DIY Project – Upcycling Our Kitchen Cabinet Doors – Phase 3 – Dado Cuts

I decided I would use the table saw to make the outside 3/8-inch rabbets.  I still will rout out the inside rabbet for the panel, but I think I can get a clean rabbet with the saw blade without making the huge mess from the router.  I will cut the rabbets before I assemble the frames.  I bought a dado blade, a feather board and clamps for my sacrificial fence to cut the rabbets.  We will see how this works out.

I had this sudden confidence in my table saw.  I think this assurance was the result of replacing the belt pulley.  The old one would always fall off in the middle of a project.  Now the pulley was on tight.  I still needed to check the squareness of the fence, but I had a method of using the miter gauge slots as reference points.  I would check the distance from a slot at the front of the fence and made sure the back of the fence was the same.  A lot of hitting the fence with the palm of my hand, but I was getting good at it.

To cut the rabbets on the door frames, I needed to install the new dado blade and the feather board.  I had yet to get the clamps for the sacrificial fence, so I just used the clamps I had.  I got the height of the cut on my first try.  However, getting the width took multiple attempts (at least 6 times).

I had already cut all the door frame rails and stiles to size on the miter saw.  That task had a slow start.  The cuts were not 90 degrees.  Maybe 89.9, but not 90.  I tweaked the adjustment.  First, too far.  Then, still too far.  Now, I went too far the other way. I am talking about a minuscule change, but it would make a difference of having a tight fit.  I finally got it and cutting went quickly.

I still would need to rout the inside rabbet for the panels.  The table saw would cut the rabbets on the outside of the rails and stiles.  I hate changing a proven process in the middle of a project.  I had success with routing the rabbets.  I bought a new router because I had splintering and chipping on my last door frames.  The new router worked.  But somehow, I believed using the table saw would be better.

The table saw with the dado blade did not disappoint.  Once I had the fence and feather board setup, I slid the frame parts through the saw one after another.  I was happy with the results.

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