whats the name of the old school saw that cut birdmouths with one pass

[hip and valley king]

i remeber my old boss had a saw i think they called it the chipper made by skill and it was outlawed am i right can some one help me

[Dick Seibert]

Sim here still uses one, it is called either a chipper or a dado saw (he calls his the "Dadeo"), I had one years ago but CalOSHA condemned them, we had them made from Skil 77s. Scroll forward a few images to see it in use.. We had a local guy who made them for us, he also made me a saw with the blade moved over for flush cutting with no guard and the blade housing cut off at the edge of the saw, we ran our plates continuous and after setting the door trimmers we cut the plates out with the flush-cut saw, after they were illegal we cut the plates before we set the trimmers.

[Tom Bainbridge]

mafell still make them

[Riversong]

A dado saw won't cut a birdsmouth. It's called a beam cutter and it's hardly "old school". Prazi makes them for either sidewinders or worm-drives. The Mafell and Makita chain mortisers are for timber framing and are very pricey tools.

You can also gang cut your birdsmouths with an 8¼" worm-drive ...

[ubenhad4]

UMmm a dado wormdrive sure will cut a birdsmouth. Osha banned them because most of them where home made with out guards. I worked for a guy a a while ago who had one we could cut any mouth from 1 12 to 12 12 about 4 inches if i remember right. The swing table on a beam saw has replaced it because of the safety aspect.

[m beezo]

Dang, Dick, I am not sure you guys are carpenters or metal workers.

Just what do the sheet rockers do with all those straps and hangers in the way? Looks like a terrible way to try to get a flat wall without lots of floating the walls.

[Dick Seibert]

Beezo:

We started using lots of metal since when the 97 UBC became the 98 CBC in 1998, and engineers are using more metal ever since, we did have problems at first, that's why we started doing a lot of rabbiting and dadoing. The transition hasn't been that hard for me since I used a lot of metal in modern cantilevered homes in the Oakland Hills in the 50s, and in 1974 I built a home in Piedmont on a rather small footprint that was a tower full of steel, I've always done a lot of commercial and industrial work as well where steel construction is common, but it sure slows framing down, production framing is a thing of the past, and ironically it started here.

You guys are suppose to be getting it, the structural engineers pushed the I Codes saying that our entire country was at risk for major damages when the next earthquake hits, thinking specifically of the Missouri area for earthquakes, the. entire eastern seaboard, and the Gulf coast for hurricanes. The IRC to the engineers was a foot in the door to expand into an earthquake, hurricane, tornado-proof code. I argued once with a CBO who is a SE who sat on an I Code committee about giving up a lot of life safety provisions, he said they gave them up to get other parts on the country on-board, that earthquake safety was more important than anything, that Washington DC, our nations capitol, was subject to complete destruction.

We have California engineers who think the most important thing in the world is structural safety, the fire industry that thinks fires safety is the most important thing in the world, Berkeley Hippies who think that saving the earth is the most important thing in the world, people in the Northeast who think that energy efficiency is the most important thing in the world, and all four groups seem to be on a mission to save us in accordance with their beliefs. All I know for sure is it all adds up to some very expensive construction.

[Riversong]

UMmm a dado wormdrive sure will cut a birdsmouth.

Would you care to explain how? It's just a circ saw with a wider blade.

[Riversong]

an earthquake, hurricane, tornado-proof code.

Not to mention terrorist-proof and WMD-proof.

Washington DC, our nations capitol, was subject to complete destruction.

Sure, but from seismic shifts to the right, not from the ground.

[gman396]

The old skill dado saws have about 11 real dado blades on it. Just like a table saw dado blade. I have two skills. One of them is an old Groover that cuts only 2'' wide. I got a newer (70"s?) that cuts a 3 1/2'' wide dado. The second one has a Paris Products sticker on it. Both saws I got off E bay for about $50 each and they work great.

[gman396]

somebody in the JlC mag had one made not to long ago. I don't remember the cost but I can guess it was in the $400 dollar range.

[Joe Carola]

Would you care to explain how? It's just a circ saw with a wider blade.

Look at the saw on the right on page 146 and read page 147. It certainly can cut a birdsmouth.

http://books.google.com/books?id=oxd...age&q=&f=false

[Riversong]

Look at the saw on the right on page 146 and read page 147. It certainly can cut a birdsmouth.

OK, gang-cutting, but that's not what Seibert and ubenhad4 said. It sounded like they were talking about cutting A birdsmouth.

So you can do in one noisy, dangerous pass what you can do in two passes with a worm-drive much more safely and with less mess.

[Joe Carola]

So you can do in one noisy, dangerous pass what you can do in two passes with a worm-drive much more safely and with less mess.

Yes, you can do it in one pass.You're worried about noise and mess? What tool doesn't make noise? As far as mess, you have to sweep saw dust up compared to little blocks, who cares? What makes you think that saw isn't safe, the many blades? I've never used one before but if the blades are sharp they probably cut like butter. One pass is better than two isn't it?

[Riversong]

One pass is better than two isn't it?

It's not all about speed, Joe (just ask your wife ;-)