Woodpeckers - Dado Set-Up Fixture (DSF) (Rating: 3)
Boys and Girls,
I have recently reviewed my Freud 8" Dial-a-Width Dado set and vented my spleen about the crappy box packaging in my Freud Dial-a-Width Dado box insert.
Tied up with those articles is my purchase of the Woodpecker Dado Set-Up Fixture
packaged with two different sizes of their Gap Gauges,
I would like to emphasise that as well as being a techno/gadgets freak, I am an avid fan of the Woodpecker's aluminium tools. It's like I picture Yankee $1 and $100… the both may look and feel the same but I'd rather hold the $100.
On a whim (typically with minimal LBD reading) I purchase the offering. Personally, I love it, however, my lowly 3 star score is solely on the cost, based on the fact that one could "easily" make something similar from common workshop hardware and timber. Nevertheless, I would like to add that I can posthumously make such comment as I now poses one, however, before that insight I had little idea of how it was constructed and fabricate a shop made facsimile.
The thing I do like is that it integrates with my 20mm Fe$tool MFT clone worktop and is ideal to use the gauge (good set of callipers would be a simple substitute) on my Freud dialer dado set.
The way it works is to mount the base on the workbench,
or vise,
and stack up your dado,
Take a measurement of your intended dodo insertion stock using the Gap guage (locked in)
and compare it with the dado stack. Adjust the stack until you get the right dimension
and only then transfer that configuration to your tablesaw,
Now this does highlight a short coming of my Freud dado as opposed to this jig. The presence of the bushings on the outer two blades,
will not permit the maximum range mounting on the jig.
... After drafting the above statement and prior to publishing, I found that the brass spindle sleeve (on the jig)
is threaded and can be screwed up to compensate for the lower blade's bushing… but I was too lazy to change it (the typing… not the jig).
This is not an issue on "traditional" dado set. Here I have all the blades of my CMT set mounted on the jig with room for more blades,
Bottom line, if you have some spare shekels, like the feel of aluminium (other than rubber) and are mesmerised by the Woodpecker red they are well constructed and offer a practical solution over the trial and error direct spindle mount.
On the other hand, a similar functional shop-made jig could easily be fabricated. I will emphasise that at times, when one undertakes such alternatives and put a monetary value on time spent on the project, the cost saving may not be anywhere as appealing as that same one might first imagine.
Final problem was that I now had a swag of loose workshop pieces that need to be boxed… next project.
Boys and Girls,
I have recently reviewed my Freud 8" Dial-a-Width Dado set and vented my spleen about the crappy box packaging in my Freud Dial-a-Width Dado box insert.
Tied up with those articles is my purchase of the Woodpecker Dado Set-Up Fixture
packaged with two different sizes of their Gap Gauges,
I would like to emphasise that as well as being a techno/gadgets freak, I am an avid fan of the Woodpecker's aluminium tools. It's like I picture Yankee $1 and $100… the both may look and feel the same but I'd rather hold the $100.
On a whim (typically with minimal LBD reading) I purchase the offering. Personally, I love it, however, my lowly 3 star score is solely on the cost, based on the fact that one could "easily" make something similar from common workshop hardware and timber. Nevertheless, I would like to add that I can posthumously make such comment as I now poses one, however, before that insight I had little idea of how it was constructed and fabricate a shop made facsimile.
The thing I do like is that it integrates with my 20mm Fe$tool MFT clone worktop and is ideal to use the gauge (good set of callipers would be a simple substitute) on my Freud dialer dado set.
The way it works is to mount the base on the workbench,
or vise,
and stack up your dado,
Take a measurement of your intended dodo insertion stock using the Gap guage (locked in)
and compare it with the dado stack. Adjust the stack until you get the right dimension
and only then transfer that configuration to your tablesaw,
Now this does highlight a short coming of my Freud dado as opposed to this jig. The presence of the bushings on the outer two blades,
will not permit the maximum range mounting on the jig.
... After drafting the above statement and prior to publishing, I found that the brass spindle sleeve (on the jig)
is threaded and can be screwed up to compensate for the lower blade's bushing… but I was too lazy to change it (the typing… not the jig).
This is not an issue on "traditional" dado set. Here I have all the blades of my CMT set mounted on the jig with room for more blades,
Bottom line, if you have some spare shekels, like the feel of aluminium (other than rubber) and are mesmerised by the Woodpecker red they are well constructed and offer a practical solution over the trial and error direct spindle mount.
On the other hand, a similar functional shop-made jig could easily be fabricated. I will emphasise that at times, when one undertakes such alternatives and put a monetary value on time spent on the project, the cost saving may not be anywhere as appealing as that same one might first imagine.
Final problem was that I now had a swag of loose workshop pieces that need to be boxed… next project.