Hand chopped Stopped Dado

[bandit571]

Needed 4 of them....1/8" deep, by 1/4" wide....had to lay out WHERE they were going,too..

   
Divider steps out equal spaces...then trace around the shelves...then knife a few lines..

   
Then a wide(1") chisel to deepen the knife lines a bit...then a 1/4" chisel to remove most of the waste...repeat until close to the depth..

   
As set by this router plane...then, use it to level the bottom of the dado..

   
until it doesn't cut anymore....test the fit..

   
One done, only 3 more to go...

   
And a full dry fit....takes longer to write this up, than the do one dado...

Want to try?

[DogwoodTales]

I want to start doing more such hand cut things for the challenge, skill building, and satisfaction ... but not interested in doing a lot of it

[bandit571]

Lets see...a clamps or two, a knife (everyone uses one,right?) a square..and a couple chisels....and have all 4 dados done before someone else can finish the set-up for a machine, and still need to chisel out the stopped end of the dados.....The router plane was merely to smooth the bottom of the dados...something a chisel could also do...


Or, you could go and watch Paul Sellers basically do the same operation.....and just as fast.  

[bandit571]

IF this was to be a through dado....I would knife it out, set up the depth of cut in the mitrebox..saw the walls of the dados,,,chisel to remove most of the waste...Router plane to finish it up.....I might give THAT a try, later on today.....

[Bill_Houghton]

Where appearance matters not, some folks will cut a through dado and then glue in a little block to turn it into a stopped dado.  Seems like a lot of extra work.