Carpentry and Woodworking - How do I start a dado cut in the middle of the wood?

I just bought a Freud dado blade set and have it installed on my Craftsman table saw.

I'm cutting a 3/4" dado into 2x2 pieces of cedar to make a frame for a piece of 3/4" glass.

I need the corners of each 2x2 to NOT have the dado cut so I can join the frame pieces together with dowels or screws.

How do I start or stop a dado cut from anywhere except the end of the 2x2?

Should I be using a router for this instead?

Thanks.

I'd probably lower the wood onto the dado blade while it's running, and remove it to see if you've cut up to your line or not. But if you are using a guard over the blade, lower the blade, position the wood, raise the blade into the wood, and check it that way.

Since your frame plans apparently use butt joints, you'll have to clean out the corners with a chisel. If the corners of your frame were mitered, you wouldn't have to worry about this at all.

One other thing, if you are making multiple cuts on several pieces, place a piece of tape on the table and determine the start and finish of the run and make a mark on the leading and trailing edge of the tape. You can lower your wood on the forward piece of tape and raise it, or stop cutting once the wood reaches the rear most tape mark. that way all your cuts will be uniform. Then go clean out the corners as XSleeper said.

Thanks XSleeper and Chandler. Using the tape on the table saw is a good idea.

I'm a little confused by the suggestion of doing mitered ends. If I'm cutting a dado into the 2x2 wood, why would a mitre end make things easier? Wouldn't I still have to stop the dado before I got to the part that mitered? If the dado cut goes into the mitered area, there wouldn't be enough meat in the wood to screw them together.

Or, am I missing something?

Thanks!

It appears your frame will be using the wood in a flat manner and you should stop your dadoes. Making a normal frame on edge, it wouldn't matter if the dado went all the way through as the adjacent pieces will hide them.

Dado two pieces of scrap all the way through and mitre the corners. Fit the corners together to see if you get the desired fit.

I usually use a plunge router for stopped dadoes because I can see what I'm doing. In the case of 2X2's I would probably use a router table marking the start and stop as suggested.

If you cut the dado (it's really a groove isn't it?) on a table saw you'll have to clean up the end of the cut with a chisel.

I just bought my first mitre saw! I experimented with a few cuts and now realize why the mitre was suggested. Now I don't need to worry about stopping the dado.

Thanks for that suggestion and also for using the term "stopped dado"---I didn't know that was what it was called so was having trouble searching on how to do that.

I have a question about the blade guard on my table saw---can't use the original one with the dado blade----I'll post it as a new topic.

Thanks!