[OP]
Member
Matthias Wandel has had this article up for a long time and I've tried to find others opinions on it but haven't had much luck. I am wondering if anyone else has tried this?
https://woodgears.ca/shop-tricks/dado.html
It's kind of interesting to me as I have a short arbor, but I think I could fit two smaller rip blades like this, that way I'd have a method that's, hey, twice as good as just running a single blade for making grooves and dadoes.
The bottom geometry can be a bit unpredictable but, for rough stuff, this works. I have also used a small disc of wood as a spacer to make two parallel grooves. Bear in mind though that if your was has a short arbor, there is probably a reason. Some saws are not made to take the force of more than one blade. Your owners manual should tell you about using dado blades if they are acceptable. If there is no mention of using anythng other than a single blade I would think twice.
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
Member
I did it once with three identical 10" Leitz FTG rip blades because I needed an exceptionally deep groove. It worked fine, but I'll caution that the blades need to be identical. Also, most skil saw blades have an ATB grind, which is going to leave notable stripes along the entire length of the kerf. Only a flat top grind will leave a flat bottom.
Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....
Member
I tried once for a shallow groove with a few cheap brand name skill saw blades, diameters were inconsistent, bottoms were ragged, I've abandoned that approach, rather use a router in a pinch, life is too short to fight with skill saw blades.
Member
I used to have a secondary job where I cut some material known as "glastic" red material made from resins, plastic and fiberglass I think, nasty stuff! Anyway, dado's were too expensive, not enough teeth, and after a few cuts did not work very well. I would have to make a cut width from 1/4" to 7/16", about 3/8" deep, just depended on the application at the time. I would use stainless steel washers as spacers in between each blade to get my desired thickness. The stainless steel washers are thinner so you can get a more precise width, oh I also sanded my washers down to remove the round crown they have and provide a flatter contact area, if that makes since. I would also used the same blades, I think I used 80T Dewalt blades, worked well!!
The thickness in blades from manufacturer to manufacturer will vary, so pay attention if that is critical!
A few people advised me against doing such, stating that there may be some real risk or hazards when stacking blades that were not meant to be utilized in such a manner, but I made many of cuts, hundreds of hours and saved lots of effort and dollars. Man I miss that work, paid very well, like $100 an hour.
Contributor
Worked OK for me.
1. Same brand and style blades.
2. Flat top tooth RIP blades.
To save money, for dado's in real wood, check E-Bay for deals on Craftsman non carbide dado sets. Dirt cheap. Don't use in MDF or Part Board.
[OP]
Member
My saw can't take a dado set no matter how cheap it might be, sadly. It might accommodate two rip blades though....
Contributor
how did Wandel turn his blades so that the teeth did not line up ? don't saw blades use a diamond shape hole ?Originally Posted by Dennis Aspö
Contributor
I do this regularly in the shop. Even with 10" blades. Of course your saws limitations have to be considered but that aside there is nothing wrong with it.
I do very little work that would ever require a smooth bottom on a dado so I cant relate to that. Perhaps box joints or an exposed M&T but those I simply clean up quickly manually. My sharpener tells me often about his customers wearing him out about dado sets providing a dead smooth bottom and many of them are cabinet shops that I know are not dealing with exposed dado's, it just seems nuts to me.
Again, if I needed it, or it saved me a lot of labor to cleanup, thats one thing but I rarely have an issue with it.
I often use paper ships, manila shims, and so on, cut precisely, to tweak dado sets.
Member
I've stacked various blades like that, no big deal. One time I needed to make a groove in some brass angle 0.015" wider than my non-ferrous saw blade and I put a shim of brass between the flange washer and blade to create a wobble effect. Worked like a charm. There were 5 grooves 1" apart so didn't want to move the fence twice for each groove. I used a 1" spacer block on the miter guide for each groove. As Metalsmith I use woodworking table saws, miter saws routers routinely for non-ferrous metals such as brass, zinc, copper, etc.
Last edited by Rick Lizek; 07-23-2014 at 4:45 PM.
[OP]
Member
I was gonna buy a cheap 3-pack of 190mm blades to try this out, the two rip blades it comes with have flat top teeth. Another application I want this for is so I can make box joints. I believe the best way to make box joints without a dado would be to build Matthias Wandels screw advance jig, but I'd still need a flat topped blade for that.
I think I could get more blades on my arbor if not for the blade stabilizers, but I also cannot go without them because the design of the saw has the blade really near the right side of the mouth of the saw and so the right stabilizer serves as a space to keep it away from the side of the opening. I think If I removed the stabilizer it'd eat metal (there are marks on it that indicate it has happened before in its 40 year long life).
Member
We call them arbor or flange washers. Blade stabilizers or stiffeners are something different. Typically much bigger in diameter and of more modern origin and usually used on thin kerf blades. I personally have never needed them as I use full kerf blades over the last 40 years.
[OP]
Member
Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, I thought they where big enough to qualify but I guess pictures say more:
Gloves unrelated to any table saw or power tool work btw, they just happened to be in frame.
Member
Stock flange washers, not blade stiffeners.
Member
A few weeks ago I saw the new Forrest reversible FTG 8" blades. [#FJ08242] They can cut 1/4" and 3/8" dadoes by flipping the blades. I also found that Infinity tools also makes a nice blade spacer set. [#080-000]
My 1st trial run with with a tenon jig yielded a nice 0.253" tenon. This '1 pass' tenon is just over 2 1/8" on my TB. The dado setup was a perfect 0.250".
The setup for this joint is very fast & repeatable. As 99% of my mortise & tenon joints are 1/4" & 3/8" this is a great setup for me.
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