Thinking about buying dado blade set

[wwalker47]

I thinking about buying a dado blade for my table saw.

What is the difference between a 6" and a 8" blade (yea, I know...2"). But really why one over the other?

Any body know anything about a Mibro 416371 8-Inch Stacking Dado Blade Set or their Mibro 491070 6-Inch Stacking Dado Blade sets?

Thanks in advance for the info.

-Bill

[greatdane2]

The larger would give you more speed and might be a bit heavier and so less vibration or flutter.

[Paul S WI]

Well Bill there is the price difference and depth of cut. But most importantly is the size of the motor required to swing that much blade around. A 6 inch dado set is best for the smaller 1 1/2 hp table saw.

[lucky788scroller]

I agree with Paul.I have an 8 inch stacked Freud set, its all that my craftsman contractor saw can handle (and more than that circuit its plugged into can handle).If you dont really ever see a need for a very deep dado cut, go with the 6 inch model.

[sawdustus]

I love my Freud 8" super stacked dado set. It works beautifully on my 1 1/2 hp Delta contractors saw (as long as I remember to plug it into the 20amp circuit not the 15. I understand that the newer sets (mine is 12 years old) come with a 3/32 chipper that lets you adjust to the thinner plywoods they are making these days. My set has a bunch of shims that really let you adjust the width of the dado to less than 1/128" if you really need to.
I would stay away from the dado sets that dial the thickness. They tend to be less accurate and to lose their setting if there is too much vibration.

george

[marshall]

Originally Posted by sawdustus

I love my Freud 8" super stacked dado set. It works beautifully on my 1 1/2 hp Delta contractors saw (as long as I remember to plug it into the 20amp circuit not the 15. I understand that the newer sets (mine is 12 years old) come with a 3/32 chipper that lets you adjust to the thinner plywoods they are making these days. My set has a bunch of shims that really let you adjust the width of the dado to less than 1/128" if you really need to.
I would stay away from the dado sets that dial the thickness. They tend to be less accurate and to lose their setting if there is too much vibration.

george

Bill : I agree with George for I have the 8" Freud set also on my Delta its great , but stay away from those so called wobble dado sets for their junk and you'll throw your money away............Marshall

[theframer]

Bill,
I bought an off brand 8 inch dado set through a catalog and it is a piece of junk. When I decide to replace it, I am going to buy the Freud 6 inch, this was just another example of the fact that there are no cheap tools. I have a very small shop area in the garage, so I bought the 10 inch Bosch tablesaw that folds up, It performs very well and I really like it, but I think the 6 inch dado blade set is a wise choice for this small saw. Just another opinion!!!

[Barefoot1]

I also own the 8" Freud Dado set and use it on my 10" Hitachi 3 hp saw. I really like the way it performs and used it on my kitchen cabinets. You will want to make a sacrificial fence for your saw for doing rabbits. The shims are great when you need to be very exact for dado cuts in the middle of a piece. Go with a 6" for 1 1/2 hp or less, it will do the job just as well as a 8" but is less strain on the lower hp motor.

[wwalker47]

Thanks for the info. I have a Craftsman 10" table saw with a 3 HP motor so I will get the 8" dado.

Again thanks,

-Bill

[workin for wood]

I run an 8" freud stack as well. If I need to adjust it microscopically to fit todays metric plywoods, I find a piece of masking tape as a spacer works just fine to add thickness. The little spacer rings on the outer blades can be popped off as well, so you can fine tune downize or upsize.