Hi everybody!
I'm Mike McCrory and this is Wood U Make It.
I recently purchased a new Freud dado set
--
the SD 508 and I bought it because I was working
on a project that needed to have joints that
were flawless.
I couldn't afford any error at all.
I had a dado set before.
This is actually my third dado set.
The one I had before was the SD308.
It's not that much different in terms of its
capability.
It just cuts a little bit smaller width than
the maximum width of the 508.
The other major difference is that the 508
has chippers that have four teeth on them
and this one has chippers that have two teeth
on them.
So, obviously, four teeth are better than
two.
I bought it for two reasons.
One is this dado set is about 15 years old,
I think.
It was starting to cut bottoms that were not
perfectly flat.
You could see ridges in them.
And then the other issue I had was that, a
couple of months ago, I accidentally put one
of the chippers in backwards
and when it was cutting, one of the teeth
broke off.
So this chipper is not of any use anymore.
I can still use it, and I was still using
it for narrower dados, but it was really time
to upgrade to something newer.
So, what I'm going to do is do a little bit
of a review of the SD508 to show you what
you get out of the box.
And I'm also going to do a comparison of the
cuts between my older SD308 and the new SD508.
So, let's start by opening up the box.
I've already used this set once, so it's not
a true unboxing,
but the most important thing is not to see
my reaction while I'm opening it,
but to see what you get when you purchase
this.
So, let's open the box and take a look at
what's inside.
Just like any stacked dado set, there are
two blades --
one blade goes on the inside; the other one
goes on the outside.
In between them go each of the chippers, or
as many chippers as you need to make your cut.
So, the first chipper is 1/16".
The next chipper is 3/32" and this comes in
handy for cutting plywood that's typically undersize.
And there are four remaining chippers that
are each 1/8".
In addition to the chippers and the blades,
there's also a set of shims that range in
size from
0.004" (0.1 mm) to 0.12" (0.3 mm).
So, you can use these in any combination that
you need to fine tune the thickness of the
dado blade to get exactly the cut that you
need.
So, I'm going to put the chippers and the
blades back in place.
I'm going to carefully put them back in the
order in which I took them out.
One of the reasons I have to do that, and
one of the shortcomings of this product, I think,
is the fact that they're not labeled.
It's a minor inconvenience, but it would be
very nice if Freud had etched the size of
each chipper just to make it easy to distinguish
between 1/8" and 3/32"
because it's not that easy, even when you
hold them up side-by-side, to know which one is which.
So, under the foam on the other side of the
case,
there's a little instruction manual.
The instructions are relatively basic.
Just some warnings and some basic setup information.
What's important, though, is the information
that's on the following page, which has all
of the combinations of thickness and the combination
of the blades and chippers that you need to
use to get the thickness that you need.
So, this is really helpful.
In addition to the instruction guide, there's
also a DVD which walks you through some of
the setup and some tips and tricks on some
typical joints that you can make.
There's also a little wall chart that you
can hang up on your wall if you have the space
in your shop.
This provides a quick reference -- in this
case it's the 500 series that I have -- so
this provides a quick reference for the combination
of blades and chippers that I need to make
the desired thickness.
On the back of this, there's some other information
-- a depiction of some typical joints that you can make with this,
-- instsructions on how to build a dado cross cut sled,
-- and instructions on how to create an indexing fence to go on your sled if you want to make a box joint.
So the first thing I'll do is I'll make some
test cuts by selecting a couple of different
thicknesses for the dado set.
Then, using my calipers to compare the thickness
of the cut versus what it says in the chart,
to see how close it comes.
The instructions say if you don't get the
exact thickness you need after a test cut,
then you can either add a shim or back off
one of the chippers and add some shims to
get the thickness that you need.
I'm ok with that, but it certainly would be
ideal if the thickness that you get with that
set of blades is exactly what it says here.
Let's randomly pick 9/16".
