I've purchsed Freud blades for my contractors TS before and have been very pleased, so I decided to buy their dado. The quality of this blade is excellent! The case which holds the outter blades, chippers, and shims is a thin plastic but firm foam lines the inside to keep everything supported and in-place. The blades and chippers are kept separated, while they're in the case, by a dimped plastic disks; they seem to do a decent job. As for the cut - smooth and glasslike on both the sides and bottom!! The only thing that bothers me is that the chippers are not labeled. To choose which configuation of chippers for a particular thinkness requires you to mic them.It cleanly and easily cuts through oak to particle board. No chipping or tear out.The only improvement to this dado blade would be to stamp the chipper with its thickness. Otherwise it is a very good purchase. Freud SD206 6-Inch Professional Dado
Having two dado sets already, I was frustrated that I couldn't get a chip-free cut in oak plywood. Even though I felt that the $154 price of this set was steep, I decided to try it. What a pleasure! I only have one suggestion: color code the shim stock so that quick placement is possoble. As it is now, you have to mic each shim to get what you want. I used some nail polish to color-code each one, but Freud could do us all a favor and identify each different size when the product is made. I would certainly recommend this dado set to anyone-beginner or experienced!
I purchased this dado set on the recommendations of my brother, who is a professional finish carpenter and cabinet maker. He only uses Freud blades. I had previously had another brand that was fine for ripping dadoes but destroyed any wood during crosscut dadoes. The set arrived last saturday and I dropped what I was doing and had to try it out. I spent two hours "playing " with the set, cut dado's in melamine, birch plywood, oak plywood, solid maple and oak, mdo and mdfb. Man, this is a great little set. Though smaller than the set my brother uses (same set my Dad used for years), it suits my so called "underpowered" saw. Every dado was as clean as anyone could hope to accomplish, even on crosscuts. The tearout was so minimal, it's not worth talking about. The channel is clean and flat, every bit as nice as any dado I ever cut with a router. No burning and the feed rate is consistant with what I would use for crosscutting veneer plywood. After recieving the set, I recieved my latest copy of "American Woodworker", they had just done a review of dado sets and the SD206/208 was rated "Best Buy". For those of us that do this for fun, this is definitly a "Best Buy".
I recently purchased the SD206. It fit my needs well as a part time wood worker. Lots of meat on the carbide, very accuarate when set up correctly. Set up on my BT3K, Ive used it on poplar, white oak and plywood. Great results. Freud could beef up the instructions a bit, and I purchased magnetic shims. Overall. great value for performance, Id recommend to anyone.
After finally giving up on my inexpensive Craftsman dado set, which burned more wood than it cut and had more gum on it than blade, I went looking for something that would make dadoes that (gasp) were actually flat on the bottom, at a price I could afford, and that would work on my smaller saw, a Ryobi BT3000. This Freud set filled the bill nicely. It cuts a nice flat-bottomed dado, is highly adjustable with the included set of shims (though there's little way to tell which shim is which) and has been resistant to gumming up. The triple-angle rake on the outside blades has been great for sharp, flat sides to my cuts. This is not the ultimate dado set; with few teeth and a negative chipper angle, it tends to get pretty hot and slow cutting a 3/4" wide, 1/4" deep slot in hardwood. Multiple passes may be in order. However, the size and price and cut quality were all I was looking for, and I'm completely satisfied. Unless you have a bigger saw or require faster production, this is probably all the dado you'll ever need.
It is reasonably priced for weekend wood workers. It works well for my Delta contractor saw (1.5 hp), which is supposedly "underpower". The Tool-Crib rep said that 8 in. dado blades could be a bit too much for my saw. It came with a sturdy plastic storage case. Ah, not much instruction came with the set.
I was having huge problems crosscutting birch plywood. The wood kept splintering and I could never make a clean cut. I read a review in a woodworking magazine that recommened the SD206 as the best value for the money and decided to give it a try. When I received the blade I tested it out and discovered that if I took small depth cuts, not more than 3/8" at a time, there was no splintering and the dado was perfectly square. I highly recommend this blade.
I got this dado blade for Christmas, and WOW! is it fantastic. The fit and finish of the blades is wonderful, although the case seems a bit flimsy. The plastic is pretty thin and hard. It think it would crack pretty easily. I think I'll make myself a wooden carrier in the next few weeks...I started out by testing it out on some scrap 1/2" Baltic birch plywood. I used the included guide for sizing a 1/2" dado and went to town cutting. Unfortunately, the dado was a bit undersized. BUT, instead of having to remove the outer blade and start adding shims, I just measured the size difference between the dado and the plywood. Each click of the dial is .004" so I divided the difference by .004 and came to 5.5 clicks. I rounded that up to 6 clicks, loosened the nut on the blade, clicked 6 times, tightened and cut. The dado fit perfectly, and it took less than 5 minutes from installing the plates to final cut! This system really works!
As a carpenter who cuts a lot of plywood, I was interested in upgrading from a 'wobbly' dado to this system. In general I was impressed with this set. The plates and chippers are all substantial. They are manufactured out of nice thick, flat stock, with large carbide teeth and a nice clean black finish.
I do my work on a Craftsman Professional 10" tablesaw with a 1-1/8" long threaded arbor.
The first thing I had to do was reassemble the outer plates to change the setup from a right-tilt, to a left-tilt configuration. Before making dado cuts the user must consult the manual and determine the appropriate type and number of chippers to install between the outer plates. A little color coding or some stenciled part numbers on the components would simplify the process, but if a person can read, they should be able to figure this out.
I found slipping the assembly over the arbor threads to be a little bit of a challenge due to the thickness of the components. There is no 'slop' in the 5/8" arbor hole so you need to have room to slide them on square with the arbor threads.
Practical Feedback:
This system works nice. Pretty quiet for a dado and very clean, flat cuts. I found the dial settings recommended in the manual to be only approximations. Adjust your settings and make notes for future reference.
On the negative (and its a significant point) I found I could not safely utilize the wider settings on this dado. When I installed the components required for a 3/4" dado I found I couldn't even get a full turn of the arbor nut when tightening up everything. ...and that still leaves one chipper in the box. So, using this set for wider dados will require me to make two separate passes at different settings. (Seems like it kind of defeats the purpose of a dado, doesn't it?)
I don't know whether to place responsibility for this problem with Craftsman or Freud, but as a buyer it seems like a little more up front information would be helpful.
In summary, this is a great product if your tablesaw arbor threads are long enough to accept the unit(1-3/8" or over). If not, keep looking.
Just a followup note: One of the primary benefits of these reviews is to alert other potential customers to salient issues. Based upon the number of forum comments, it would seem that buying one of these, only to find they aren't fully functional on a specific table saw is not an uncommon issue. When, as I did, customers consult point of purchase materials, Amazon promotional write-ups, and tablesaw manuals without finding any illumination on the topic, its probably a point others would like to know. That said, I still think this Dado is excellent for those with the appropriate platform. - Freud - Bosch - Woodworking - Dado Set'
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