Harbor Freight Dado Set

You should be OK as it’s a “stacked set”. Wobble dado sets are pure danger in a box! I’ve bought an 8” Irwin stacked set and use it on a Craftsman TS with no problem. My saw comes with removable spacers on the arbor so I can accommodate a full set. If you have 1/4” threaded shaft remaining then you’ll be able to get the nut on fully and should be OK. Just be sure to use push blocks and feather boards…and feed slowly. Dado’s cause some of the worst TS accidents.

The warnings I’ve seen relate to Radial Arm saws (table top saws)...but hey! Norm does it! Why can’t we?

Wood mag recently did an article on getting a real tight fitting Dado using the provided shims. Check it out!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

I think you would be within the RPM limits they are talking about, and as long as the blade fits on the arbor with plenty enough threads exposed to secure the nut, I think you are okay there also.

Having said that, though, I personally would not use a $30 dado set out of fear that something might come flying off at high speed. I’m not against using cheap stuff from HF sometimes, but not when it is the kind of tool where a manufacturing defect could be downright dangerous.

Busting my knuckles because a cheap pipe wrench broke is one thing. Picking carbide tips out of my forehead is something else entirely.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Charlie and Dadoo have some good advice. I’ve got a Grizzly 8” dado set that does great. I think I paid around $50 for it.
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

I tried that HF and the bottoms were not smooth, so I returned it.

-- Brian

I just purchased my second dado set for my “Workshop in the Woods”in the U.P. Once again I bought a 6” Oshlun carbide stacked set from Rockler for around $65 including shipping. They have 20% off one item thru 2/21.

This is a very high quality set that includes metal spacers. It is capable of being set to the “undersized” plywood dimensions. Not all dado sets are. I use it on my table saw without any problem.

Basically the choice between 6” and 8” boils down to the power of your saw, ie: the amount of cutting torque that can be produced at 6” and 8”. If you have a saw that operates on a 120V 15 amp circuit you might be better served with the 6” set.

Take the HF set back for a refund.

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"

I’ve not used that saw and am not familiar with it but I do have a benchtop saw for portable use. The issue with the dado set on mine is not the length of shaft but the diameter of the threaded part of the shaft. [it’s smaller] two or more blades can’t be used because the arbor hole doesn’t fit for the second blade. check this first! if the arbor is the correct size all the way then you should be fine so long as you can get the washer and nut on far enough.

skeez

-- hey honey! watch this!

I have this S E T from Freud for sale…....$70 near new. shipping included.

-- Francisco Luna, San Francisco Bay Area.

thanks everybody! i appreciate the input!

“Lifetime Carbide?” Whos lifetime?

-- http://www.federalsaw.com

HF hmmmm don’t waste your money good rule of thumb if its too good to be true OR CHEAP than its most likely not worth it watch out those blades will throw teeth if they get too hot!!! buy a nice set of anything but HF..

-- cut it twice and its still too short

Don’t expect much. Nice that they sell a product that they disclaimer the crap out of. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

-- Just 'cause a cat has kittens in the oven, it don't make 'em biscuits.

nice to se lemmy is here!! :) good advice

-- cut it twice and its still too short

And Lenny.

-- Just 'cause a cat has kittens in the oven, it don't make 'em biscuits.

Pitchnsplinters is right. Sometimes you get what you pay for. Problem is, sometimes you pay for what you get.

-- Gary, DeKalb Texas

thanks again for the advice everybody!

so i ended up going with a mibro dado set:
http://www.amazon.com/Mibro-416371-8-Inch-Stacking-Blade/dp/B000HE87VI

$45 at lowes. sorry doubthead, i need to get started tomorrow. i think this will suit my needs, and it fits nicely in my budget. i can’t quite justify the freud set…....yet….

in the end i didn’t like even the possibility of carbide tips flying at my head. back to the store with the HF set!

quick question though -

if i’m only cutting out 1/4”, do i need only one spacer between the blades?

thanks!

I had the same Milbro set. You’ll wish you got the Grizzly set (only 5 bucks more).
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

spend a little more and you will get a set that actually makes a decent cut. HF is good for some things.. not this

-- making sawdust....

no worries, good luck with the set, looks good and well priced

-- Francisco Luna, San Francisco Bay Area.

quick question though -

if i’m only cutting out 1/4”, do i need only one spacer between the blades?

Not sure about this set, but stack whatever inserts you need to get the 1/4” thickness between the outer edges of the blades.

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.

Like Brian said, depends on your set. My set’s inside and outside blades are 1/8” So that equals 1/4” when they’re together.
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

Lifetime Carbide? Thats funny…..... kinda, sad actually.

“SystiMatic a really good Dado Set for a pretty fair price.

-- Thanks- Emily, Washington, www.carbideprocessors.com

If you haven’t seen this as yet, I found that I had to remove the inside arbor washer and replace it with the outside arbor washer and use the nut against the outside dado blade to get max the width of the dado set to fit on the arbor and have enough thread to safely secure the dado set.

I am assuming the arbor length did not change from the 4000 to the 4100. If it has changed, disregard this bit of info.

Dalec

Generally Speaking, I buy nearly all my disposable shop supplies at H.F. but as someone who makes his living with tools, I have adopted this policy on cheap tools

A) after buying cheap and then going out to buy quality the second time – buying cheap loses it’s appeal pretty quickly

B) As for cheap tools in general – if the tool I am looking at can hurt me or has the potential to hurt me then I am inclined to leave it on the shelf and save for the safer, better quality version, I would be afraid that a cheap sawblade would be more likely than a quality blade to throw a tooth, which could ruin your day and possibly your eyesight rather quickly.

Just my .02 cents worth

-- So Much Wood - So Little Time! --

Lifetime Carbide is the brand name, that way they don’t have to honor any problems.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Not worth the risk. Save up for the real thing. TRUST ME you will not regret waiting.

-- Check out my new website! http://www.blakeweberwoodworking.com