1/8" Hardboard Dado

[ejstefl]

Hello all,

I am making a jewlery box from plans in Wood magazine. The plan calls for using a regular 1/8" kerf saw blade to make dadoes for 1/8" hardboard that will be used for the bottom, among other things.

The problem is the hardboard does not fit in the 1/8" saw kerf!! Any ideas how to widen the dados (or, I suppose, thin the hardboard) so that it will work??

Thanks,
Eric

[LCHIEN]

Hello all,

I am making a jewlery box from plans in Wood magazine. The plan calls for using a regular 1/8" kerf saw blade to make dadoes for 1/8" hardboard that will be used for the bottom, among other things.

The problem is the hardboard does not fit in the 1/8" saw kerf!! Any ideas how to widen the dados (or, I suppose, thin the hardboard) so that it will work??

Thanks,
Eric

Well, if you have a BT300 it has a thin kerf (3/32 or 0.096") blade which is thinner than standard. So it's kerf is only 3/32".

If you make the dado then move the rip fence over .029" which is approx 1/32nd" and make another pass then the groove will open up to 0.125".

Or, you can just buy a cheapie 1/8" kerf blade to use just for this groove. You can frequently find blades on sale for $10-20, that will do fine for limited cutting.
But, warning you, buying blades can be very confusing.

Before assuming anything will fit into anything else, it's always advisable to measure,
like the thickness of the hardboard and the thickness of the blade tips.
That's why I like a set of 6" digital calipers from harbor freight, only $15 and reads thicknesses and hole depths and widths much more accurately than you can do with a ruler or scale.

[Garasaki]

I'd approach this from 1 of 2 ways:

Leave the saw setup exactly the way you had it when you made the original cut. (Or just make the first cut). Then put a piece of paper or duct tape over the fense, and make a second pass. (rather then adjusting the fence by 1/32nd of an inch).

Or, sand the heck out of the edges of the hardboard.

[John Hunter]

I do this often. I picked up a cheap HF 80 tooth blade ($9.95 on sale) and it has a 1/8" width. I use it just for this and it works great. 1/8" hard board fits perfectly.