Customer Reviews

Freud SD508 Super Dado 8-Inch Stack Dado

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

As I state in most of my reviews, I don't mind paying a little more to get a little more. If you're like me, this is the blade for you. I'm building a built-in wine rack for my house and wanted to use veneer plywood for the carcass. Well, as anyone knows, you need a _damn_ good blade to crosscut a dado in veneer plywood with no tear-out. This blade performed magnificently. Setup was a snap with the chart. Look up the thickness that you need in the manual, and it tells you which size chipper to use in conjunction with the outside blades. The bottom of the dado was so sqaure that you could use it on an exposed joint, such as a bookcase. The top of the dado was razor sharp and the fit was perfect. Also, this comes complete with a nice, metal, shim set. I've used the paper shim set in the past and you can never get a duplicate thickness once you've torn down the blade. Tighten the arbor screw a little more then last time, compress the paper a little mode and , viola, a thinner dado. Not the case with the metal shims here. One last thing to add is the carry case is a nice touch. Each of the blades and chippers are separated with a plastic ring. The entire thing filts in a small brief-case looking case. Again, well worth the money if you don't mind spending it....

My set suffers in that the chippers cut slightly deeper than the outside blades. So, I get a slight, but noticable, shoulder on each side of the dado. This is particularly noticeable on exposed joints like finger joints. I'm in the process of finding out how Freud suggests this be remedied. I may post again once that's taken place. Otherwise, the groves are smooth with little tearout and the horizontal dimensions of the set are dead on.

I'm editing this review because I found out the culprit was my Sears table saw arbor. After the good service folk at Freud inspected my set they determined that there must be a valley at the end of the threads of my saw arbor. Sure enough there was and with there suggestion I filled it with JB Weld to the same height of the rest of the arbor and the set works wonderfully now. I've changed my rating dramatically upwards. But, don't get me started on the Sears saw!

The Super Dado set from Freud is sweet! It's low cost (Compared to it's 'competition') and it's viciously accurate. Just follow the instructions on which chippers to include on the stack and you will cut PRECISELY the width specified. Width resolution of the set just using the chippers is 1/32 of an inch, and shims are provided to do even better than that. However, I've never used the shims. I've never needed them.

I love the plastic case. It comes with little spacers for each blade and chipper. When I need to set my saw up for dadoing I just pull the plastic case out of it's spot, put it on the table saw and pop it open. The top of the case has a flat foam insert that you can put a blade on while you're doing the change, you don't need to keep a piece of wood around to put the blade being changed on

Based on my experience with the Super Dado set, I plan on upgrading all my blades to Freud blades.

The first thing you'll notice is the boxed set and the weight. Without even opening the box, you'll will feel the heft of this dado set. Once opened, the outer blades have an impressive number of teeth (with the Freud anti-kickback shoulder behind the tooth).

The instructions are clear and the measurement guide is sweet. The metallic shims allow for fine adjustment though they could be better indentified (if unsure, make sure you measure with a dial caliper). The most impressive part is in the cut - flat smooth and no tear out.

After using several other dado sets, including a Sears and the SD208 this design and function is simply the best cutting.

When I first started doing fine wood working about 4 years ago, I bought a dado set for about $50. Well, as you can imagine, you get what you pay for. I had to have a filing shop match the cutters up so I could get close to square cuts. When it was time to move up, I purchased this product and have been extremely pleased with it. I decided to give this set a try as I had purchased a Freud 60 tooth blade and it worked wonderfully, with no chipping on plywood or any of the solid woods I used.

Square cuts right out of the box. Good set of shims that made adjustments easy. The only thing I would like to have seen was the marking of the cutters (i.e. C, D, E etc). Other than that, this is an excellent product.

I bought this dado blade as the result of reading a review in a woodworking magazine. I needed it to make about 300 dado cuts in plywood for a project that needed to be done quickly. The blade made very clean cuts. In fact, another woodworker saw the results and though I might have used a router since the cuts were so clean. The bottoms of the cuts are flat and were fairly smooth.

The blade storage case is nice to have. It comes with plastic spacers to separate the chippers and blades from one another when the blade is stored in the case. These spacers are a little cumbersome to use and the blades had moved around in the case when I first opened the box.

