I've been lurking for several weeks (or has it been several months?) now
and since I have a question or two, I guess that it's appropriate to post a
bio.  I'm 47 and design mixed signal ICs for a living.  My woodworking thus
far has consisted mostly of carpentry type stuff.  Pretty far from fine
woodworking.  My techniques come from 3 years of mandatory wood shop in
junior high school and what I have picked up here and in rec.ww.
   Which brings me to a question.  I am working of a railing for a deck
that I'm building.  Not being satisfied with the quick and dirty stuff
that contractors around throw together I though that I would make a "nicer"
railing.  Anyway, what I'm doing involves 

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Each horizontal piece is constructed of two pieces of redwood with a dado
in each to accept the vertical slat.  So I need twenty horizontal pieces
of wood, each with 9 dados in it for a grand total of 180 dados.  Thus
far, I've cut the dados with a saw and chisel but this takes about one hour
per piece of wood or 4 hours per section of railing.  Am I missing something
in the way of technique or tools (short of an old-fashioned 3 hp. DeWalt
router) here?  How were dados cut prior to power tools and are there any
specialized hand tools which make the job easier?  After all this cutting,
I see why contractors take the (ch)easy way out.

Tom Walley
tmw@h...