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Andrea plunges and makes her first pass.
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At the end of the cutting pass, she
unplunges the bit but keeps the router on so that the vacuum will have a
chance to leave a clean groove.
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Now Andrea places the piece that
she is making the dado for in the groove. Of course, it doesn't fit in the
groove so she places the edge nearer the guide rail so that it is in the
groove and touching the edge (arrow.)
She then takes another scrap and places it against the vertical
sample.
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Carefully keeping that block in
position, she places playing cards on the space that is left. She uses more
or less cards until she can feel that the card stack is even with the groove
of the first pass of the dado.
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She loosens the knob on the inner stop
and moves it until it touches the base of the router. She fastens the knob
in this position.
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She loosens the rod locking knob on the
router and slides the entire assembly away from the router — enough so that
she can place the cards in this space.
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She places the cards in the space and
moves the assembly back towards the router until the cards are help firmly
in place against the router base.
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And she tightens the knob and secures
the rods in place.
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And she makes the 2nd pass.
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Proof positive — a very snug fitting
dado. If you want to make it a little less snug, add one card to the pack.
Once this is set, we can make more dados by just following the last
few steps. And, we can make form fitting dados for other wood thicknesses by
starting at the step where she made up the mini-deck of cards.
This may sound like a complex procedure, but the accuracy and
repeatability makes it worthwhile. In my view, there is no room in furniture
and cabinet making for loose and sloppy dados.
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