Now that I’d removed my existing router table, I needed to relocate it to the right edge of my table saw. Since I use a miter slot on my router table and I wanted to avoid cutting notches in my front and rear fence rails, I decided to add an additional cast-iron extension wing to the right of my main saw table.
Installing an extra cast iron wing.
I had to remove the wooden extension table in order to attach the new cast-iron wing. As a result, I needed access to the bolts in the rear rail so I took off my outfeed table. This is giving me a good opportunity to clean some neglected areas of my saw as well.
Removed the outfeed table so I could access the rear bolts.
I then removed my wooden extension table.
Removed the wooden extension table.
I used some magnetic tool holders and attached them to the inside of the front and rear rails. These will help hold up the cast iron extension wing while I get it bolted to the table.
Magnetic tool holders help to support the new cast-iron wing.
I temporarily attached the new wing to the existing wing using three bolts along with washers and lock nuts. I was very careful to get the seam between the two cast iron wings nice and flush. There wasn’t anything holding the new wing to the front and rear rails yet. That was my next step. I marked the holes in the new wing on the inside of the rails using a silver Sharpie. Then I took this new wing back off.
Temporarily attaching the new wing to the existing wing.
I used a small drill bit (somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/8″ in diameter) to drill a starter hole. You will want to take your time and use plenty of cutting oil when drilling through powder-coated steel.
Drilling the ~1/8″ starter hole.
I then moved up to a step bit once the starter hole was drilled. I believe I drilled this to be 3/8″ in diameter. Again, take your time.
Expanding the hole with a step bit.
I added a countersink to the front of the hole once the hole was the correct diameter. The bolts that are used for attaching the cast-iron wing to the rails are countersunk allen bolts.
Adding a countersink to the front of the hole.
This took a long time to do. The steel on the SawStop rails is pretty tough stuff and I wanted to avoid having the powder-coating start to chip off.
Take your time with this so you don’t chip the powder-coating.
It took a while but finally the countersink was deep enough so the bolts didn’t stick out at all. This is important so they don’t interfere with moving the fence back and forth.
Took a while but I’m done.
I loosely reattached the wing and started tightening up the bolts. The holes in the cast iron wing are over-sized and not threaded so I had a little bit of wiggle room to help with alignment.
Loosely attaching the bolts.
I got the wing all tightened up and aligned properly.
Tightened and aligned.
The additional cast-iron has been nice to work on. Drilling through the powder-coating wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be. I’ll most likely add one or two more cast-iron wings in the future. I know that there is a limit to how much I can add before the saw starts to tip when I try to move it but the sliding crosscut table may help offset the weight of all the cast iron.
If this has been helpful or if you have any questions that I failed to answer, please leave a comment below.
Up next, I’m adding a router table to the right end of my table saw extension table.
My table saw is fairly decked out and I’ve made some modifications to it in the past but some of them weren’t working that well for me.
My saw is a SawStop Industrial Cabinet Saw 3 HP single-phase, 230 VAC machine (ICS31230) with a 52″ fence system and the sliding crosscut table. As an experiment, I had previously taken the left cast-iron wing off and replaced it with a custom router table. The reason behind having the router table in that spot is because I didn’t have any room on the far-right edge of the saw the way my shop was set up previously. I needed to have it on the left but I wasn’t sure if it would work with the sliding crosscut table or if that would be in the way.
As it turns out, it wasn’t too awkward having the router table there. It did, however, affect the accuracy of the sliding crosscut table since it wasn’t supported by anything but a wooden table.
After I rearranged my shop I decided to move the router table to the far right edge of the table saw and reattach the sliding crosscut table to the left cast-iron wing as originally intended. In order to accommodate the router table miter slot without having to cut notches in the front and rear rails, I decided to add another cast-iron wing to my saw thereby pushing the extension table out another ten inches.
I also decided to use this opportunity to document how I attach the sliding crosscut table to the left cast-iron wing without having to cut my rails down. Since this is a fairly long post, I decided to break it up into individual posts. The links to the other modifications are at the end if this article.
Removing the router table and installing the Sliding Crosscut Table.
This is how my sliding crosscut table was attached previously. Notice that the cast-iron wing on the left of the main saw table has been removed and replaced with a wooden router table.
Time to undo this mess.
The sliding crosscut table mounted to a router table on the left of the saw.
I started by removing the router lift from my existing router table as well as the sliding crosscut table. I also removed the front tube that the fence clamps to.
Removed the slider and the front tube.
