Peter G Denmark
Established Member
First of all - pardon my English – I am from Denmark, so bare with me.
I found a Wadkin AGS 10 for £170 - very dirty, and with some rust on the table, but otherwise perfect, and fitted with the long right hand extra table.
Only drawback is, that the arbor is 20mm and i really like dado sets (i know that dado is an American term, but the Wadkin instruction manual calls it dados - so what are you gonna do?).
Now - before the hecklers take a bite out of me, i know there are risks using a stacked dado set, and there are more elegant ways of cutting grooves etc.
But the Wadkin doesn't have a brake, so the inertia from the extra weight of the dado stack, that can cause the arbor nut to loosen, isn't a problem. I've used dado sets before, and i just find them handy, and if it's good enough for Norm - it's good enough for me.
Living i Sweden, is like living in a developing country wood working wise. The lumberyards only sell plywood up to 12mm, the solid wood you can get is mostly spruce and pine, no sharpening service, so you have to try and fix your blades and router bits yourself… You can order things special, but then you get ripped off (60£ for a 1200x2400 18mm low rent plywood at my local marked).
With that in mind, it’s hard to find a solution when looking for a dado set with 20mm bore. The idea was to buy a set with 5/8 bore and have it custom bored up to 20mm. But a typical dado set has 2 outside blades minimum 5 chippers, a couple of spacers and some shims. I need it all the adjustability I can get, because plywood here is metric, so even the shims has to be fixed.
That’s a lot of items that has to be precisely bored, and out of the 32 machine shops I contacted, only one would take the job – for 10£ pr. item that had to be bored. That’s at least 100£ - just for the custom bore.
I found a place in America that will sell me at 6 inch dado set with 20mm bore (http://ridgecarbidetool.com) for 175$ plus another 50$ for shipping, which is ok, but the taxes here are so, that before I have it in my hand, the blades would cost me 350$ for at set of blades that's worth 109$. I don’t mind paying for blades, if I get what I pay for, which is not the case here.
Can anybody help me with some ideas, that don’t involve me buying from the states, or having to rely on some local machinist? Hyperlinks, skilled persons, emails, anything – pleaaaase?
I suppose if anyone had a used 5/8 inch wadkin arbor I could by, I would be golden .
Thank you.
I found a Wadkin AGS 10 for £170 - very dirty, and with some rust on the table, but otherwise perfect, and fitted with the long right hand extra table.
Only drawback is, that the arbor is 20mm and i really like dado sets (i know that dado is an American term, but the Wadkin instruction manual calls it dados - so what are you gonna do?).
Now - before the hecklers take a bite out of me, i know there are risks using a stacked dado set, and there are more elegant ways of cutting grooves etc.
But the Wadkin doesn't have a brake, so the inertia from the extra weight of the dado stack, that can cause the arbor nut to loosen, isn't a problem. I've used dado sets before, and i just find them handy, and if it's good enough for Norm - it's good enough for me.
Living i Sweden, is like living in a developing country wood working wise. The lumberyards only sell plywood up to 12mm, the solid wood you can get is mostly spruce and pine, no sharpening service, so you have to try and fix your blades and router bits yourself… You can order things special, but then you get ripped off (60£ for a 1200x2400 18mm low rent plywood at my local marked).
With that in mind, it’s hard to find a solution when looking for a dado set with 20mm bore. The idea was to buy a set with 5/8 bore and have it custom bored up to 20mm. But a typical dado set has 2 outside blades minimum 5 chippers, a couple of spacers and some shims. I need it all the adjustability I can get, because plywood here is metric, so even the shims has to be fixed.
That’s a lot of items that has to be precisely bored, and out of the 32 machine shops I contacted, only one would take the job – for 10£ pr. item that had to be bored. That’s at least 100£ - just for the custom bore.
I found a place in America that will sell me at 6 inch dado set with 20mm bore (http://ridgecarbidetool.com) for 175$ plus another 50$ for shipping, which is ok, but the taxes here are so, that before I have it in my hand, the blades would cost me 350$ for at set of blades that's worth 109$. I don’t mind paying for blades, if I get what I pay for, which is not the case here.
Can anybody help me with some ideas, that don’t involve me buying from the states, or having to rely on some local machinist? Hyperlinks, skilled persons, emails, anything – pleaaaase?
I suppose if anyone had a used 5/8 inch wadkin arbor I could by, I would be golden .
Thank you.