# Slightly new twist on fitting to dadoes?



## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

I needed to make a set of louvers to install in a gable end as a vent the other night and needed to get it done quickly. I got the idea to use my dado set for the grooves but setting them to the exact width of the boards can take a lot of time that I didn't want to spend. So I came up with the idea to just set the stack for some random width less than the total thickness of my boards and then rabbet the ends of the boards to fit. The boards were about 3/4 thick (never bothered measuring) so I put together a stack about 1/2" thick (also didn't bother measuring). 

I decided that 60* would be an reasonable angle for the slats so that way I could use the fence to set the distance from the ends of the uprights for each slat and the miter gauge for the angles. Since each side has to be the mirror image of the other by picking an easy angle on the gauge I could flip the miter gauge back and forth from left to right for each side without moving the fence and without an angular error.

Once the dadoes were done I took the slats and stood them on end against the table saw fence and nibbled away at the first slat doing one side and then flipping it around and cutting the other side. After about 3 or 4 nudges of the fence closer to the blade and I had the fit right so I milled all the ends that way.

Because I used the dado stack to cut both the dadoes and the rabbets the depth of the grooves was the same as the width of the rabbets so that issue took care of itself. From concept to finished product took less than two hours with a set of glued and brad nailed louvers. 

I found this way to be much, much faster than trying to fit the full sized board ends to a full sized dado.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

Excellent thinking Charles...


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

but why didn't rip a face angle...
no weather exposure to speak of???


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## Gaffboat (Mar 11, 2012)

A great, practical, time saving idea, Charles. I like it.


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## Shop guy (Nov 22, 2012)

Necessity being the mother of invention shows up again. Nice idea, good work.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Stick486 said:


> but why didn't rip a face angle...
> no weather exposure to speak of???


No. It will go just under the peak under about a 2' overhang so it shouldn't get much weather. I still have to add a face frame to it to trim around the opening and I'll make the unit removable so I have a better access into the attic. That won't take long to do. One corner will only be about 4" above the carport roof.

Thanks to everyone for the compliments.


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> I needed to make a set of louvers to install in a gable end as a vent the other night and needed to get it done quickly. I got the idea to use my dado set for the grooves but setting them to the exact width of the boards can take a lot of time that I didn't want to spend. So I came up with the idea to just set the stack for some random width less than the total thickness of my boards and then rabbet the ends of the boards to fit. The boards were about 3/4 thick (never bothered measuring) so I put together a stack about 1/2" thick (also didn't bother measuring).
> 
> I decided that 60* would be an reasonable angle for the slats so that way I could use the fence to set the distance from the ends of the uprights for each slat and the miter gauge for the angles. Since each side has to be the mirror image of the other by picking an easy angle on the gauge I could flip the miter gauge back and forth from left to right for each side without moving the fence and without an angular error.
> 
> ...


Chuck this shows you are smart and the reason you are a "Moderator".


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

They made me a Mod because I was too stupid to say NO.


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## Nickp (Dec 4, 2012)

No tool should be single-purpose...nice idea...


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## BowlBit (Nov 2, 2009)

Great thinking. I made a dado board with my dado set and use it to get close, and now, I will rabbet to the finished size. Will definitely speed things up even more.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

I found it faster to size the board instead of the dado for sure. That made cutting the dadoes much faster and rabbeting the boards using a saw and fence didn't take long either. There are size limitations involved with this method though. The louvers I made were 22 x 26 and I had a little room to spare size wise with this method (on my saw i.e.). 

One thing I didn't mention is that having shoulders on the slats may have helped with keeping the frame square. I was prepared to clamp across the longest diagonal to true the frame up but when I checked it it was dead on at every corner using a framing square. Whether I got lucky or those small shoulders made a difference I can't say for certain as this was the first time I tried going this way. Time will tell.


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