Dado or Router

[Mountie]

Thanks Bill, I noticed in the jigs that you and JR use there are slots for the adjustment of the jig...how did you cut the slots?

Rob

[pelligrini]

Slots like that are easily done on a router table with a spiral or straight bit.

It's best doing a few shallow passes than trying to hog out too much material, especially with smaller bits.

[LCHIEN]

TS DADO advantages

you're not going to plow a 1/2" deep dado 3/4" wide with a router in one pass.
You should take 1/8" steps which will take about four passes.

A TS dado is easy to steer along the fence and keep well positioned.
A router dado is more likely in my opinion to wander to the right or left because of the rotation of the bit is at right angles to the path (whereas the TS dado rotation is in line with the cut and wants to stay on course and the increased length of the blade in the existing groove also help steer). Add to the fact that you will need to take four passes with the router chances increase of having a crooked cut.

And the TS dado will be a lot faster. being single pass also with higher linear speed.

P.S. A stack dado can be made nearly any width in-between plate sizes using shim sets, usually .005" .010 and .020 shims. You can buy sets of these for about ten dollars od simply use a pair of calipers and trim some cardboard of various thicknesses. This is helpful to fit plywood shelves.

A router cut width is based on the diameter of the bits and so is not shimmable. The way to make arbitrary width grooves is to use a slightly smaller bit and make two passes with two guides or a special jig you were shown. Of course that doubles the passes, so what was 4 passes is now 8, but who's counting.

[Mountie]

Thanks LCHIEN, That makes a lot of sense...

I'm going to order the Oshlun set tomorrow and build a router jig over the holidays...I like the ones that Bill and JR posted...I guess I'll ultimately decide which side of the fence (no pun intended.. )I'm on after using both....

Thanks again for all the opinions and advice!

Rob

[Sawatzky]

I use a dado stack on my TS. The main reason I like the dado is I can get excellent dust collection with my DC running. With a router you have chips and saw dust everywhere!

[pelligrini]

The type of wood and grain orientation can make a difference too. I'll get less tearout on solid red oak with a dado stack than I will with a router. Sharp, clean router bits will help. I'll still use my router if it's just one or two. If I have to do a bunch I'll use a stack.

Allthough, the last couple smaller dados I did I made two outside cuts with the thin kerf blade in my tablesaw a few more quick passes in between and then cleaned it up with a router plane.