Most woodworkers buy only one set of dado heads, so it’s important to find one that works well at the right price. Author Steve Latta tested 15 sets of 8-in. stacked dado sets with carbide teeth. He and his students compared more than 500 samples of dadoes cut cross-grain in red-oak veneer-core plywood and in particleboard-core melamine. They evaluated tearout, how deeply the outside blades cut a visible scribe, and whether the bottom of the cut was flat and smooth. Ridge Carbide’s 8-in. dado head produced good cuts in plywood and excellent cuts in  melamine; there were no visible scoring marks and bottom cuts were smooth.

Fine Woodworking Recommended Products

Festool Rotex FEQ-Plus Random Orbital Sander

The Festool Rotex is a top-of-the-line choice. On its coarse setting, it removed stock nearly twice as quickly as the second-fastest model. But that speed doesn’t mean you’ll have to wrestle with it. It’s no huge task to control it with two hands, and its long body gives you plenty of room to find a sweet spot while holding it.

Buy at Amazon

Festool Cleantec CT 26 E HEPA Dust Extractor

The clear winner here is Festool’s CT 48 Dust Extractor. It has amazing capacity relative to its size, and unmatched suction power. It packs in a number of subtle but very helpful design touches, like a clever foot brake and easy hose and cord storage.

Buy at Amazon

Shop Fox W1826

The thick, felted bag on this Shop Fox is a plus and a minus. On one hand, it makes the unit much less expensive than collectors with canister filters, and also lighter and easier to hang on the wall. Without a separate plastic bag to catch chips, however, they stay in the felt bag, and the shortish zipper on the bottom makes it tough to shake them out. Otherwise, the W1826 is an excellent value.

Buy at Amazon