Then I removed the old router table. I’m using this as my routing template on my new table so I’m not getting rid of it just yet.
Removed the old router table.
I reattached the cast iron wing. The problem with adding a sliding crosscut table to a table saw is that you will typically have to cut your rails and tube down since they will usually stick out past the cast iron.
I got some 3/4″ thick HDPE and cut it to the dimensions for the side of my saw, which is 1-1/2″ thick and 30″ deep. After cutting this down I drilled holes to match the side of the table.
HDPE spacer for attaching the sliding crosscut table to the left wing.
Once it’s drilled, you can hold it in place on the side of the cast iron wing and attach the sliding crosscut table to it.
Holding the spacer in place.
You’ll most likely need to get longer bolts for this. With the SawStop sliding crosscut table, the bolt type and size isn’t too critical. You just need to make sure they don’t interfere with the sliding mechanism.
Loosely fitting the sliding crosscut table and the HDPE spacer to the left cast-iron wing.
Get it all tightened up and flush and you are good to go. I recommend using a pretty dense material for this spacer. You could probably use some sort of hardwood but you really want to be particular with how you cut it since any discrepancies can cause your table to be out of alignment.
Tighten it up and you’re done
This is the first of three table saw enhancements that I implemented this time. Check out the next two below. Did this help you? Do you have any suggestions or a completely different way of attaching a sliding crosscut table to your saw? If so, please leave a comment.
The top is all glued up so now I need to strengthen it by attaching 1/2″ plywood to the underside. I can then cut it down to the final size to prepare it for finishing.
Looking at the underside of the glued up benchtop.
There were a few spots of glue squeeze-out that I decided to remove so they don’t interfere with attaching the benchtop to the plywood. I just scraped them flat with a chisel.
Removing the glue squeeze-out with a chisel.
I am attaching two sheets of 1/2″ plywood cut to 2′ X 4′ pieces. I laid them out to see which would be the best placement for them. The benchtop so far is about 25″ deep so there will be a lip overhanging the plywood at both the front and back. My initial plan was to cut the front and back edges flat then attach a border, but that plan changed, as you’ll see in a moment.
LocTite PL 510 construction adhesive for attaching the plywood.
I ran a bead of the construction adhesive down the length of each strip of flooring. This is, of course, working on the underside of the benchtop. Then I placed the plywood sheets on top of that. I tried to get it relatively centered.
Attaching the plywood with the construction adhesive.
I clamped and cauled the plywood sheets to the benchtop and let it dry for 24 hours.
Clamping the edges.
My original plan was to mill down some more of the flooring scraps and make a border along the front and back of the benchtop that was 1-1/4″ tall and 1/2″ deep. This was mostly to cover the plywood that is being attached to the underside of the benchtop. I started by cutting the tongue off the side of the flooring pieces.
Cutting the tongue off several pieces of flooring.
After that I cut off the groove on the opposite side.
Removing the groove from several pieces of flooring.
Then I trimmed the tongues and grooves off each of the ends.
Using the miter gauge to remove the tongues and grooves from the ends.
Finally I trimmed off the grooves along the bottom of the flooring pieces. I also ended up shaving a bit off the tops just to clean them up.
Cutting the grooves off the bottoms of the flooring pieces.
This left me with some nice oak stock to use for the front and rear trim.
Now this gives me some nice usable stock to work with.
The final width of each piece was a little over 1-7/8″ wide…
This leaves me with ~1-7/8″ of material to work with.
…and 5/8″ thick.
This gives me some nice 5/8″ stock.
I removed the clamps and cauls and decided to get my wife’s opinion on the front and rear trim idea. I’m glad I did. She had the idea of just cutting the milled stock into strips and gluing them to the lip, therefore just covering the plywood and not the edges of the oak flooring.
The lip runs the whole length of the benchtop on both the front and back.
I cut some of the milled oak stock down to usuable pieces. I decided to just make them 5/8″ X 5/8″.
Cutting the oak stock into 5/8″ X 5/8″ strips.
I was able to get enough strips by cutting down just 4 of the milled oak pieces. This leaves me with some more milled oak stock to use for other projects.
All the strips cut.
I laid out the pieces and applied a bead of Titebond 2 to the lip.
Applied a bead of Titebond 2 to the lip on the underside of the workbench.
Holding the strip in place with some small clamps.
The strips wanted to pull away from the plywood in a few spots so I used some larger clamps to apply lateral pressure. I don’t have a lot of clamps that are over 24″ so I had to get creative with some of them, but it all worked fine in the end.
