Replies

1. 
   forestgirl | Mar 29, 2005 08:11am | #1

   Before you freak out about the arbor, make sure the blades are seated on the arbor nice and neat and make sure your throat insert is dead flat to your table top!  If the wood isn't flat to the table, you can get irregularities in dados and tenons.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
   Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

2. 
   charlesm | Mar 29, 2005 03:13pm | #2

   What saw do you own? Can you measure the arbor? The easiest way to determine if the problem is the arbor or the dado is to shuffle the chippers and see if the variance follows the specific chippers. IOW, if you think a chipper is cutting too deep and you move the suspect chipper to a new location in the stack does the groove also move to the new location?

   Charles M
   Freud America, Inc.
1. 
   lumberjacksson | Mar 29, 2005 05:30pm | #3

   Hi Charles,

   I own the General International contractors saw model 50-175 (left tilt).  I will try to measure the arbor tonight using some calipers.  I'll also try shuffling the chippers to see if that improves things. 

   I'm also noticing that the outside cutters are cutting a little deeper in the corners.  Is this to be expected?  (This is my first time using a dado.)

   Thanks,

   Andy

1. 
   charlesm | Mar 29, 2005 05:52pm | #4

   Andy,That is normal. The outside blades have bevel and flat teeth. The bevels are ~0.008" taller than the flats so they can shear the fibers ahead of the flat rakers to prevent splintering/chipping.Charles M
   Freud America, Inc.

3. 
   Tao | Mar 29, 2005 06:14pm | #5

   Make sure none of the teeth are touching each other or binding.  That will cause problems. 

   Each chipper tooth that is next to a saw blade should be in a gullet, and the inner chippers should be well spaced from each other.

   Michael R

4. 
   HowardAcheson | Mar 29, 2005 09:08pm | #6

   Make sure the outside cutters and the chippers are turning the the correct direction.  It's easy to have them on so they are reversed.

   Howie.........