Dado depth and how tight?

[Henry Anthony]

Greetings all,

I'm new to the forum and relatively new to my TS2424 although I have owned it for 2 years. I am building some simple bookshelves from oak plywood and my questions are:
How deep should the dado be? I'm thinking 1/4-3/8 but I would love to hear what you all think.

Also, how tight should the joint be? I have a Freud Super Dado. The 3/4 set-up was way too loose. With the chipper for undersized plywood I need to really hammer the pieces together (scrap of course). Should I really want a joint that tight?

I am going to try a shim tonight and see what happens.

Thanks in advance for your opinions. I really need your help as my wife is going to hammer me if I don't finish those bookshelves redface.gif)

Best regards,

Henry