Need a Dado blade recomendation...

[Matthew Curtis]

Looking to buy a new dado blade. The old one is old and in rough shape. It was a cheapie anyways so I thought I would look into buying a new one. I was hoping that a few of the folks here would have some recomendations on a new one.

Thanks

[Greg Bender]

Matt,
I had the Freud 8" super dado and just bought a 12" cabinet saw with a 1" arbor so I had to mreplace the dado set so I bought the freud 10" super dado. It is a heck of a dado set.Flat bottom dados and with the extra chipper and the shim set I can deal with any thickness of plywood. There are alot of choices ,Freud, Amana,Infinity to name a few but the freud just does the job well.
Good luck on your choice,
Greg

[Jamie Buxton]

I've been using a Freud SD206 for at least fifteen years. It works well -- small bat ears, not much splintering. On a Unisaw, the six inch blade diameter gives a maximum depth of an inch. That's as much as I've ever needed.

[Ellen Benkin]

I love my 6" Freud set. I have never needed a larger size and it comes in a nifty carrying case with the Freud lifetime guarantee. One of my blades chipped and I sent the set off to Freud and think I got a new set in return.

[Jeff Duncan]

The Freud's a pricey set...but it really does a fantastic job. If your budget allows it I'd go for it.

good luck,
JeffD

[Bill White]

Look on the _Bay for any Onsrud offerings. If they are still available, jump on one.
Bill

[Rich Engelhardt]

It would help a lot to know what price range you're thinking of.
My SD206 ran me $79.00 at Lowes a few years ago.
While it's a decent set, I hear more good about the DeWalt set that's a little more ~ $105.00 and the Oshlun set that's less ~ $66.00.

Or are you thinking of going whole hog w/something like a Forrest or Freud Super Dado? ~$200.00 and up.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

As Rich stated, understanding your budget might be useful.... I recently dumped my previous set for a set from Forrest Dado King, which is certainly one of the top sets available. I would be hard pressed to buy anything else. Many agree

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...rest-Dado-King

Note that although the iniitial poster returned his Oshlun, some like it and it is significantly less expensive

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...shlun-Dado-Set!

To quote from Gordon in this post:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ck-dado-blades

Woodworkers Journal tested many of the current list of stacked dado blades and gave top marks to Amana, Freud and Infinity when all things were considered (including price). The Forrest dado king would come out on top if price were no object; however, it sells for close to $300 where the others are closer to $200. I do own the Forrest set and have nothing but praise for it.

I would also expect excellent results from Tenru and Infinity.

If you look around on this forum, you will see that many people use (and like) their Freud set. The Freud is less expensive than the Forrest Dado King.

Just make sure that you can use the Dado set that you purchase on your saw. Before I knew better, I purchased a 10" DADO set for my 10" table saw. Seems that a 10" set is too much to swing for most 10" saws, so now I own an 8" set. A 6" set will not give you the depth of cut, but will probably cut as deep as you are likely to want to DADO, and it will weigh less (so you will not stress the motor as much or the arbor bolt... well, I guess that is probably true, and more spinning mass will probably produce fewer variations, not that I ever heard anyone say that wlil matter).

I considered the variable Freud Dado set, but it seems that it will NOT work on my SawStop.... Or was that my previous saw it would not work on. Hmmm. The important point is that you also need to make sure it will work on your saw.

Sorry for the long winded comments.

[Van Huskey]

If you budget allows I would get the Dado King but there are plenty of good choices from about $100 up. What is your budget?

[Kent A Bathurst]

If you budget allows I would get the Dado King ..........

Yep. Cry once. My set is ~12 years old. Still cuts perfectly. I only use Forrest factory sharpening, FWIW - don't want to start that argument for the nth time, though.

Normally, I would make the observation that I'd guess I could have gotten by just fine with the 6" set, v my 8" set - but Forrest has the 8" "on sale" for only $10 more than the 6"....which is still two-sixty. As noted....cry once.

[Van Huskey]

Normally, I would make the observation that I'd guess I could have gotten by just fine with the 6" set, v my 8" set - but Forrest has the 8" "on sale" for only $10 more than the 6"....which is still two-sixty. As noted....cry once.

The only time I really have used the capacity of my 8" sets is when using a sled, however given the cost difference between them the only way I would get a 6" set is if I had a low HP table saw or I got a massively good deal on a 6" vs an 8".

[Jefferey Scott]

Forrest Dado King here also. Cuts perfect cross cuts with no tear out in plywood. Worth every penny in my opinion.

[Sam Blanchard]

I've had really good cuts with my Infinity Dadonator and recommend it with no reservations. Flat bottoms and clean shoulders. I'm not sure about pricing, but they do go on sale every now and again.

[Stew Hagerty]

+1 on a Freud Super Dado. I've used a SD508 For a long time now and love it. I was planning on getting the 6" but the 8" happened to be on sale for the same price when I went to buy it. And since then I have used it to notch out a few things that the 6" would not have been able to do, so I'm glad I had the larger size.

[Matthew Curtis]

staying around $100 would be good