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Made by: Freud
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Product Description -- Freud's 8-inch Super Dado set produces some of the smoothest square-bottom grooves and rabbets possible. Stacked dado sets like this one are more accurate and reliable than wobble dados, which leave a rounded bottom in the groove and can cause splintering and chipping. Freud's Super Dado set is especially good at producing smooth, chip-free results in plywoods and veneers. It features Freud's unique kickback-reducing design for safe dadoing even when used in a radial-arm saw. The set includes two outside blades, six four-wing chippers, and a set of shims, and it stores in a handy protective case. It adjusts in 1/32-inch increments, and even finer increments using the included shims. This Freud set is among the best-manufactured and well-designed dado sets available.
From the Manufacturer
Freud Industrial Dado Sets offer all the quality that fine cabinetmakers have come to expect from Freud. Micrograin carbide tips thick enough for several sharpenings and tri-metal brazing for impact resistance insure the longest life. The negative hook angles, kickback reducing design and 3/32-inch chipper allow quick setups and chip-free cuts in undersized plywood and oversized laminates or melamines. Includes two outside saws and six 4-wing chippers for true flat bottom grooves. Storage case and shim set included. Covered by Freud's Limited Lifetime Warranty.
Product Description
The SD500 Series of dadoes cuts in everything from veneered plywoods and laminates to solid wood, chip and splinter free with a super smooth dado bottom and has the flexibility of an adjustable dado to handle today's undersized plywood.
Smooth cut; a quality blade -- 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.
Reviews:
It's definitely a keeper -- I've used several dado blades before including dial-adjust and stackable sets of different qualities. They all somewhat do the job but not quite I would like them to be. I?ve been using Systi-Matic blades, and they are very good. But I just could not justify for their $250 dado set or Forrest?s. So I decided to try one of the popular names in the business ? Freud. When the blades arrived in the plastic case, it caught my attention with its weight. None of those I used come close to how much this set weighs. The box is well packed with thick foam in the lid for placing blade during change, each of the eight blades is separated by a plastic spacer when stacked in the case and a set of steel shims. Only suggestion I have is to put marking on shims since there is no way I can tell which is what except the two thickest ones. Yesterday, I had a chance to use this set the first time on my newly purchased DeWalt DW746 table saw to make a piece for helping straighten the floor plank and make grooves in some the inlay pieces I am doing for the master bedroom. I was very much impressed how these blades performed compared to my past experience. Very, very smooth bottom and clean cut (no tear out) all the way and the blades are so sharp that with 1-3/4 hp motor I only need to hold down the piece and push effortlessly. I used walnut and Brizilian cherry by the way. The blade run-out is minimum that I even had a hard time taking them off the arbor if the blade was just off the 90-degree from arbor a little bit. This was my first experience with Freud blade, but I won?t hesitate to use other blades from Freud. It is a keeper for sure.
Good blades....terrible customer service -- I have owned this dado set for 3 years now and I have used it to cut many grooves and dados in lots of different materials with near perfect results. When I first bought the blade I encoutered an issue regarding the mislabeling of the product. No matter how many times I attempted to get the correct product from Freud they would never correct the problem. I am keeping the blades but as a matter of principle I will never buy another Freud product again or recommend it to anybody. I would rather spend the extra money and get courteous reliable service along with my product.
I recommend paying extra for better -- I used to do all of my ratteting and dado cutting with various size straight/rabbet router bits and a homemade jig/guide fence system. I figured I'd bite the bullet and buy a dado blade. After doing some research and getting over the sticker shock of the average $200-$250 price range for most dado sets, I figured that I go for the SD208 for only $90. I figured that since it is from Freud, it can't be all that bad, no matter how much cheaper it is than the other models. Overall, I think the SD208 is a good buy COMPARED to all of the other dado sets and their prices of 2-3 times more than the SD208. More specifically, here are my thoughts:
POSITIVE:
1) The storage/carrying case is great. Durable plastic with an arbor-like post to mount the blades on.
2) Price. As I said, this blade is a comparatively good deal compared to other sets in the $200-$250 price range.
3) Shims are included. From what I've been told, some sets don't include shims. I can't verify that, but this set does indeed include shims. I believe there are 5-7 differenly sized shims.
NEGATIVES
1) My biggest gripe with this set is that the bottom of the cuts are far from being flat. Whether using the outerblades by themselves, or using them with different configurations of chippers, each cut bottom has multiple ridges/blade marks.
2) Shims aren't size labeled. Freud gives a great little chart showing what size chippers and shims are needed for different cuts. However, the shims aren't labeled at all. They are merely blank circular cuts of metal. However, as any woodworker knows, you should always run your own test cuts for any job...so I'm in no way livid with Freud. It would just be a little nicety if they could label the shims.
As I said, I think the SD208 set is comparatively a great blade for its price, when viewd against other sets. However, I would recommend not skimping on price and upgraded to one of the higher-end Freuds or a Forrest set.
This is very good quality! -- I picked up the basic Freud SD206 6" stacked dado set on sale at a local hardware store. Despite what some reviewers have written here, I had no problem mouting this dado stack on my DeWalt 746 table saw. Granted, when all of the chippers are in use the arbor is completely filled - but it does fit. After making many 1/2" deep and 3/4" wide cuts in white oak I found the performance of this dado stack to be excellent. There was no chipping or tearout whatsoever when I was cutting with the grain and only very minor chipping when cutting across the grain. The dado cuts were very smooth on all surfaces and the bottom of the cut was perfectly flat. Also, I was happy to see that the shims included were of very high quality (thin metal rather than paper).
I chose the 6" model because I will probably never have a need for a dado so deep it requires an 8" set. Overall I am very pleased with the quality of this product and recommend that you shop around for a deal like I got (twenty five bucks less than the Amazon price at a local store).
Totally worth the extra money -- I am new to woodworking and like so many others spent a lot of time reading reviews on Dado blades. It seems like there is nothing out there that everyone likes.
That said, there was one thing that I knew I wanted to avoid having to figure out and that was shims. With every other stacked dado blade, you use shims to adjust the width of the cut. If your dado blade comes with a cheap set, you start to read about people using paper and other things to get just the right width.
I can happily report that you don't need to do that with this one. The dial works perfectly. Admitedly, I have only used it to cut 1/4 and 3/4 inch dados, but then again, for many people, these are the most common sizes that you will need since dimensional lumber and plywood come in 1/4 and 3/4 inch widths.
This dado set is right on the money. Save youself the hassle of messing with shims and go with this one.
One other thing - the chipper blades are four arm versus the two arm ones that you find in cheaper dados. Definitely worth the extra cash - perfect flat bottomed cuts and no tearout.
If you need to save money, get the six inch version of this dado, but definitely get this style if you can swing it.
I have a Delta 36-680 saw (got it here on Amazon, too) and have no problem getting this to fit.