Curiosity question: Stacked dado blades for coves?

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

The recent question about a dedicated cove blade on a SawStop piqued my curiosity. I have no need for cutting coves but have been learning about them recently.

Would a stacked dado set work better/worse/same as a single "normal" blade when curing coves on a TS?

[jussi]

No experience with it but my initial thought is that it really wouldn't add anything because the outer blades will do all the cutting.

[mike4244]

Stacked blades will be faster for large coves.All the blades cut,outside and the chippers.I have only cut coves on a table saw 3 times that I remember.For me it is a last resort. I thought that I may need to do more sanding with dado blades but found that it made no difference.
I was told but never tried that molding head with straight " jointer" knives do a nice job with less sanding.
mike

[Alan S]

A stacked dado set would have no advantages because the chippers would never cut anything if the curves were properly defined by the diagonal cut. Spacing out the two cutting blades could have the effect of flattening out the center of the cove, with certain steeply curved profiles.

You could envision the effect as similar to two passes over the blade, with the stock slightly offset for the two passes. Chippers would flatten out the ridge you might get if the two passes were separated enough.

Using a single 8" blade from a stacked dado set could be useful. While you can cut as shallow or narrow a cove as you want with a 10" blade by lowering it and cutting at the proper approach angle, you can get a slightly different curve from a smaller blade, that might be desirable in some cases.

The Klausz article provided in JGrout's link in the thread titled "Sawstop and CMT Cove Cutting Blade" is very informative.

[Axl]

You WILL get a flat bottom.
Take 2 dinner plates and lay them bottom to bottom. Turn them on a slight angle and look square-on at the top edges to see the effect.

[Rick L]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oHvYwexeY6k
The cmt cove cutter is what is best. Another option is a moulding head cutter. Both of these options will give a smoother cut than a saw blade. Less teeth is better as well.

[Steve N]

If you are looking for wider, and beefier on TS cove cutting you want one of these Note the radius on the cutting edge, this is the answer to the side by side dinner plates already talked about.

I think also seeing as you are really going to be impacting the initial edge of your dado blade more than the outer edge, I wonder if you would bend the first edge inward? Especially if with the wider, and beefier you tried to go deeper each pass. With a standard blade it is more a nibble, than a cut. Tiny bites

[JGrout]

Quote:

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If you are looking for wider, and beefier on TS cove cutting you want one of these

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just not on a sawstop

use a TCG blade for the closest effective blade to that cove cutter

[Steve N]

Hmmmm don't know much about the finger nannies, do they have problems running tools know to work well in a regular saw?

[fredhargis]

The blades have to 10" (saw blades) or 8" (dado sets) to work with the available cartridges.