So, for the 9/16" joint, it says I need the
first blade -- the one that goes on the inside.
Then the 1/16" chipper, making sure that I
put the teeth in the right direction.
Notice -- I mentioned this earlier -- there
are four teeth on these chippers, so much
nicer than the old chippers that I have that
only have a straight bar with two teeth.
Then I need two 1/8" chippers.
I'm careful to position the teeth on the chipper
so they don't interfere with the teeth on the blade.
Put the second 1/8" chipper.
And then put the outside blade.
I typically use a blade stiffener.
You don't really need to on a dado blade,
but I figure why not since I've got the capacity for it.
If I was cutting the maximum thickness using
all the chippers and both blades,
my arbor does not have enough length to put
the blade stiffener, but that's the only time
that I wouldn't use it.
I'm going to test it on three different pieces
of wood --
I've got a piece of oak, a piece of MDF, and
a piece of plywood.
We'll see how the cuts come out.
I'll make the first cut in the MDF.
The next cut I'll make in plywood.
In this case I'm going to cut using the fence
because I want to see what kind of tear-out
I get when I cut across the grain.
So, really, it's about as flat as a bottom
that you can get given that it's plywood and
some of the layers chip out easily.
But as far as the edges are concerned, there
was no tear-out even when cutting across the
grain, so that's a good sign.
Where there is not chip-out or tear-out in
the bottom, it is very, very flat.
The last piece will be the oak.
A nice flat bottom again.
In this case there's a little bit of tear-out
at the back.
I'm not too worried about that because if
I was cutting this for real, I would probably
have either a backer board along here or a
little bit of masking tape across the back
to prevent that from happening.
It's remarkably clean, I think, compared to
what I'm used to with my old dado set.
Now I want to check these for accuracy.
This is supposed to be 9/16" and that's exactly
what it says.
And on the oak, 9/16".
Can't get any better than that.
Now I've got the blade set to 25/32" and I
will make similar cuts, starting with the oak.
Now we'll test it with the caliper and see
what it says.
25/32".
And the  oak piece --
it also says 25/32".
Now I've got my old blade installed and we'll
do a comparison cut.
Now taking a look first at the oak,
this is with the new blade
and this is with the old blade.
I don't know how well you can see it on the
camera, but there are striations that go across
and that's because of issues with the older
blade.
I don't think the blade was like that originally.
It's just a little bit past its prime and
it's got some issues now.
Another issue you can see coming out of the
back
this is with the new blade
this is with the old blade
and you can see there's quite a bit more tear-out
-- larger chunks of tear-out -- with the older, duller blade.
Again, it wasn't like this when it was brand
new, so I'm really comparing apples and oranges,
and this is due, most likely, to the fact
that it's an older blade.
The tear-out is most significant on the plywood.
These first two cuts are both from the new
blade.
Then when I slide it over and look at the
cut from the old blade, you can see the problems
that I would have had if I was making a piece
of furniture -- let's say a cabinet -- and
I wanted to put a dado or a rabbet into it.
That creates a lot of issues.
So, I'm really happy that I made the investment.
And, actually, I got a very good deal on this
blade.
I bought it from Amazon on Prime Day.
They already had a very good price of something
like $179, but I got a $30 discount for using
my Amazon credit card,
so I ended up paying only $149 for a dado set
that normally lists for $199 from most
other retailers.
So, that's my review.
I wasn't paid or sponsored to do this review.
It's just something that I wanted to do to
give back to the woodworker community.
For those of you who are thinking about purchasing
a dado set, this will help you to make an
more informed decision.
I think this is a very good product.
I think I also got a very good value by purchasing
it from Amazon.
What else....
It's got a four-tooth chipper, so that helps
to make very clean cuts.
It's got the 3/32" chipper that is very suitable
for making plywood cuts.
In a nutshell, that's it.
Very good product and I highly recommend it.
So, good luck with your purchase.
Thanks for watching!
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