How to get index pin holes drilled in slider saw blades? (especially dado blades)

[Andy Giddings]

Dan, did Dynamic offer up their own Dado set? I believe they have a 6 inch around $250

[Dan Friedrichs]

Dan, did Dynamic offer up their own Dado set? I believe they have a 6 inch around $250

Hmm...they suggested "getting a set made", but didn't indicate they had any stock.

[Tom Bain]

Dan -- Thanks for the research. I bit the bullet and bought the Dado king stack for my Felder. I love my saw but the one drawback is the limited dado height with a 6" stack.

[Sam Puhalovich]

Dan ... send me a PM ... I'll make a sketch for you ... how to do it on a drill press.
Your hardest part will be to make-up a locator pin for the bore.

[Ole Anderson]

What purpose do the pins serve? Most table saws function fine without them.

[Rod Sheridan]

What purpose do the pins serve? Most table saws function fine without them.

Hi Ole, the saw has electric blade braking, the pins stop the blade from spinning on the arbour. When you put the Felder dado cutter on, it's like a shaper groover, lots of mass............Regards, Rod.

[Rod Sheridan]

Dan -- Thanks for the research. I bit the bullet and bought the Dado king stack for my Felder. I love my saw but the one drawback is the limited dado height with a 6" stack.

Tom, your saw will take a larger dado stack, I believe the capacity is 180mm..............Regards, Rod.

[Brian Lamb]

Speaking as a Felder owner and as a machinist, don't try to do blades yourself on a drill press, it isn't going to work. Most blades have a hard body, you will need carbide drills and extremely rigid clamping and a lot more solid spindle than you will get with a drill press. I made the mistake of boring out dado sets and some blade when I first got my Felder, the dado set chippers were no issue, soft body on those, but all the "blades" were harder than you would ever get through with a HSS or Cobalt drill, in fact I ruined multiple carbide bits before the job was done.

Better to let a company that sells blades and has made jigs to drill and bore the holes than to try to do it yourself. Sell your existing stuff to some one who can use them and purchase new, you'll be further ahead.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Thanks, Brian. Vexor mentioned they'd need to use EDM to do it...

[Brian Lamb]

That would be the safest way, no stress to the blade body. Only problem is it's extremely slow and expensive.

[Jerrimy Snook]

Amana sells the 658060-30 dado set with a 30 mm arbor and full body 4T chippersbut no pin holes. As long as the blades are indexed so there is no interference between the teeth, stacking the set and drilling the pin holes should be fairly straight forward for a machine shop.

[Tom Bain]

Rod - Yes, you are correct ... BUT most stacks are either 6" or 8" (other than the special Felder one), and the 8" stacks exceed the rated capacity.