18 years of dado stacks and I just learned the shims go on the arbor side

A guy at the sharpening shop in Des Moines watched me set up my stack and asked why I was fighting the wobble, and it hit me that I'd been putting the shims between the blades this whole time, has anyone else had a setup habit that took way too long to break?

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felixhenderson1mo ago

Wait, hold on. The shims go on the arbor side? I mean, I get that they space the blades out, but I always figured they were supposed to sit between the cutters to keep the kerf even. That's how my old man taught me, and I've been doing it that way for over a decade. The wobble thing makes sense now, though, because I've had a few stacks that just never felt right no matter how tight I got the nut. Actually, I think you might be mixing up the outside shims with the spacers that come in the middle of the set. The thin ones go on the arbor, sure, but the thicker ones are meant to go between the blades when you're running a specific width. Either way, I'm gonna try your way next time I set up, because fighting that vibration is the worst part of the job.

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david7031mo ago

Well, "that's how my old man taught me" hit close to home, because I learned the same way and spent twenty years blaming bad blades for what was probably my own setup. Turns out my dad was a great carpenter but a lousy mathematician, and he never could explain why some stacks hummed like a wasp nest. Now I feel like I owe an apology to every dado set I ever cursed out in the shop. I'll be out there tomorrow swapping the thin shims to the arbor side and hoping the next cut comes out smoother than my pride.

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