Freud Dial A Width Dado

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I changed my mind from Forrest Dado King switching to Freud Dial A Width SD606.

Initial impressions:

Box is cheap. I am not a big storage box person, but I wouldnt you know that the one storage box I am keeping would be cheap??!?!

Blades don't seem very sharp. Comparing to fresh Ridge Carbid TS2000 out of the box the carbide on this Freud stack doesnt seem very sharp.

Instructions seem kind of sucky though I havent gotten to deep into the booklet yet.

Anyone else have this set? Did I make a mistake not getting Ridge Carbid Dado or Forrest Dado King set?

EDIT: BIG FAT HUGE PROBLEM. Ummm this thing is a 6" dado. The dial a width dial is a good 4.5" in diameter. This gives a little over 1" from dial to carbide. My ZCI is around 1/2" thick. This thing is barely going to come through ZCI before dial hits ZCI. Question: How could this blade work for anyone, even those not using ZCI but just regular dado throat plate?!?!

[LCHIEN]

I feel a return coming on...

[Jeffrey Schronce]

The problem as stated via photo . . .

[SHADOWFOX]

I was about to order that same exact one. Good thing I decided to get the SD506 instead.

[Knottscott]

Tooth sharpness is hard to gauge by the physical cues we can detect b/c the steeper bevels tend to feel sharper to us. However the depth issue you noted is pretty valid.

How do you feel about an 8" Ridge Carbide or Amana stack for 20% off? You could get the RC to 25% off with a small addition to your shopping cart.

[siliconbauhaus]

if you decide to sell it rather than return it let me know

[cgallery]

That sucks. But you have a big cabinet saw, why didn't you go with the 8"? Was the 6" just that good a deal?

[Jeffrey Schronce]

That sucks. But you have a big cabinet saw, why didn't you go with the 8"? Was the 6" just that good a deal?

The 6" was a little better deal and I could never contemplate needing a 8" dado to give me a 2-3" deep dado.

Not sure what I am going to go with. Either Ridge Carbide or Amana from Brian at 25% off or the SD608. I do like not having to deal with shims, even the metal ones tend to screw up.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

if you decide to sell it rather than return it let me know

Probably easier for me to return it to Amazon and you could buy it straight from them!

[davidtu]

Is the only advantage of the dial-a-width that you don't have to use shims?

Jeffrey, do you think you would have been happy w/ the 8" Freud DAW? (as someone suggested).

Also, though the 6" sounds like trouble b/c of the problems Jeffrey mentions, just for the record... would it work with a BT3100?

Thanks.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Is the only advantage of the dial-a-width that you don't have to use shims?

Jeffrey, do you think you would have been happy w/ the 8" Freud DAW? (as someone suggested).

What is the difference between the SD-206 (which I have) and the SD-506, mentioned above? I've only used it a couple of times and I don't remember shims or having trouble with shims... is it simply less accurate width than the SD-506 and DAW models?

Thanks.

No shims is a pretty decent advantage. It gives you the ability to change the width while on the arbor versus having to remove the outside blades and chippers to add/remove shims. The DAW also ranked excellent on plywood and melamine as well as having no scoring marks (bat wings) and has perfectly flat bottoms. Few dados have all those features, and none have the DAW feature as well.

The SD-206 has shims just like the SD-506. The SD-506 would simply be a better cut. You need to get your dado set out and check it out along with all the instructions. You should have shims.