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These aren't the first, nor do I think they will be the last. I want to share my experience nonetheless. I bought a 6 inch dado stack from Amazon a couple of months ago. Due to some unforseen family problems, I was unable to use it until a week or so ago. I wanted to make some zero clearance inserts for my table saw. I have an older Craftsman 10" contractor saw with just the stock throat plate. I didn't want to spend any extra money, because I don't have much to begin with. The blanks usually cost from $15 to $30 apiece.
Anyway, I decided to use some 1/2" plywood from an old entertainment center that had been given to me. I took the stock plate and traced around it to give myself 6 blanks. I then took this to my band saw and cut out the rough shape. I took the first one and taped it to the stock plate and went around it with a flush trim bit on my router table. When I went to fit it to my saw, I found there to be a little slop in it. I decided to try a different method. I took my hand held belt sander and clamped it to the top of a stool and sanded a little at a time until they fit nice and snug. I then took a 3/8 straight bit in my router and carefully measured the distance for the depth and width of the lip. I took my time (which is difficult for me) and snuck up on the depth. I would take it to the router table, chew a little off and then try to fit it to the table saw. Finally after several trips I had all of them right. I then took them to the drill press and used a 3/4 Forstner bit to cut out a finger hole to lift them out easily.
Now I needed to make the cuts. I started with the standard blade. I quickly found out that this wasn't going to work with the standard blade. I found an old 7 1/4" plywood blade that saved me. I put it in and raised up the blade. Once I had done this, I replaced the small blade with the 10" and it worked just fine. I wasn't looking forward to lowering that insert down onto a spinning blade. Visions of missing fingers danced through my head. Anyway, the rest went smooth because I only had a 6" stack. The pictures are here for you to see. I only made 4 because I wanted to keep 2 blanks just in case.
Anyway, I decided to use some 1/2" plywood from an old entertainment center that had been given to me. I took the stock plate and traced around it to give myself 6 blanks. I then took this to my band saw and cut out the rough shape. I took the first one and taped it to the stock plate and went around it with a flush trim bit on my router table. When I went to fit it to my saw, I found there to be a little slop in it. I decided to try a different method. I took my hand held belt sander and clamped it to the top of a stool and sanded a little at a time until they fit nice and snug. I then took a 3/8 straight bit in my router and carefully measured the distance for the depth and width of the lip. I took my time (which is difficult for me) and snuck up on the depth. I would take it to the router table, chew a little off and then try to fit it to the table saw. Finally after several trips I had all of them right. I then took them to the drill press and used a 3/4 Forstner bit to cut out a finger hole to lift them out easily.
Now I needed to make the cuts. I started with the standard blade. I quickly found out that this wasn't going to work with the standard blade. I found an old 7 1/4" plywood blade that saved me. I put it in and raised up the blade. Once I had done this, I replaced the small blade with the 10" and it worked just fine. I wasn't looking forward to lowering that insert down onto a spinning blade. Visions of missing fingers danced through my head. Anyway, the rest went smooth because I only had a 6" stack. The pictures are here for you to see. I only made 4 because I wanted to keep 2 blanks just in case.
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