Can we talk about skipping the dado stack and just using a router jig for cabinet shelves?
I had 14 melamine cabinet boxes to build for a kitchen job in Reno last month and my dado stack kept chipping the edges no matter how slow I fed the sheets, so I built a simple router jig with a 1/4 inch bit and cut all the shelf grooves in one afternoon. The fit came out tighter than anything the stack ever gave me and I didn't have to swap blades once. Has anyone else ditched the dado stack for shelf work, or am I setting myself up for a mess on the next batch?
A router jig for shelf grooves is pretty standard stuff, plenty of shops do it that way without any drama, so I would not sweat it. The real question is whether your jig holds up after 50 boxes instead of 14, not whether the idea itself works.