Zen and the Art of Dado

Test cut. First attempt at actualizing the dado. Not bad, but room for improvement. 

Nashville is not known for it's plethora of fine-arts industry related services and I have had to resort to building my own stretchers (strainers, really, but no one is keeping track.) It's been a good thing. I actually like the prep work and I'm not too shabby.

I have owned a simple chop saw for 25 years. Crosscuts and miters were as fancy as it got. A couple of years ago, my friend Carla, and sage guru in all things DIY, taught me how to cut  beveled edges using an inexpensive table saw. I added the table saw and beveled miters to my skill set. I make cuts as needed to build small to medium stretchers. For years, I was spoiled by living in cities where quality stretchers were actually affordable, and without certain tools I could only get so far in my DIY stretcher building when I wanted to work large.* Enter, the elusive dado cut cross-brace. And also, most of the time I believe in using quality materials and craftsmanship, though not always.**

I've also known about dado cuts for about 25 years. I've read about them in my hardware books. I've looked at diagrams. I've studied them close-up after purchasing stretcher bars made by professionals. I knew how to make dado cuts, and yet, no dado cuts were made.

There are at least 4 ways to make dado cuts. There are others, but these are the ones seemingly accessible if you don't run a major woodshop:

1. A hand router.

The hand router is a lot of work and frankly seemed a little heavy and prone to operator error.

2. A table saw with a dado blade.

The dado blade is a myth. I've never seen one and no one I know has ever used one. To change the blade for a single dado cut is apparently so labor intensive that no one wants to do it. There is no dado blade. 

3. A coping saw, a chisel, and nothing to do for the rest of the day. Maybe some band-aids.

Need I go into detail? 

4. An inexpensive table saw with an all-purpose blade.

I finally asked someone to show me the mechanics of making a dado cut, specifically, how to handle the wood as it glided over the saw blade. It sounds simple, but when there's a whirring blade inches away from your fingers, anything is possible.*** It came to my attention that they assumed I didn't know anything about dado cuts, saws, or lumber for that matter, but I listened patiently and watched a single cut being made on a megafancy table saw at the school woodshop. I paid attention to the wood and the position of the hands as they went back and forth over the blade. I was concerned with potential kickback and keeping my lumber straight as I made multiple passes- the action part of making the cut. 

Yesterday, I finally made the elusive dado cut on my home table saw. The test cut came out at 90 degrees and perfectly flush. That is all. 

*sometimes I also support crappy cheap labor from China, but only because it's impossible to find crappy, cheap store-bought canvases made in the USA. 

**I quit using a stretcher-builder out in LA when  in a snarky convo, he told me that most of his work (stretcher bars) winds up in landfills. I didn't want that as the foundation for my paintings. I don't know where my paintings will wind up, but it seemed like a rotten place to start knowing that the guy who made the stretchers was already thinking "landfill.") I think about these things in terms of karma. "Take care of your work and it will take care of you."

***Allow me to make the analogy between lane-splitting on a motorcycle and making a dado cut on a table saw. When discussing the pros and cons of lane-splitting, a friend in California explained that when you (the motorcyclist) are between cars, you're relatively safe. The cars on either side are parallel to you; they are not converging to single point. They will not crush you. True enough, unless one of them wants to radically change lanes. I grew to love lane-splitting, but back to the saw. The saw blade is lowered to about half the depth of the wood and it's not roving around all willy-nilly on the table, so making a dado cut using multiples passes on the table saw is a rather safe cut, but like anything you do more than once, there are odds to beat and conditions to be alert to.