Anyone have any experience with one of these? I was visiting my brother and SIL in MO last week and helped him build some shelving units for their new house.
He only has a bench top TS and when his regular wobble dado blade wouldn’t fit, he dug a 6″ Oldham “Short Arbor Dado Blade” out of his junk pile. It took us a while to figure out how to adjust it, and it seemed to be limited to ~9/16″ dados, but it did a decent job of cutting dados in pine.
I’m thinking of getting one for my jobsite TS and would appreciate feedback from anyone who’s used one.
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You are bound to hear how terrible wobble dadoes of any kind are. I have done some experimenting with a few and have found these claims to be false. In my experience the wobbles are fine. The question is how will the arbor bearings on your saw stand up. Probably not much of an issue for occasional use. Heavier use may destroy the arbor. In doing machine repair, I have found some saws use very light weight bearings, particularly on the far end of the arbor. You could contribute to the saws early demise by using a dado of any type on it. It would depend on the actual construction of the saw parts. Something tool reviews don't ever touch on.
As far as using a table saw to cut dadoes for shelves, partitions and such on cabinetry, there are better ways. You shouldn't use a fence as a guide for crosscutting dadoes, it's too dangerous. The miter bar on smaller saws usually doesn't have the capacity. Any slight movement of your work while engaged with the dadoes could spell disaster, both for the cut and the operator.
I use dadoes regularly for rabbets and grooves on my cabinet saw. When it comes to typical cabinetry dadoes, a router guided by a straight edge is my choice. Cabinet parts are often too large to safely and accurately control on a saw. You can get tear out or rough edges crosscutting with a dado. Personally, I would scrap the idea of using dadoes on a portable saw and use a router. You will be better off in terms of accuracy, flexibility, safety and wear and tear on your saw.
Like you, I've always had good luck with wobble dado blades; and I use a stacked dado set in the shop.My question was aimed at anyone who has used a "short arbor" dado blade in a job site saw. I sometimes find myself needing to make a couple of dado's while on a job and having to bring pieces back to the shop for a couple of quick cuts. I didn't even know that anyone made a "short arbor" dado blade until my bro dug his out of the junk pile. (He didn't even know where or when he got it. - lol)It did a decent job in the pine we were using - although the width required two passes to get what we wanted, and I'm wondering if one would be a useful addition to my jobsite tool box.
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