foreign this is my first table saw dado set it was passed down to me for my grandfather who bought it in 1960 at Sears he was really proud of this thing and he took good care of it and so out of respect for him I take good care of it too but I was never pleased with the quality of the cut it gave me and over the years I tried several others these are just the ones that I still have here in the storage room in the shop they're not even all of them so my point is that I've tried a lot of different sets a wide range in quality and prices from a lot of different brands and the biggest lesson I've learned is that I wasted too much money finding the right dado set for me some tools are just worth understanding properly before you throw your money away on the wrong thing so today I'm going to save you a lot of time frustration and cash by sharing the lesson that I had to learn the hard way years ago that a dado set is not just a stack of saw blades there are certain features that can make a big difference in how it works and the results you get if you think that your dado set isn't working as well as it should this video might tell you why and if you're looking to buy or upgrade your dado set this video will help you to be an informed buyer who doesn't get ripped off keep in mind that while my experience has led me to choose this particular dado set here this video is intended to guide you no matter which brand you choose to buy because there are other good brands out there so just take the tips that I share with you when you go shopping and then decide for yourself what's right for you it's true that a dado set is essentially an adjustable table saw blade they're typically made up of various shims and chippers sandwiched between two outer blades so let's begin with these on most data sets the two utter blades together will cut a quarter inch wide kerf notice I said together you can't just take one of these outer Blades by itself and use it to cut an extra narrow curve because while they may look like regular saw blades dado sets are ground differently notice how each is labeled this side out that's because the tops of most of the teeth are grounded in an angle which slopes down toward the inside face of the blade most of the teeth on the other blade are ground in the opposite direction so when you install them with the proper sides out they combine to form two rows of points on the outside of the stack to sever the fibers along both edges of your dado or a Groove so these blades are designed to work as a pair they shouldn't be used individually the angle of the tooth faces the flat part should be considered as well a good dado set will feature what's called a negative hook this means that the tooth is ground so that it leans backwards by about five degrees this makes the cut less aggressive and safer and it also produces less chipping and tear out in some materials especially when working across the grain don't buy a dado set without a sufficient negative hook Angle now the number of teeth is important too depending on the dado set they may have between 12 and 42 teeth on each outer Blade the more teeth you have the cleaner it will cut especially across the grain but the fewer teeth the more effectively the chips will be removed from the kerf faster chip removal is important because that means faster cutting and a blade that stays cooler I think 24 teeth per blade is the best compromise between clean cuts and effective chip removal not all of the teeth on these outer blades are pointed every sixth tooth is ground flat across the top these are called rakers and they're designed to cut out the waste between those two outer rows of points that gives you the flat bottom on your dado or Groove now if you want a wider kerf you have to add raker teeth that's where the chippers come in chippers are layered between the two outer blades and they give you a wider row of those flat ground raker teeth on a good dado set the height of the rakers be they the few that are on the two outer blades or those on your chippers are precisely ground so there is no variation between them if your dado set doesn't produce a clean smooth bottom kerf the cause may be improperly ground rakers now some data sets particularly less expensive models feature two raker teeth one on each sand of each chipper others may have four or six which requires a larger more expensive chipper the fewer teeth on each chipper the faster and cooler the dadosat will cut but the rougher that cuts likely to be I think four teeth per chipper is a good balance another important feature of the chipper is its thickness most data sets will come with a few 1 8 inch thick chippers and one that is 1 16 of an inch usually that's all the selection you get and you combine them to adjust the width of your data set by 1 16 of an inch increments any finer adjustments on those sets have to be done with just shims a good set however will also include a thin 3 32nd inch chipper this is going to give you a lot more adjustability for example plywood is commonly sold in metric thicknesses that's difficult to match with 1 16 inch increments but easily matched with one Thirty second inch increments I highly recommend getting a dado set that includes that one 332nd chipper in it because it'll make that possible now while it can be a hassle to fine-tune a dado set with shims there's still an important feature of any set most data sets come with plastic or metal shims I definitely prefer metal over plastic at least on good sets because I think they're more precise but both plastic and metal have a major flaw in my opinion when the shim goes on the arbor it can easily slit between two of the threads then when you tighten that dado set down it pinches the shim and it deforms it around the hole all but ruining it that's why I prefer magnetic shims unfortunately these don't come in even a lot of premium data sets but you can buy them as an upgrade and I highly recommend them they're great because you can just slap them on one of the outer blades the holes are oversized so they never touch the arbor and they come right off with the blade when you remove it again which makes it easier to take off your dado set they're really handy another thing that's really handy is a dado set holder like this it keeps all of your blades positioned so the teeth aren't against each other and you're not going to chip the delicate carbide and you could literally throw this thing around if you wanted to without damaging your investment I'll link to it below the video as well if you're in the market for a good dado set you may be asking yourself why is there such a wide range in price between them the answer is found in the difference of quality both in material makeup and the Precision of the manufacturing but also in the features I chose this particular set years ago because it checked off all the boxes in this video and I've never regretted that investment if you want to che
