Question: Cutting Dados

Re: Question: Cutting Dados

Dave (Arlington, VA)

>Hi Doug -

If it were me and I was just starting out, I'd just use a backsaw (mark on the side of the backsaw the depth of your cut with, perhaps, a piece of masking tape, or something else) cut both shoulders and then chisel out the rest of the dado with a chisel. If you need a flat bottom on you dado, then buy yourself a #71 (router) and smooth the bottom.

Pretty easy - and if you don't need a smooth bottom on your dado, not that expensive.

There are some tips on how to make sure your shoulders are "crisp" etc, that maybe others will share if you have an interest in this approach.

There's always more than one way to skin a cat.

Regards -

Dave

Re: Question: Cutting Dados

Charles

>Strike knife lines across the workpiece to delineate the joint. Deepen the lines with crisp blows to your widest, very sharp chisel. Now use a chisel narrower than the width of the dado to remove a strong 1/8" to 1/4" of material from the dado. Again, deepen/define the walls of the dado with your chisel. Now finish to uniform, desired depth with a Stanley router plane.

Piece of cake... my twelve year old son learned these in one day and cuts them as well or better than I do.

Re: Question: Cutting Dados

Charles

>Depths depend of course on the nature of your project....

Re: Question: Cutting Dados

Doug Daley

>Dave and Charles,

Thanks for the responses. They both sound like pretty good ways to go, and a Stanley router plane is considerably more affordable then some of the other choices.

I had thought about the straight chisel approach but wasn't sure how practical it would be. It's amazing how different woodworking is when you remove the power tools. :o)

Doug

Doug, here's the classical way to hand cut *LINK*

Andrew F in Australia

>Doug,

Here's the classical way to hand cut a housing (US Dado) in the link below.

It's the way I was trained

A router plane cleans up the bottom of the housing very neatly if you have one, but remember that the bottom of the housing is hidden from view usually (a drawer slide however is visible)

Cheers,

Andrew


http://www.gre.ac.uk/~eduweb/showcase/d&t/schools/resmat/woodjoints/index.htm

ps: depth of cut is one third of timber thickness

Andrew F in Australia

>

Re: Question: Cutting Dados

Charles

>I would also add that my knife and chisel method works very well for wide carcase sides for which you may not have a handsaw long enough to saw in the sides of the housing.

If you have a quality carcase saw, and you really should, sawing the shoulders of the joint is certainly a very orthodox and effective way to go.

Re: Question: Cutting Dados

Charles

>I've always found it awkward to work a saw across a workpiece whose width exceeded the length of the saw, but that may just be my ineptitude showing...

Re: Question: Cutting Dados

Dave (Arlington, VA)

>Hi Doug -

You're getting a lot of good suggestions here.

I have one more thought. If it's a stopped dado/housing, then there's another thing you might want to try (if you end up using a backsaw in the process). At the stopped end of the dado/housing drill a hole the depth of the dado with a Forstner bit. Then carefully square up the hole with a chisel to form the end of the stopped dado. You'll need to do this at some point anyway, and if you do it near the beginning of the process (after you've laid out the lines, etc) then you also provide another place for the saw to evacuate saw dust. That'll make it easier to saw the shoulders of the dado/housing.

Good luck - whatever approach you take.

Regards -

Dave

Re: Question: Cutting Dados

Darrell in Oakville

>I think Doug's terminology is throwing us off here. Apples and oranges, dados and grooves. What Doug is trying to make are grooves for drawer bottoms. Sorry to be so picky Doug, but with hand tools cross-grain work is a special case and usually you use specialized tools for such things. That's enough syntax & semantics...

A light duty plow plane is what you need. A wooden plow will do the job, as will something like an old Stanley #50, or the Record #44. These planes don't have all the fancy bits that the bigger combination planes (#45 or #55) have.

I picked up a Rapier 43 (copy of the Record 43) which is a teeny one-handed plow plane that does drawer bottom grooves really nicely. Not much good for bigger jobs, tho'

Hope this helps a bit,

Darrell

Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User

Darrell - you're correct, and I agree with answer.

Andrew F in Australia

>

Re: Question: Cutting Dados

Harold Blair

>Doug: In addition to the ways already described, you can used a multiplane (like a Stanley 45 or 55 or a Record 405.) I often use my 405 when doing long dados or rebates.

Combination planes

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>It's true that combination planes don't always have all the cutters, but this needn't stop you. My Stanley 45 has been assembled over time from various sources and still isn't complete, but I have enough irons (blades) to do quite a bit.

Re: Combination planes

dennis mcdonaugh

>A Stanley 39 will do the job too. Either across or with the grain. I got one on e-bay for about $50 after shipping. They'll only cut one width so you'd need more than one to do different width grooves or dados.

Re: Question: Cutting Dados

Adam Cherubini, NJ

>Doug,

Your terminology really is important. A plow plane of nearly any variety works for this operation. I have a nifty little tool called a drawer drawer bottom fillister, especially designed for this job. Its like a plow with a fence that screws to the sole like a moving fillister. This is a great little tool and well worth the effort to procure. The cutter is approx 1/4". It has no depth stop.

That said you could also use half of a tongue and groove plane (the groove). This woudl work fine, I've used them like this before.

Lastly, since were talking about grooves, not rabbets, not dadoes, you could cut them directly with a 1/4" chisel. Mark one side (the upper side) with a marking gauge then make a series of light paring cuts as you would when starting a mortise. When your hand gets sore from all the work, that's when you turn to 18th century handles and grips as I have. A sharp chisel, proper grip, and properly designed handle make this job quick work.

Adam