good quality stack dadoes and get on with life.

gregwarren wrote:I have the SS stacked dado set and have been very dissatisfied with the quality of cuts it makes. The bottoms are very rough and uneven. Do others have similar problems or do I have a "lemon"? Are there other brands you are more satisfied with?

Greg
First I think most stacked dado's are fairly rough on the bottom of the cut. The adjustable makes a smooth cut but they also tend to curve the bottom.

Actually having a rough bottom is not a problem unless the dado can be viewed from the side. If that is the case I do one of two things. Either clean up the Dado with my router/chisel or do a stopped dado where the actual dado can't be seen.

Incidentally I don't think you can sell a table saw in Europe that you can mount a Dado on. Europe's OSHA, what ever it is called, has deemed Dado blades are too dangerous. Most cabinet makers in Europe use routers to zip out their dados.
Ed

I use a systimatic dado set and it works great. Of course it was around $125. One problem I do have is when cutting end rabbits I don't usually make the cut in one pass I have the dado set at 1/2" and make two passes. But on one of the passes it cuts deeper than the other. I use my shopsmith miter guage with the hold down. Not sure why maybe I should cut the outside first then the inside.