Dropped $260 on a Freud 8 inch dado stack and it bailed me out on a cherry built-in last month
Had a client in Ann Arbor who wanted a fixed shelf unit that had to match the crown profile exactly, and my old wobble dado blade was chewing up the cherry bad enough that I was losing a board per run. Bit the bullet on the Freud set and the flat bottom cuts came out clean enough that the shelves sat dead level with no shims. Cost me $260 but it saved about $400 in replacement cherry plus a week of sanding out tearout. What are you all running for dado work on hardwood, or am I the only one still fighting this?