I finally gave up on my old way of cutting dados for cabinet boxes

For years I just used a router and a straight edge, taking two or three passes to get the right depth. It was fine, but it always felt slow and the cleanup was a pain. Last month, I was working on a big kitchen job and borrowed a friend's track saw with a special dado blade set. The difference was crazy... I could cut a perfect, clean dado for a 3/4 inch plywood shelf in one single pass. No tear-out, no fussing with clamps, and it cut my time on that part of the build by at least half. I'm not even a big tool guy, but seeing how much smoother the whole process was really changed my mind. I'm looking at buying my own setup now, but the good ones are pricey. Has anyone found a solid track saw setup for dados that doesn't cost a fortune?

2 comments

2 Comments

brown.nathan13d ago

Hold up, you're using a dado blade on a track saw? I thought those were only for table saws. @robertb30, are you sure about that setup? A track saw uses a different kind of blade guard and arbor. I think your friend might have used a special track saw with a scoring blade for clean cuts, not a stacked dado set. That single pass is amazing, but it's not the same tool. You might be looking at a different system entirely.

robertb3013d ago

What kind of track saw did your friend let you use? That single pass thing is a total game changer, it makes the old router method feel like using a stone and chisel. I went down this same road and found the real cost is in the blades and the track itself. You can sometimes get a good deal on a basic saw body and then buy a better aftermarket dado set for it. The clean cut is worth every penny because you skip the sanding and filling step completely.

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