Question about cutting dados for drawer bottoms

I used to cut my dados for drawer bottoms with a router and a straight edge, which took me about 20 minutes per drawer box. Last month, a guy at the supply house in Charlotte showed me how to use a dado stack on my table saw with a simple jig. Now I can do the same job in under five minutes and the fit is much cleaner. What's your go-to method for setting up drawer bottom grooves?

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3 Comments

william_henderson6mo ago

Man, I feel you on the router being slow! I was in the same boat until I built a simple crosscut sled for my table saw. I clamp a stop block to the sled's fence to set the groove position, then run the drawer side through against it with a dado stack. It's crazy fast and every piece is exactly the same. The key for me was adding a hold-down clamp to the sled to keep things from shifting.

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kim6936mo ago

My buddy tried that and it changed his whole workflow.

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tara_jones946mo ago

That thing about the router being slow is so true, it's like the whole "work smarter not harder" idea. You see it everywhere, like when you finally find a better way to do a chore at home. It's cool how one simple jig or tip can totally change how long a job takes and how good it feels to do it.

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