Getting creative with some clamps that are just a bit too short.
After the glue dried I did the same thing for the back of the bench.
Applying some lateral pressure with some larger clamps.
There was some glue squeeze-out on the underside of the benchtop.
It cut cleanly and didn’t really burn it except for where I stopped pushing the material so I could take the picture above. A little sanding and it disappeared.
Finishing the cut.
The workbench is now cut to the final size and is ready to be finished.
All done with two slabs cut to 5′ and 2′ in length.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. I’d love to hear from you.
My worbbench/outfeed/assembly table has a torsion box top so it makes a good surface for gluing something like this up. I have a 1/8″ thick piece of hardboard that serves as a sacrificial top but I would still prefer to avoid gluing the pieces to that if at all possible. To help with this, I taped down a layer of wax paper to the benchtop.
Then I laid out the pieces how they will be glued together.
I decided to do a little distressing before the glue-up. This could have waited till after but I was anxious to try out a technique I picked up. I made what I call a Smackem Stick. It is just a piece of wood with a handful of screws sticking through it. I used a cut off from another project. Ignore the groove running the length of the side. After I made this, I proceeded to beat the hell out of the boards. After the stain is applied, these should hopefully look like worm holes. since this is oak that I’m working with, these screws didn’t go too deep.
I wanted to try out the stain so I grabbed one of the sample boards that I did some experimenting on earlier and applied some Kona stain. I will go over this stain technique later when I do the entire table top.
I separated the first two rows to get them ready to glue together.
I used a spring clamp to stand the pieces with their grooves facing up.
I then ran a line of Titebond 2 in the groove.
I laid out the first row. I was careful to make the seams on the side of the boards that are facing the second row nice and flat.
I then attached the second row and clamped it together to dry. When I inserted each piece, I put a line of glue in the small groove in the right side, then I inserted the following piece into that, being sure to put glue in it’s groove as well, and so on until the last piece which I didn’t do this to since it’s the last piece in the row.
After letting the first two rows dry for at least an hour, I took the clamps off and put on the third row in the same way.
After the third row dried, I realized that it would be easier to clamp these if I cut off the tongue on the front row since I won’t be using that anyway.
This made for a nice flat surface to clamp to. I should have done this before gluing any of this together but it doesn’t hurt anything to have waited til now.
Then I clamped the fourth row on…
…and the fifth.
Once I got to the sixth row, my quick-release clamps would no longer reach so I switched to my bar and pipe clamps.
I attached the seventh row…
… and the eighth…
… and the ninth…
…and the tenth.
For the eleventh and final row I needed to get creative with my bar clamps since they aren’t quite long enough to reach.
In the end, it glued up okay. The pieces have some gaps in them on some of the edges. This is why they weren’t used on the floors, but for a project like this they add character.
The next step is cutting it down to a workable piece. We’re still planning out the legs and possible drawers. Also, I noticed that this piece has a slight bow to it from front to back. I’m not surprised at this, but it means that I may have to attack a backer board to the underside and make some sort of border to hide it. That should be in the next article.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. I’d love to hear from you.
After gluing up half of the top, I repeated the process and got the other half glued up as well.
Both halves, ready to be glued together.
Once it was dry I joined them together with glue and biscuits just like I did for the individual boards.
Glue and biscuits applied to one half.
Pressing both halves together.
Both halves clamped and cauled.
After taking the clamps and cauls off I was left with a fairly warped but completely glued up benchtop.
Clamps and cauls removed.
At this point, the project wasn’t looking too promising. My goal was not only to make a benchtop but to see if it can be reasonably accomplished using common 2 X 4 material. Unfortunately, they are so dimensionally unstable that they do a lot of twisting and warping as they dry. Maybe if I had these sitting in my shop for a few seasons so they can thoroughly dry then the end result would have been better. Still, I was somewhat determined to make this work.
I started sanding it using a random orbital sander.
Started with a random orbital sander.
This was taking a long time so I switched to a belt sander. This want a lot faster but I was still unhappy with the results since there was so much warpage to this. I know I can eventually get it to work but I’ll have to remove so much material that it won’t be as sturdy as I want it.
Switched to a belt sander.
It was at this time that my wife asked if I had any of the leftover wood from our newly installed hard-wood floors. She had the idea that I can just use that since it already has the tongue-and-groove in place, plus she likes the look of oak more than fir. Normally, I’m not a fan of oak but I had to agree that this would look better and be stronger even though the tabletop would be 3/4″ rather than 1″.
