# Novice Dado question



## booklikeabook (Oct 3, 2016)

Hello WT friends. I hope this is not too elementary to ask here. 
I found myself this weekend trying to make good end rabbet joints with my dado blade. Unfortunately they didn't turn out very good. Material was #2 whiteboard pine from Lowe's 
3/4"x 6"x 42". The slot I crosscut through the middle of the board for a through dado joint turned out petty good except for some tear out at blade exit, the end cuts however were a tad crooked, but usable with some sanding. How can boards of this length be suitably controlled so the cuts are true?


I'm using a DW744 jobsite table saw with an Irwin dado stack. The miter gage the saw comes with is definitely not up for this sort of task. 


BTW, what is the threaded hole for on top of the miter gage? I was trying determine of this would be a place for a clamp or something to screw into. 




Thanks for your thoughts, 


Bookie


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

One thing that might help is to screw a board to your miter gauge so there is wood behind the dado cut. This re-enforces the edge just enough to eliminate some of the tear out. If that isn't an option you can put masking tape on the edge and cut slow at the end of the cut. 

The cut being crooked is probably due to not holding the wood tight enough when making the cut. If there is some wobble with the blade this can be nearly impossible to hold the wood tight enough. 

The hole in the top of the miter gauge is for an attachment you can buy to clamp the wood to the miter gauge. https://www.jabetc.com/products/tab...op-tool-mitre-gage-clamping?variant=297934153 There are many different clamps available, this was just the first one I found.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Use the fence, but....*

To make rabbets on the ends of panels on the table saw, the best way I know is to use a "sacrificial" fence. This can be a thick board you attach to your existing fence OR as I did in the case of the Unifence just use the board alone. Then to accommodate the blade, raise the spinning blade slowly into the board, making certain the fence is securely clamped down.

This leaves a semi-circular pocket in the board. Now you can set the blade height and the fence over to the correct offset for your rabbett:

















To get a clean cut, just make a kerf at the proper offset with a single blade followed up by the dado set, OR router to remove the waste.


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## woodchux (Jul 6, 2014)

First, Welcome here to this friendly WW forum, where there is always room for one more. Good advice from previous posts, but IMO your "tad crooked" results may be from not aliening/locking the TS fence, saw blade not being flat against the arbor, feeding the material too fast into the blade, or similar issues. Good results can only happen when all things involved are working properly - including operator knowledge. Consider checking out your TS, fence, etc., before your next project. Be safe.


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## booklikeabook (Oct 3, 2016)

I didn't use the fence at all, just the miter gauge. when I made the center slot, it was easier and turned out clean and square due to the board being more centered on the miter (20 1/8" from each end). I was thinking about attaching a longer piece of hardwood to the miter gauge like Steve said but for better stability and more space to clamp the work piece against it. Seem reasonable?


I dislike the wobble of the gauge within the groove, but I need to remember that this is isn't a cabinetmaker's saw.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*accuracy requires .....*

By using the fence, the panel can "register" or contact it over a long length. A miter gauge will only allow so much panel width before it comes off the table. Unless the mniter bar is a close fit in the slot you will get wobble. It's NOT the best way to get accurate dados or rabbets.

I have several miter gauges with extended fences, but never use then for dados. A long fence is best. Some folks really like a router with a edge guide for dados and that's another good method. You get to see exactly where the dado will be, unlike a table saw where the cut is upside down and the blade comes in from below.

A crappy fence is just about as bad as the miter gauge. So, if that's the case I would look into a router and guide. Another advantage is when making shelves with dados, you clamp both sides together and make the dado all the way across both pieces. This way it will be exactly the same distance from the end.


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## booklikeabook (Oct 3, 2016)

Yeah, it was tricky to duplicate the cuts in two pieces because I could not run the one foot width board I needed to, so it was two 6 inch pieces. The whole time I was messing with this, I was thinking that a router would be the way to get it done, with greater accuracy and less tear out.


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## Pirate (Jul 23, 2009)

Cutting those dados, is where a radial arm saw shines.


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