Can you Put a Dado Blade on a Circular Saw?

A circular saw is a handy tool that can help you in so many projects. However, the question is can you put a dado blade on a circular saw?

A dado blade should never be used on a circular saw because there would be nothing to keep it from getting stuck in the wood as it spins around. It can damage the tool and lead to serious injuries too in some cases.

Now some of you may think about what would happen if you try to mount a dado blade on a circular saw. Apart from that, some people may even wonder about whether it is possible to make dado cuts with a circular saw or not.

Don’t worry I have explained everything in this article. In this guide, you will learn why you should never put a dado blade on a circular saw. Apart from that, I have also explained how to make dado cuts with a circular saw in a step by step manner.

So if you are interested in learning all that stuff then keep on reading…

Can you Put a Dado Blade on a Circular Saw?

What Will Happen if I mound a Dado Blade on a Circular Saw?

The blade of a circular saw is like any other circular cutting tool. Basically, you rotate or spin it around to cut the material that you want. The difference between dado blades and circular blades is in the thickness of the blade itself.

Dado blades are usually thicker than circular saws since they have teeth on both sides of them as well. So, when you place a dado blade on the round blade holder of a circular saw it will not be able to rotate correctly. It will get stuck in the wood instead.

This is why you should never put a dado blade on a circular saw since they have different sizes and shapes. This can lead to major problems if you don’t put the right blade on your saw.

Another problem with using dado blades on circular saws is that they have teeth that are up to 0.325″ in depth. So, these could damage the machine and even cut through its body if you do not use them properly.

Some people might think about what would happen if they use the right circular blade on a dado. Well, there are some circular blades that have teeth and they can be used in pushing motions as well.

However, these blades will not work well if you try to push them from the bottom or through the side of a piece of wood.

The best option would be using a table saw or a radial arm saw to make dado cuts. This is because these saws are made for making dados and they have special blades that can be used in this manner.

• The dado blade can get stuck in the wood when using it on a circular saw, which can lead to serious injuries.
• You can damage the saw when you try to mount dado blades on it.

Why Do People Think About putting Dado Blades on Circular Saws?

There are some people who think about mounting dado blades on their circular saws without knowing the consequences. However, others may have different reasons for doing so…

Some people may mount the dado blades on their saws because they don’t want to purchase them separately. Some dado blades can be very expensive since they are used in different projects like woodworking and furniture making.

But, you should never use a dado blade on a circular saw because of its size and cutting motion. You will just damage the saw and yourself if you do that.

How to Make Dado Cuts with a Circular Saw

Just because I told you, you can not use a dado blade on a circular saw doesn’t mean you can’t make dado cuts with it. Of course, I already told you that circular saws are quite interesting tools.

With a little bit of creativity and the right approach, you can use your circular saw to make perfect dado cuts for your projects.

Let me teach you the right way to make dado cuts using a circular saw without a dado blade.

Things You’ll Need for This Project

• A circular saw
• A decent Woodworking Circular Saw Blade
• Speed Squares
• ruler or measuring tape
• woodworking pencil
• chisel
• sandpaper

Steps to Make Dado Cuts with a Circular Saw

Once you have got all the required tools and items for this project (which some of you may probably have at your workshop) you are good to go. Let’s learn what are the steps to make perfect dado cuts using a circular saw.

Step 1: Clamping the Workpiece and Taking Measurements

The first step is to take the right measurements. For this step you will need to use your speed squares, measuring tape, or a ruler whatever you can just make sure you can mark accurate lines.

Put the speed squares on the lumber and draw a straight line. Once you have drawn a perfectly straight line, you need to place a block of wood or a board which will decide the width of the cut. You need to use the block that you want to fix inside the cut.

Make sure the one side of your measurement block touches the line which you drew before. Use it as a guide to mark the other side and once you remove the block you’ll get two lines parallel to each other.

The width of these two parallel lines is exactly the width of your dado cut.

Step 2: Adjust the Depth of the Circular Saw Blade

Once you have the right measurements you need to adjust your circular saw blade. You need to make sure that the depth of your saw blade is equal to or a bit more than the measurement you had taken for your dado cut.

You will have plenty of space to adjust the depth with 14 inch circular saw blades, but if you have smaller ones then you can use wedges. Use them between the stop collar and the blade to make the blade deeper.

Realize, however, this will reduce the depth of your cut gradually with each wedge you add. So be careful while doing this.

Step 3: Making Dado Cuts using Speed Suares as Guides

Once you have adjusted the blade to the right cutting depth you can start the cutting process. to make accurate cuts you will need two speed squares that you need to place side by side of your circular saw.

Clamp these two speed squares down so that they don’t move during the cutting process. It will help you make straight cuts without ruining the piece of wood or damaging the blade during the process.

During the cutting process, you need to cut the wood in lines parallel and close to each other. Keep doing this until you clear the whole width of your cut.

Step 4: Cleaning the leftover with a chisel

Once you cut the whole area, you will need to clean the wood at the depth of the cut. It is because there will be some chunks of wood left because a circular saw only cuts vertically and there is nothing to clean the horizontal surface.

Luckily, you can use a decent chisel to clean the depth of your cuts. It will be a little time taking process but in the end, it will be rewarding.

Step 5: Smoothing the surface with a sandpaper

Finally, you need to sand the areas where you had cut using a circular saw. It will get rid of the rough surface and finally make it look smooth.

If your project is going to be painted, then you don’t have to worry about this step unless you want it to look perfect.

BONUS TIP: How to Guide Circular saw blade correctly

During the process of cutting it is very easy to get lost and circle your cut. the best thing you can do is that you keep two speed squares as guides as we did in the last step.

But if you are making a lot of cuts, then this will be really time taking process. So my suggestion is to try to make marks with a pencil on each side of the blade so that you can follow it after each cut.

Can you put 2 blades on a circular saw?

No, you can’t put two blades at the same time on a circular saw. It is because the circular saw doesn’t have any mechanism to hold both the blades at a time.

The only way you can do this is if you use rail guides and follow the tapered hole on your circular saw.

But I don’t recommend this method since it is really difficult to control.

Another drawback of using two blades is this it will add unnecessary weight to your circular saw. This will reduce the stability of your unit and make it difficult for you to cut straight lines with it.

So I really don’t recommend using two blades at a time on circular saws.

If you want to use more than one blade then the only way is to put a fence between the blades and use your circular saw.

This is not very accurate but it prevents you from making crooked and uneven cuts.

Final Words

Can you put a dado blade on a circular saw? Well, it may be possible but it is never a good idea because you will never accurately be able to control both the blades.

So make sure you use the right blade for a circular saw before using it. And also try to take as many safety precautions as possible because being careless can lead to some serious accidents.

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Thanks for reading!