Freud 6" Pro Dado Set with Tico Hi-Density Carbide for Flat Bottom Grooves - Includes 2 Blades, 3 Chippers, Spacers, Shim Set & Carrying Case, Negative Hook Angle - SD206

This Freud dado set was a perfect fit for my wood shop. It is durable and easy to use. High quality blades and maintains sharpness.

I am a hobbyist, but did get a scholarship in woodworking. A router is probably the most versatile tool in any shop, especially if you have a table and mine is no different getting considerable use. My, my dado's, rabbets, etc. were always done on my router table. While I said it is the most versatile, it also means you need to be on your game in terms of router usage and depending on what you want to do, this sometimes means you enter the dangerous climb cut territory as to decrease tear out. I just finished building bathroom cabinets and now, I am building some barn doors. Since I am dealing with 8/4 knotty alder, and I will be renovating my kitchen cabinets as well so I started investigating again. My deal is that I buy the best because I want them to last. My tools, bits and blades reflect that as well, but I did not want to spend $300, hence why I did not have a dado set. Well, I found this, being Freud, I decided to give it a shot and return it if I did not like what I saw.Well, it is impressive. 6" scared me, but thinking through the years, I never needed a dado or groove deeper than an inch, and these blades give more to me, so... In theory, 6" also gives you a little more power, but I have a nice Jet Cabinet saw, so no worries there. Using the set is a pleasure, cutting like butter, no vibration or noise with a very sharp cut. It gives a perfectly flat cut, so that hits my number one requirement for quality in cut. It comes with many spacers as well, even with the thickness stamped, so very helpful. The case is also important as well as it protects your investment and ensures you don't lose parts. If there is a complaint, I would prefer it if it was keyed so you cannot put carbide against carbide. As long as you pay attention when tightening the arbor you will be fine; it only takes a couple seconds to confirm all is well before you tighten.Like another reviewer, the template is inaccurate. The reality though is that we all tend to use just a couple different patterns, so grab the calipers, figure it out, and never worry about it. solid, vs, ply, vs. mdf, vs. melamine are all different, so just create a template for each. There is really no way around this and if you woodwork to any capacity, you do this with everything. Setting tooling up to be square and accurate is the most important step anyway, and if you skip it, you will constantly fight it and your project will show it. So, it's something you should have accepted long ago and if there are two tips I give to everyone who asks me how I do it, I say patience and tool setup. You don't need to have the best tools, but they do have to be setup perfectly. That was free, LOL.

I bought these to build my own beehives. I am no carpenter. I have been a welder for about 30 years. These work great and would highly recommend.

Overall, I would recommend this set. I have a budget compact saw, Rigid R4518 that I have taken the time to set up so it cuts square. I can do quality work on it, just have to go slow.I got the SD206 because my saw can only handle 6" stacks. I read reviews all across the internet and the Freud set wan't the highest rated, but I had used an 8" stack for years and was pretty satisfied. For the price, I thought this would be a good set.The 'unboxing' experience was not very good. The 'screws' that hold the blades in the plastic case were tightened to about 1MM ft lbs. Had to crank on them with pliers to get it unscrewed. Not too fond of the front side, back side orientation where you have to stow everything on different sides and unscrew two knobs to get at your blades.But those are just minor annoyances. The reason I can't give this product a 5 star is that it ins't accurate, at least not the set I got with my saw. The printed material on the case that comes with the SD206, as well as the PDF download chart available at the Feud website both say that for a 3/4" dado cut you should use the right half, left half, three chippers, and 3 1/16" spacers (which are different than the shims).DO NOT DO THAT ON PROJECT PIECES! I highly suggest that you test cut scrap before trusting the configuration settings on the box. I was luck I tested. I was making zero clearance insert with some fairly expensive plastic laminated Baltic Birch. I would have ruined the piece. The recommended configuration was off by 1/16". (see photos)I removed one of the 1/16" spacers and the cut width was almost perfect (issue from keeping it perfect could be blade wobble of the saw.)Also, it seems that their configuration instructions could be a darned sight better. Here is how I would improve them:1) Make sure that all the configs are really accurate, I don't think they are.2) Label the Right and Left blades clearly on the blades themselves. Don't hide the confirmation of a seasoned woodworker's guess in a small illustrated figure in the manual references some of the blade's teeth and their angle of cut.3) Actually give directions about in what order to stack the blades, spacers, and shims for each configuration.Might sound like my review is pretty negative, but it really isn't. I love the product. It makes the best dado cuts of any stack I've ever used. I just think it could be improved and I'm trying to do my part to help, rather than just complain without presenting any solutions.To Freud, thanks for a great product. I buy lots of your stuff. Dado blades, router bits, precision table saw blades, forstner bits. I like them all. Keep up the great work. Hope to see an improved stack in the future.