I swore by my old dado stack for years, but a splintered mess in a Maple Ridge kitchen changed my mind

I was cutting a run of drawer boxes for a client's kitchen remodel, using my trusty 8-inch Freud stack like always. On the third box, the maple just exploded with tear-out, leaving a ragged edge I couldn't use. My buddy Steve, who was helping, pointed out my feed rate was too fast for the hard maple. I slowed way down on the next cut and it came out glass-smooth. Anyone have a favorite feed speed for hardwoods like maple or walnut?

4 comments

4 Comments

susansingh2mo ago

My last maple project looked like a beaver got to it.

king.val2mo ago

Was it actually maple or something softer? Beavers chew through trees, but maple's pretty tough to mess up that bad. Maybe check your blade, @susansingh.

elliotm572mo ago

Hold up, beavers? That's wild. I can't picture a beaver doing that to a maple piece. Those teeth must be insane. Makes me wonder what kind of tools they're using. Seriously, that's some next level damage.

carter.joseph14d ago

New blade and slowing way down helped me a ton with maple @king.val, sometimes it's just way more dense than you'd figure. That grain can fight back and mess everything up if you rush it.