Freud SD606 Dial-A-Width Dado

[MilDoc]

Expensive. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with it? Advantages? Worth the cost?

[Tom Hintz]

I have been testing the Freud Dial-A-Width dado (8"-version) over the last few days and can say it is a remarkable piece of equipment. so far the actual cuts appear to be less than 0.002" off of what is listed. Considering that my fence is out by about 0.001" and the blade is out of parallel by a little less than that, it appears the Dial-A-Width dado is dead on.
What I really like about it is being able to fine-tune the dado (0.004"-per click) without having to remove any of the blades to insert shims. Make a test cut, measure it and you can literally count the clicks to the proper correction. I have yet to miss the correct dado width on the second cut, often on the first.
It also cuts very cleanly. I have been using red oak veneer almost exclusively for the testing and have yet to find a chip along the edges of the dados. The bottoms are flat, the sides square.
I hope to have the full review up in about a week or so once we get done with photography and such.

[jbalders]

I seem to remember that someone got one, and found it wouldn't fit on the BT3k, although I can't remember exactly what the problem was. Maybe the blade washer?

Jeff

[doogus]

I remember this problem of fitting some saws. I believe the Dial-A-Width dado mechanism makes it fairly wide. Some saws do not have a long enough arbor to fit the whole contraption on it. At a cost of about $230 (last I checked) one would have to be cutting a ton of different sized dado's all the time to justify the cost or just be into have the latest and greatest tools. But then that is JMO.

[KenBurris]

quote:Originally posted by doogus
one would have to be cutting a ton of different sized dado's all the time

As I understand it, that's not the purpose of this one. The dial-a-width is only for fine adjustment, you can't dial from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch.