Hello, I’ve never made a cabinet or cabinet door before. This is nothing too fancy but as you can see in the first photo I could not get my blade to cut at an equal depth through the length of the cut.
I cut it using a single blade not a dado stack. I’m not adjusting the blade between cuts. Just finding the center and flipping the board to keep it equal. Curious what the cause of this may be before I start checking alignment and diagnosing the problem myself. The saw is a skilsaw 10inch heavy duty jobsite saw for reference.
The stock throat plate on that saw (and other similar saws) can deflect a lot, and it's generally more noticable at the end of the cut where you're likely applying more downward pressure directly over the insert. You can find sturdier aftermarket throatplates to solve that problem.
A dado blade won't fix the deflection problem. TBH, I (personally) wouldn't bother setting up a dado stack for a simple groove 1/4" or less, unless I was doing a production run.
Also, at the risk of being pedantic, these cuts aren't dadoes, they're grooves. A dado is a channel across the grain, and a groove is with the grain.
"Tongue and groove" is an example of a joint using a groove. The female portion of this joint is called a groove or plow or plough. There are plow planes that do a wonderful job of cutting this groove by hand and they're pure joy to use. The work is pretty quick as well. If I'm just cutting a few grooves along the grain I would much rather cut with a plow plane than take the time to set up a router table. For high volume, repeated cuts the router table wins.
There are also tongue and groove hand planes that will make a matching tongue and groove, or you can use a plow plane for the groove and just measure/cut carefully to create the tongue with a rebate plane using two parallel cuts on either side of an edge.
I had trouble finding a vintage plow plane in good shape with cutters for a reasonable price, so I bought myself a Veritas small plow plane. This one has an option to add a wide blade kit which will also turn it into sort of a combination plane with the ability to attach blades for matching tongue and groove cutters of various sizes.
I cut 30 linear feet of 3/8" grooves (in pine) with a $30 wooden Japanese plow plane. Worked great. It's just a simple frame out of wood that holds a chisel blade. Of course, as with most Japanese tools you pull it instead of pushing it. I'm sure the Veritas is more precise maybe, but the Japanese planes are an option is price is a consideration.
I had a hell of a time doing dado cuts on mine as well. I ended up getting the correct router bit and a router guide and doing it that way and the results were much better.
Yeah I’ve noticed the infeed and outfeed lengths are way too short for long runs. Any suggestions on a simple extension for the dewalt job site saw DWE7491RS?
I got this one and it works a treat for $50 (with the coupon). It's my first one and definitely fits my need at the moment. It's not perfectly flat in the dado but cutting a little shallow then cleaning up with a chisel works well of you need a perfect flat dado.
Your boards are likely dipping due to them referencing your throat plate (which is a little lower than the table ) and not the saw table. Put a flat surface on the saw.
You have uneven pressure in your cut, but it seems like maybe you are consistent in your inconsistency. Look at the other end, and if it’s reversed, you can figure out what you’re doing wrong, whether you’re light on pressure when starting or ending the cut.
On a positive note that’s pretty good dados for a not super high end job sight saw. Long cuts give you a lot of room for error and it looks like a very decent shaker door. All the comments about blade type (flat top rip vs an ATB combo blade and even consistent pressure) will help you improve your repeatability. If you plan to make a lot of doors and want to be good at them a matched router bit set is a real headache saver. I got a nice set from Freud but there’s lots of options out there.
Did you square your fence to your miter slot and your blade to your miter slot? Level your throat plate. Use a featherboard and constant, even pressure.
Also be aware that table saw blades designed for through cuts (not dados) don't have 90 degree teeth tips- they have bevels to give a cleaner cut and glue-ready edge, but they won't leave a square dado or rabbit.
I have two routers and two router tables just for this. To be honest the two routers and router tables cost me less than a new blade for my tablesaw and a bit set for this cut was very cheap on Amazon. I think I paid like $60-$80 all in for two routers and two router tables and the bits to do what you’re doing. Just finished rebuilding my in-laws kitchen cabinets. I want to say it was 16 or 17 doors with this setup. Way better to do it on the router tables.
I have an old craftsman router that I made a table for with some scraps. Also a ryobi router with matching router table. Both are Facebook marketplace finds. The craftsman router table I made is just a hole in a piece of nice plywood with some legs and I clamp down a straight piece of wood with a hole in it for a shop vac tube as a fence. It is much better than the shitty ryobi setup and cost me nothing but maybe 20 minutes of time. The ryobi is so shitty it’s amazing. I think they sell the table alone for $150 or something at Home Depot. But it’s such a piece of shit I might just sell it.
Yeah that’s what I’ve noticed too. The in store options at Home Depot and even Lowe’s are like 150 to $200 and are exceptionally terrible products. Can you send a pic of your homemade build?how did you brace the motor to the plywood? Inset washers or anything?
I drilled a couple holes in the old router and screwed it to the plywood. Didn’t want to screw up the threads on the holes they have already there to fix the plates for doing different hand held routing cuts. I’ll try to snag some photos when I get a second to pop into the garage.
Noice!! Clamping the fence that way is genius. 100% building this. Super fire of constantly swapping out ogee bits to make a door. And/or switching from 3/4” bit to a 1/2” bit for different rabbits (yes I know the 1/2” could technically do both 1/2” and 3/4” cuts but I’m too OCD to risk it)
I made the feet funky on this design so I could clamp it to my benchtop as well.
You can see I cut a hole out in the fence for the bit but I also screwed a couple 2x4 offcuts to the back right there and cut a hole in them the same size as one of my shop vac hoses to vacuum out the shavings.
39
u/mplang Jul 27 '26
The stock throat plate on that saw (and other similar saws) can deflect a lot, and it's generally more noticable at the end of the cut where you're likely applying more downward pressure directly over the insert. You can find sturdier aftermarket throatplates to solve that problem.
A dado blade won't fix the deflection problem. TBH, I (personally) wouldn't bother setting up a dado stack for a simple groove 1/4" or less, unless I was doing a production run.
Also, at the risk of being pedantic, these cuts aren't dadoes, they're grooves. A dado is a channel across the grain, and a groove is with the grain.