The chippers are not labeled so I had to use calipers to figure out which chipper was which. Once figured out the thickness of chipper and labeled the chippers with a permanent marker, the blades were easy to set up for the correct thickness using charts that came with the blade. I was using 1 / 2" plywood and set the width of the cut to 15/32" and the width of the cut was perfect. The blade included metal shims for fine-tuning the width of the cut, but I did not need them.

The blade also includes a DVD that shows how to use it. I was able to use the blade without the DVD, but the videos were well done and contained useful reminders on how to use the blade safely.

One thing you'll need to use this blade is a new table saw insert. I made a new one out of hardwood using a planer and bandsaw. I then clamped a dado sled on top of it and raised the blade into the insert, creating a zero clearance hole for the dado blade. If you don't want to go to this trouble, you can always buy an insert.

This is an expensive dado set, but the results are excellent. Since I plan to use it to make nice casework (and wood is expensive), it is worth the money.

I bought this Freud 8" Super Dado set, hoping to improve on my Sears Excalibur adjustable. Success! The adjustable Sears blade left a slight roundness at the bottom of the cut. When making finger joints, you could see a slight belly where the bottom of the groove met the flats of the adjoining finger. With the Freud Super Dado, it makes a perfectly flat mating. Not even a thousandths of a gap anywhere along the edge of it.
Critically speaking, their is a tiny ridge that is made when you look down into the groove at the bottom, but it is so small, that you have to scratch it up to a moving blade, or should I say multiple blades. It does not result in any edge imperfections whatsoever. At first notice, I was relieved to see a perfectly smooth cut. After using it multiple times, and looking too deeply, I noticed the tiniest ridges. I believe these ridges are a result of having to move the board across the blade, and all it takes is the slightest movement as to the heighth of the board, to cause it to get closer to the blade, and thereby giving you the tiniest ridge midstream. Even with that, their isn't anything less than a perfect seam along the outside edge, without having to do any sanding, filing, chiseling etc. It is perfect right off of the blade.
The dado this blade makes is perfectly flat, smooth, and at a perfect right angle. I just went into inspect a job that I just did in large sized wood, and did not notice even a slight edge imperfection in all of the joints I inspected.
In plain words, perfect joints, great price for a tool of this quality (zero tearout as well).
I haven't tried every dado blade out there, but I feel comfortable saying that if I had to do it all over again, I would buy this again. How do you improve on the best. Hope this helps.

I must applaud Amazon.com, I ordered this set on Sat (3/1) and received it on Thu (3/6), that's some response. On to the blade. I've been using a craftsman dado set for the last several years (non-carbide), it never gave flat bottom channels, and chipped the hell out of plywood. PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS THAT COME WITH THIS BLADE. I like most macho guys don't usually read instructions, and nothing was different when I got this dado set. I popped it into my saw to cut 1/2" width, and get this, I didn't even see the words in big bold letters printed on each outside blade that said "this side out", yep, I put them facing "inwards", made my cut. I was impressed as hell, 90% better than my craftsman, nice fairly flat bottom with 2 very fine deeper depressions in the bottom of the cut channel from the outside blades. I was still impressed, but said to myself for [$$$]it should be better than this. Yep, that's when I had the brainstorm to read the instructions and also noticed I had the outside blades facing the wrong direction. Well, upon reading the instructions (after you face the outside blades in the right direction) you will see how to orient the teeth of the outside blades to each other by following the picture's of the teeth orientation in the instructions. Well, after I did all this, blades and teeth orientated properly, this thing cut like a jewell, perfectly flat bottom, no uneven channels. The only thing is 2 very very fine cuts (from the outside blades) on each side of the channel where it meets the wall about 1 or 2 thousandths deep, not noticeable if you weren't looking at it.
I am very satisfied with this dado set. Then onto the real test, crosscutting oak veneered plywood, cut a 1/2" channel across the grain of the plywood, couldn't believe it, no chipping at all, not even a little, the cut was perfect. I have never used or even seen the Forrest dado set in action but find it very hard to believe it will cut a better dado for the extra [$$$] you'd spend on the Forrest. This is one great set and highly recommend it to even the most discerning woodworker.

I wanted to improve my dados over the current method I have been using, my router. I built a jig to cut "odd size" dados by making multiple passes...but now I would like to have something that produces top quality dados without a lot of set up time. Several of my friends have dados, two of them use Freud so I was able to use one prior to my purchase. The flat bottom and the clean edges produced by the SD 508 really makes it a "Super Dado" just as advertised!