How good are dial-a-dado sets versus stacked?

[Tom Veatch]

The big Q.! Does the Freud 608 make a truly flat-bottom hole? No curve at all? Just wondering....

Yes, it does. It, like most stacked dado blades puts small "bat ear" grooves in the corners, but it's not a "wobble" dado blade.

It works just like a stacked dado set with an inner and outer blade with a number of chippers between. The difference is that the outer blade has a threaded, click stop spacer that adjusts the separation between the outer blade and the adjacent blade. Each click increases (or decreases) the separation by appx. 0.004 inches.

The procedure I use is:
1) measure the thickness of the workpiece.
2) find the closest stackup of blades and chippers on the supplied thickness chart that is less than that dimension.
3) mount the dado stack
4) dial in the required adjustment (Workpiece thickness - stack width)/.004 = number of clicks
5) tighten the arbor nut.
6) adjust the blade height and make a test cut to verify dado depth and width.
7) Adjust height/loosen the arbor nut and adjust width as needed - 1 click per .004 inches of adjustment.
8) tighten the arbor nut.
9) another test cut if desired

Takes longer to write than it does to actually make the cut (depending on typing speed)
I'll not voluntarily go back to a shimmed stacked dado set.