I decided to give it a shot. I gathered up the scrap wood flooring and started laying it out. I needed to get enough material to make a 7′ X 2′ section. The plan is to have a 5′ wide bench with a 2′ wide flip up extension.
New plan! Laying out the oak flooring.
I had to cut some mating grooves in a few of the pieces but I was able to get enough material. Once it was laid out, I attached a piece of blue painters tape to each piece so I could label them.
Painters tape applied for labeling.
I labelled each piece with the row (number) and which order it is in from left to right (letter)
Each piece labeled.
Now, this is where this gets interesting. One of the reasons my wife wanted me to use the oak flooring is because she wanted me to try to get “mill marks” on some of the boards. Normally, I’m not a fan of faux-finishes and antiquing techniques, but this was an interesting challenge.
I tried approximating it by hand with 24 grit sanding pads and the result wasn’t pretty (as I expected). The other technique I wanted to try was to put actual milling marks on the wood.
To accomplish this, I needed to get a blade that I could damage. Specifically, I needed a 10″ table saw blade without carbides. I knew I wasn’t going to find this in the store so I would have to look for a used blade. I started my search at Habit for Humanity ReStore. I couldn’t find anything there that was 10″ so I decided to try at a pawn shop. I eventually found an old Craftsman blade that had all of my requirements and was new in the box. To top it all off, after I told them why I was getting it, they knocked $6.00 of the price.
Found a cheap 10″ blade with no carbides.
As you can see, it’s cheap but in decent shape.
To add the mill marks I took one of the teeth and bent it towards what would be the right of the blade after it was installed on the saw.
Bending one of the teeth with a pair of vice grips.
Then I installed it on my saw and made a few test cuts. I then bent it a few more times until I found the right amount.
The blade installed. The bent tooth is marked with an arrow.
Here’s a test cut. I’m going to do a bit more distressing and see the final result after I stain this wood.
Sample mill-marks.
Feel free to leave a comment below and let me know if you’ve tried this technique or have any other ways of distressing wood that have worked for you. Up next: Workbench: Part 4 – Gluing up the new top.
We got another snow day so this gave me an opportunity to work some more on my wife’s workbench.
Now that the boards have all been milled down, it’s time to start gluing them together.
For this project, I knew I was going to need a few sets of cauls. If you are unfamiliar with a clamping caul, read on…
A clamping caul is simply a set of boards that are used to keep the top and bottom of a wide glue-up relatively flat. Their use will make sense at the end of this article. They are extremely easy to make. I made two sets for this glue up. I started with some 1 X 3 stock that I cut down to be a few inches longer than the width of the final glue up.
Cutting down the 2 X 3.
The benchtop I am making is going to be 24″ deep so I made my cauls about 28″ long. There’s no need to be exact, just make it a bit longer than the final glue up.
The boards have been cut to 28″ long.
After cutting four pieces that are 28″ long, I took them to my oscillating belt sander. This step is optional but I find it really helps. What you want to do is add a little bit of a slope at both ends of one side of each caul.
Sanding a slope at the ends.
The end goal is a set of boards that have a gap between them at the ends. This is so when you attach them, the clamps will pull them together but it won’t bow up in the middle.
The gaps at the ends of the cauls.
After I shaped them with the sander, I covered them in packing tape so the glue won’t stick to them.
Packing tape applied to the cauls.
Now, time to work on the actual benchtop. First I laid the milled boards out how they will be glued together.
Arranging the boards.
I am going to be using biscuits to align everything so I put little pieces of painters tape on the edges of the boards where I was planning on putting the biscuits.
Tape applied to the boards.
Afterward, I made marks where I should center the slot for the biscuits. The placement here isn’t critical.
The biscuit slot alignment marks.
Biscuit slot alignment marks.
Next I added some tape so I could number each board. The reason I’m doing this with tape rather than just writing directly on the boards is because these boards are douglas fir and are pretty soft. I didn’t want to make indentations from a pencil on them if I could avoid it.
The boards are all numbered and in order
Using the marks I had drawn, I used my biscuit joiner to make slots at all of the marks.
Lining up the biscuit joiner to cut the slot on the mark.
One of the biscuit slots.
Biscuit slots cut into one of the edges.
Now it’s time to try gluing this all together. I decided to do this in sections, gluing up half at a time. Setting up a few pipe clamps, I arranged the boards up so I could glue up four of the eight boards.
The boards are arranged so that the glue can be applied.
