English Woodworker in Burgundy, France

Graham, before you order anything, check the bore size of your saw blades. The EU saws all have a 30mm bore, specifically designed not to take a dado stack or wobble blade (because using one requires the removal of the blade guard and splitter).
We get the EU models in South Africa, and all the makes have 30mm arbors. Not sure how James got a 5/8 arbor DeWalt in Oz - the same saw here is 30mm. I also bought the GTS 10 XC, but might have been persuaded to go the DeWalt route (against Stick's advice), if the machine had accepted a dado stack.
Even of you were to have the dado stack drilled out to 30mm, as somebody on the forum suggested to me, the arbor length is insufficient to accommodate the stack. I was hoping that Freud at least made the box joint blade set in 30mm - if they do, it is top-secret, military-grade encrypted information. Have bought a top-flat-ground blade instead.
Interestingly, on another forum a retired health and safety inspector stated that while a lot of the health and safety rules might be questionable, he firmly believed in this one - a significant proportion of the accidents he had investigated, involved the use of a table saw without the guard on.
You pays yer money, and you don't always takes yer choice.

Welcome. Your instruction manual should answer whether you can use a dado stack. If not, then you will probably be making your dados with a router. In which case you will want to make and exact width dado jig. Fairly easy to make, it consists of two solid, straight pieces set up so you can adjust one to open or close the gap. You place a piece of what goes into the dado between the boards, snug them up and lock the movable piece down.

You need to use a bit that produces a flat bottom, and make your cuts no more than about 3-4 mm per pass. Here's a picture. The long pieces don't necessarily have to be exactly 90 to the edge of the side pieces, but if you have an accurate square, it doesn't hurt.

I prefer using a mortising bit for this purpose, with a top mounted bearing that rides along the edges of the side pieces. A half inch bit will work for up to an inch wide dado, although most will be about 18 mm.

I prefer to keep the safety stuff in place, but for dados on a table saw, removing the safety guards is almost a must.

Modifying the Bosch GTS10 XC to take a dado stack

Hi, Graham,

Welcome to the forum.

I live in the UK. I bought the Bosch GTS10 XC for or five years ago. It is the European version of the 4100-09. Somewhere on this forum, I found the list of parts which you need to order from Bosch to allow the GTS10 XC to take a dado stack. I ordered them from Bosch, USA and they arrived within a couple of weeks. I am sorry but I cannot remember the precise details and I cannot find the original post.

I started to disassemble the saw to fit the parts but found four very "soft" screws which I could not remove with a standard screwdriver. I approached my local Bosch dealer, fully expecting to be told to get lost, but he agreed to do the complete strip-down for me. He asked if I had a press to insert the new parts, and when I said I didn't, he suggested that he do the entire job for me. I could hardly believe it. However, a week later, I went back and collected my updated GTS10 XC. I kept all of the original parts in case I want to revert. I did not have to buy any new blades but was able to continue to use the 30mm bores.

I also ordered a second riving knife and cut the slot a little longer (but I can't remember exactly why I had to do this).

I bought a Freud 8" Super Dado set on eBay and it was shipped from USA to UK.

It doesn't take a full dado stack. I could only get around 18-19mm (just over 3/4").

Dado stacks are NOT illegal in UK and Europe. You can buy them online from certain suppliers who have been around for many years. (One company actually sells full table saws with complete dado stacks, but that was beyond my budget.) However, if you EMPLOY people to work for you and operate machines with spinning blades (circular saws, radial arm saws and table saws), then the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) regulations state that there must be adequate safety guards in place and anybody operating the equipment must be properly trained how to use it safely.

Note that the HSE is only responsible for Health and Safety AT WORK. What you do in the privacy of your own workshop is entirely up to you. As long as you do not employ people to operate your table saw ar radial arm saw, you can do whatever you like. However, anybody operating machinery of any sort should consider safety guidance. Your personal safety is your personal responsibility.

Hope this helps.