# Routing a dado.............



## BigCountry (Dec 29, 2011)

I have a basic question about cutting dadoes with a router. After reading the above posts, I am assuming I would use a straight bit. Could a spiral bit work? Also, when you are routing the dado, do you pull the router from the top of the board to the bottom or bottom to the top? Or does it matter?

Thanks,

Keith


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Keith, spiral bits do a good job making dado cuts. Feed direction depends on the fence or guide position. For free hand routing with your fence or guide on the left you would push your router away from you. With the fence or guide on the right you would pull the router towards you. This causes the rotation of the bit to pull towards the fence for a nice clean cut. If your router is mounted in a table the wood is moved from right to left along the fence for the same effect.


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## BigCountry (Dec 29, 2011)

Mike,

Thank you for the information. I am building a drill press table and need to route some dadoes for the t-track. Now I can accomplish that safely.

Thanks again,

Keith


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