I applied a liberal amount of glue to the edges of three of the boards, including some extra glue in the biscuit slots. Then I inserted a size 10 biscuit in each slot on the three boards with glue applied.
The biscuits are in place after the glue was applied to three of the edges.
Then I carefully rotated the second, third, and fourth board and inserted some glue in those biscuit slots. After that, I laid the boards out on the clamps so the biscuits inserted into the slots on the adjacent board and started to bring the clamps together. I didn’t really tighten them that much since I needed to nudge a few of the boards with a rubber mallet to get the marks on the tape to line up again.
I got them all aligned and started to tighten up the clamps.
The glued up pieces being aligned to the marks on the tape.
Now it’s time to attach the cauls. I started by sliding one of the cauls under the glued up boards. The side of the caul that I sanded the slope onto is facing up.
The bottom part of the caul set in place.
Then I set another caul on top of the glue up with the sloped edge facing down.
Setting the top of the caul in place.
Then I clamped them together. The slopes on the edges allows the cauls to bend as they “give” a little bit but will direct most of that deformity to the edges of the cauls instead of raising up off the glue up in the middle.
Both parts of the caul clamped together.
I attached the second set of cauls at the other end along with a few more clamps.
The second caul attached near the other end.
Time to wait…
After this sets up, I’ll do the same to the other half. That’s going to have to wait until another day.
My wife is a lot like me in that she likes to make stuff. She wants a workbench for her studio. The design we are thinking of consists of a one-inch thick top and a metal pipe framework for the legs.
I’m going to worry about the legs later, but for now (since we had a snow day yesterday so I had the day off) I decided to work on the table top.
The look of the tabletop that I’m going for is a dark-stained pine with a lived-in look. My wife wants something with a butcher block top but she doesn’t want me spending a lot of money to make one out of maple. As an experiment, I thought I would try making this from 2 X 4s. I’m thinking it will look right but I’m more concerned about the durability. I plan on milling them down, staining them, then throwing several coats of polyurethane to hopefully make it strong enough to withstand her leatherworking, which usually consists of lots and lots of hammering.
My first step was to joint two edges of the 2 X 4s on my jointer.
After that, I cut the third side on the table saw, using the freshly jointed side as a reference against the fence.
Milling the third side on the table saw.
Lastly, I threw them through my planer to mill up the final edge.
Milling the 4th side on the planer.
After handling this material so much while milling it down, I’m fairly skeptical that these will be strong enough for what they’re intended for.
After milling all 4 sides down.
The next step is to glue them all up, sand them smooth, stain, and finish. That’s for another day.
What do you think? Have you ever done something like this using 2 X 4s? How has it worked for you? Let me know in the comments section below.
The following is a training document that I put together for my coworkers. I have decided to share it here in case it helps anyone.
What are dadoes
Dadoes are slots, or non-through cuts, in material. They are “non-through” meaning that the blade doesn’t actually cut the material in two.
Dadoes are defined as being across the grain.
Through dadoes go all the way across the work-piece from edge to edge and are the most common type of dado. They are common when putting together shelves or cabinetry.
Fig. 1.1: Through Dado
Stopped (or “blind”) dadoes end before the edge of the work-piece. They are called “blind” because they are not visible from the front of the piece. When cutting blind dadoes, you run the material over the blade but stop short of the trailing edge. Due to the curve of the blade, this leaves some extra material that can be removed with a chisel.
Fig. 1.2: Stopped Dado
Grooves are essentially dadoes that run with – or parallel to – the grain. Other than that, there isn’t any real difference and as such, grooves are usually referred to as dadoes as well.
Fig. 1.3: Groove
Rabbets (sometimes referred to as rebates)are dadoes at the edge of a work-piece. Where a dado would have three edges – two sides and a bottom -, a rabbet only has two – one side and a bottom. Rabbets are usually implemented when attaching the top to a cabinet or a set of shelves.
Fig. 1.4: Rabbet
Dado stacks
Dado stacks consist of three main components;
The outer blades cut the walls of the dado.These are full blades with usually around 24 teeth.
Fig. 2.1: Outer blades
The chippers remove the waste between the outer blades. A dado stack will come with several of these, usually of varying thicknesses that can be combined with the outer blades to make a dado of a specific width. They will typically be available in three different styles. Full-plate chippers are circular blades and are not recommended on a SawStop because, due to their mass, they can damage the arbor shaft if the brake activates. Plus-style chippers, sometimes called 4-tooth chippers, are just how they sound; plus-shaped with 4-teeth. These work fine on a SawStop. Probably the most common style is the wing-style chippers. These are roughly rectangular in shape with usually just one tooth on each end.
