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. CMT Precision’s standard 8-in. dado head produced  excellent cuts in plywood and good cuts in melamine; there were no visible scoring marks; bottom cuts were not smooth. The blade is also available as a 6-in. set.

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