Advice on a dado set

[Dave Dionne]

I was wondering if anybody here as experience with the avenger 8" super fine dado set? Does it give a nice flat bottom? smooth edges? I would love to get the freud super dado but money is tight and the Avenger is on sale. If it is worth the $100 I will get it if not I will wait until I can afford the Freud I am done throwing good money after bad.

Thanks in advance
Dave

[scott spencer]

Hi Dave - I've got the Freud SD208 which is certainly not their best dado but it does a good job and I consider it to be a solid value....so did Wood Mag btw. It runs about $85. Considering that virtually all of my dados have had a hidden kerf, there's no way I can justify spending $180-$250 on a better set. If I need a flat bottom visible groove, I can always use the router or my FTG ripping blade.

[Jim Dannels]

Wife bought me a Gift Card to the Woodsmith Store in Des Moines.
Stopped to pick up a 6" Avenger for my BT3100 tonight. I don`t need more and don`t want to swing 8" with a Benchtop saw.
Last time I was in a couple weeks ago, they had a bunch.
Tonight they were sold out, but had 5 -8" still on hand.
Manager said they were selling very well, and he had never had a complaint. Which goes with most testimoniLS i have heard.
They told me they had 84 6" sets on order, took my name and will call me when they come in. I`m going to give one a go when they do.

[Tom Peterson]

I have the Freud Super dado 8" set and I think it is a worthwhile set. I see they are up a bit in price since I bought mine so I can see why it is a hard choice. The four wing chippers do a nice job to give a nice surface on the bottom of the dado. I still do use the router for some dados and was considering trying a dado router bit (top guide bushing) for 3/4" small quick jobs.

[Mike Henderson]

I bought the Avenger dado set and it was a piece of junk. There were two problems with it. The blades are not all the same diameter and it is extremely difficult to set up.

Let me explain the set-up problem first. The set comes with two outside blades which the documentation says are 1/8 inch each, then four 1/8 inch chippers, and two smaller chippers (a 3/32 and a 1/16). The problem is that the blades do not add up to the sizes indicated. That is, the 1/8 chippers and the outside blades may have carbide cutters 1/8 inch wide, but the disk supporting the carbide is not 1/8 inch thick. So if you put the two outside blades and one 1/8 chipper on your saw, you do not get a 3/8 inch wide cut - you get something less. To get a 3/8 inch cut (or any size) you have to play with the blades and the spacers until you hit on a 3/8 inch wide combination. If you use a dado set VERY rarely and just want cheap, this set may work for you. But if you want to set up quickly and get your work done, pass on this set and get a better known set.
At a minimum, Avenger could have included documentation on what combination of chippers and spacers to use for different width cuts, but no, they don't do that.

Regarding the difference in diameter of the blades, on my set the 1/16 inch chipper was larger than the rest of the chippers/blades so when I used it, I got a groove in the bottom of my dado. To be fair, all the other blades/chippers were the same size so if I built up a dado size without the 1/16 inch chipper I did get a good flat bottom dado.

I took the Avenger set back to the store and got a better known set.

Mike

[Dave Dionne]

I had a meeting with a person last night and it looks like I am going to need to rip a TON of rabbbits and some dado's so I think I will go towards the Freud because I will need dead flat bottoms. Some of the displays I will be making will display hand paintesd tiles and they will be sliding in and out. Any ridges would make this hard.

Thanks again Dave