Fig. 2.2: Chippers
Most dado stacks come with shims of varying thicknesses that can be used for fine tuning the thickness of the dado stack. These will be inserted in between the blades and/or chippers. This is a common technique when cutting dadoes for shelves since plywood is commonly slightly undersized.
Fig. 2.3: Shims
Using A Dado Stack
To install a dado stack, you will start with the left-outer blade.
Note: The outer blades should be labeled as left or right. If not, it may help to look at the carbides. When examining them from the front, the carbides will typically stick out past the edge of the blade on the side that would be considered to be the “outside” of the dado stack. The side of the carbide that is on the inside will probably be flush with the surface of the blade.
Fig. 3.1: Dado blade carbides
After installing the left outer blade, you will follow the directions in the dado stack for setting it to the correct thickness. Some dado stacks come with a chart that shows you what combination of blades, chippers, and shims need to be installed in order to achieve the desired thickness. For example, to make a simple ¼” dado, you will need to only install the two outer blades. To make a ¾” dado, you will need to use both outer blades and all of the chippers. The only thing to be careful of is that you want to make sure that you stagger the teeth so the carbides aren’t touching.
Fig. 3.2: Staggering the blades
Other notes on using dado stacks:
When making cuts that are ⅜” or thicker, there is no need to use the arbor flange. You may find that once you install a ¾” dado stack, there is no room for the arbor flange and the arbor nut. This is fairly standard with 10” table saws, although there are exceptions.
When using an 8” dado stack, you will not use the riving knife since it will stick up higher than the top of the blade. This would prevent you from making a non-through cut.
You can use a standard 10” blade and brake to make a ⅛” wide dado, which will allow you to use the riving knife. This is like making a regular cut except the blade is lowered so it isn’t cutting all the way through the material.
You will never use the blade guard when cutting dadoes of any diameter as it will completely prevent you from making a non-through cut.
Recommended dado stacks
Dado stacks are typically found in 6” or 8” diameters, with 8” being the most common. Although you may run across 10” or 12” sets, they are pretty rare. It takes a lot of power to get a dado stack spinning, so some saw users with weaker machines may find themselves wanting to use a 6” set. The larger the diameter, the faster the outer edge of the blade will spin, which results in cleaner cuts. Only 8” dado stacks will work on a SawStop.
Some blades are equipped with anti-kickback shoulders (sometimes referred to as depth-limiting shoulders). This is a feature that is supposed to help prevent kickback and is common on Freud blades. They consist of points or bumps on the saw tooth immediately following the carbide. These are not recommended for use with a SawStop as they can cause it to take significantly longer to stop the blade if the brake activates.
Fig. 4.1: Anti-kickback shoulders
As stated previously, full blade chippers are not recommended on a SawStop due to the amount of mass involved. The types of chippers that we recommend are the “plus-style” or the more common “wing-style” chippers.
Fig. 4.2: Dado set with full-blade chippers
A popular choice for dado stacks is the DeWalt DW7670, which has plus-style chippers and excellent carbides.
Important note: DeWalt has recently changed this dado stack and it now has a diameter of 8 1/8″. It should still work with a CNS, PCS, or ICS, but it’ll be a bit tight. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this to anyone with a JSS or JSS Pro.
You may occasionally hear about wobble dado stacks which consist of a single blade with a central hub that it attaches to, allowing it to be adjusted to ride at an angle. The greater the angle, the wider the dado. These are pretty old-school and not that common.
Wobble dadoes have many disadvantages. They are fairly unsafe and don’t give as nice of a cut due to the vibration from the blade and the difficulty in getting it adjusted correctly. Also, the bottom of the dado isn’t flat since the blade rests at an angle.
Fig. 5.1: Wobble dado
Molding Heads
Another type of blade that you may encounter is called a molding head. This consists of a number of interchangeable profiled blades, typically three, that attach to a central hub. You pass the wood across the molding head blade similarly to how you would cut a dado. These are not compatible with a SawStop since there are too few teeth. The minimum tooth count that is recommended is 24.
The SawStop dado cartridge (TSDC-8R2) and the standard brake cartridge (TSBC-10R2) have some significant differences. The dado brakes aluminium pawl is both deeper and wider, allowing it to work with a blade that is smaller in diameter and up to 13/16” thick.
There are software differences as well, including having the cartridge allow more time for the blade to get up to speed.
