A good starter Dado Set

Having never used another dado set I am unable to make any comparisons.

I recently built a mission style bed that required the use of a stacked dado blade set. Being on a tight budget after buying all the quarter sawn white oak I went looking for an inexpensive set. I decided early on that I didn’t want to try my luck with a wobble blade or something from a low cost tool store.

I looked online at several of the well known woodworking stores but couldn’t justify the cost of a big name set at the time. I looked through the Grizzly catalog and came across the H7777 8” Dado set. Besides the price several features attracted me to decide to purchase this dado set.

The H7777 has two 1/8” wide 30 tooth outer blades. The chippers are 5 tooth blades, four 1/8”, one 3/32” and one 1/16”. Also included are a complete set of shims two each of .005”, .010”, .015” and .020” thicknesses.

After receiving the blades I was pleased with the workmanship. The carbide tips seem to be fairly large, although this is subjective. I’ve never owned a blade from the big name manufacturers so I can’t compare the size of the carbide tips to anything else.

When using the blade set to make the bed parts I had good quality cuts. The bottoms were smooth and the corners crisp. I cut 3/4” grooves into 1 1/4” wide boards. The plan for the bed I made used something called spindle spacers which were 3/4” by 3/4”. The spacers fit nice and snug in the dado and set in with just a little manual pressure.

I used the blades for a second project creating business card holders. From 3/4” thick stock I cut 2” wide strips of wood. I then cut a dado 3/8” deep leaving about 3/16” on both edges of the stock. I noticed that the bottoms of these cuts were not as smooth as those when making the bed. I don’t believe this was from the blade but had more to do with the wood bowing while pressing down on it with push pads, (the type used when jointing). I just purchased anti-kick back rollers for my table saw which will make this type of operation safer and should preven the wood from warping.

This dado set costs $49 plus shipping. If you are looking for an inexpensive set of dado blades I don’t feel you can go wrong with the H7777 from Grizzly. The reason I gave this set only 4 stars is because I haven’t used anything else.

-- Owen Johnson - aka IowaWoodcrafter