Are adjustable dado heads any good?

[Danno30008]

Hey everyone:

I have an adjustable dado head made by Vermont Tool and have not used it yet. My questionis are these types any good? Please understand I would probably use this thing 15 times in an entire year.. But, when I use it, I want good, clean accurate cuts and I want to be safe. The last thing I want to do is put the time and effort into making something out of walnut and then messing it up with a poor quality dado head. :mad:
So, what is the general opinion of you guys with much more experience than me?
Finally, if I do need to buy a new one, please recomens a couple brands.

As always, thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

Take care
Dan in Atlanta :cool:

[Dagster]

I'm not a fan of the twist adjustable dado heads. They work good for rough work where precision doesn't matter though.

My main gripes:

1. the bottom of the dado is concave.
2. the sides of the dado are not as smooth
3. fine adjustment can be tricky

If you prefer precision then go with a decent stacked dado set with shims. I like my mid priced Freud 8" stacked dado set.

[jcclark]

Well I have both and use both.
My stacked set when needing a nice finish cut, especially in
plywoods.
But for "with the grain cuts", like drawer sides for the bottoms,
I prefer the adjustable one. It does fine for that and is easier
adjusting the width for the several "trial by error" cuts I have
to make in scraps until I get the fit I want.
And it saves wear on my good stack set.:cool:

[Don]

Couldn't have said any of the above better.

Some brands grind the head so that the bottom is flat at a nominal 3/4" though.

dawjr

[jcclark]

Sometimes I actually like the dado bottom to be slightly non flat.
When installing a 3/4" cabinet side into a 3/4" dado of a face frame
the little curve in the bottom of the dado allows the glue to squeeze
out along the entire length. This isn't a concerne on smaller cabinets,
but on a frame and side that's 6 ft long, it can help a lot.:cool:

[Joe C]

I use the adjustable stacked dado from Freud. I have had good luck with that. But with plywood not being a true 3/4", I prefer to use the straight plywood dado bits (also Freud) and rout the dadoes.

http://www.craftandwoodworking.com

[FrankAtl]

I agree with JC. They are both useful for certain tasks. I prefer the quality of cut on the stacked dado but on cuts that don't require it, the adjustable one is faster.

Hey Dagster. I just checked out your website. Really nice speakers dude! I tried the link to hometheatershack but it didn't work. Has the site been moved? I am an electronic engineer and am interested in building some speakers for a home theater I hope to put together this year. If you have some links to helpful sites please let me know.

Thanks,
Frank

[Dagster]

Thanks man. I love building them. I messed up the link on my site, will have to fix that. Just go to www.hometheatershack.com (http://www.hometheatershack.com). Great bunch of people over there :D Any other helpful links would be on my website right side menu bar once in the home theater section.

You'll love it. Once you start you can't stop. You should hear my 4 - 15" driver infinite baffle subwoofer. Or I guess you should feel it.

[mmwood_1]

I have a dado set that's made by DLM. it's actually a sort of hybrid between the two styles, in that it has 2 outer blades which score, and cut 90 degrees, and an inner 'wobble' blade, which cleans out the center. It also is designed so that it cuts a pretty flat bottomed dado. They call it the 'Thoroughbred' model. They also make the same model for Sears, sold under the Craftsmen label, and the Sears model is called 'Excalibur'. Where they come up with these names...