Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
metal dado plane
chichi
>i have a 3/4" old wooden dado plane. It confounds me. Sometime good results, other times crummy.The last time I used it, I think the spurs were set too deep and some sloppy dado walls resulted.
How are the old Stanley dado planes? They usualy command a decent price on e-bay. Are they worth it or is there a lower priced modern dado plane available.
Thanks,
Bob.
Re: metal dado plane
mikew
>The #39 series work fine, albeit they are a little uncomfortable on the left hand--at least I found them so. I had 3 of them and sold them in preference to woodies.
At the moment, only Anant makes one, a 1/2" iirc. They call it something else like a rabbet plane or something. But it is a #39 1/2 knockoff.
The king of metal dado planes to me is Stanley's #46. Skewed blades, front knob. Spendy when one finds them, especially if all the cutters are present. Strikes me one of the big boys are going to come out with one.
Depending on the wood type, I have had good success with even a plow with both nickers cross grain. But skewed makes it far easier and more assured.
Take care, Mike
About nickers
Jim Reed @ Tallahassee
>avoid them. Use a boxcutter to score the sides. It is pretty easy, especially after you get the first 1/8 or so into the dado. As has been mentioned, use a plane with a skew blade. Using the boxcutter method, you can even use something like a #45 on the skew. Just use a blade smaller than the dado--like 1/4 blade for 3/4 dado. Even when I use my #46, I use a smaller blade because it is easier to push. Cutting a 13/16 dado with full length blade and nickers takes time and care. Cutting the same dado with boxcut sides and a 1/4 blade is pretty simple--you can hack away while singing along with your favorite tunes. The dado is done with a flurry of chips and no tedium. It is actually fun. Good luck.
Re: About nickers
chichi
>Jim,
I have a #45. If I understand you correctly, you just score the sides, use a smaller plow blade in the #45 to get to the depth and then move the fence and repeat to remove the remaining wood? I assume you dont chisel the sides after only one pass which is pretty time consuming. If that was the case,scored sides,jointer plane and chiseling the sides would be as easy, would it not?
Thanks for the response.
Bob
Re: About nickers
jim reed @ tallahassee
>I rarely use the fence when plowing out dados. I recently made a canned food shelf. I used 4" furring strips. The shelf was about 72" long and had shelves in steps 14, 13,12,11, etc. I clamped both boards together then clamped them to the workbench. I used a #46 with a 3/8" blade to make the 13/16" dados. No fence or center skate, just depth stop. Mark out, score with knife, swish,swish,score,swish. The dados matched because they were done in pairs. The whole process took about 20 min.