Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately you are in the same situation as I with a comparable DeWalt saw, you can't use a dado blade/stack with it. In the pdf version of the manual for your saw it is on page 34.

An other way, make cuts with your regular blade, every 1/8 to 1/4" across the area, remove remaining wood with a chisel.

 

Ok cool, thanks. So what you're saying is without a dado blade I can still do this by making multiple cuts but making sure I run the wood all the way through and then smooth it out with a chisel correct? From what I've read and seen in videos is only with a dado blade can you stop the wood in the middle of a cut and pull it back with a table saw.

 

A dado set would be "nice", but in the absence on one you can take a different approach as follows. You'll need to layout and mark your widths across the boards and divide the thickness be 1/2 to determine the depth. Mark those dimensions on all your pieces because there will be some considerable hand wok/chiseling involved.
Your first crosscut will be at the marked width of the board and at 1/2 the desired depth. Then you make successive crosscuts along the until you reach the end of your board about 1/4" or so apart. Then knock away the waste with a small hammer, then using a sharp chisel par down any high spots. You do this on all your boards ends, KEEPING track of which pieces go on the top and which go on the bottom .... from your previously made marks!

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I was thinking you'd be going all the way across a board. @woodnthings posted a lot of good info. You might start a thread in the Design & Plans section of the forum about how to make a screen door. Not something I've done.

 

Flat ground blade on your saw can do most things a dado setup can do. Just take multiple passes. I use CTM blades and so far have had great success with them although I am getting a new Sawstop PCS this week, maybe next depending on the weather (for delivery) ..I figure that nice, flat table surface will do a MUCH BETTER job keeping those saw teeth inline as opposed to my old crapman slotted aluminum top saw that was like pushing a board up a gravel driveway with an old rope at times.. You may want to invest in a nice router plane to clean up those saw marks..I use a cheapish Chinese router plane, but it's a small Chinese startup that makes some decent woodworking handtools and will actually correspond with American customers.. Router Plane

 

If you use the multiple cut system and a chisel make sure you make a cut across the very end of the board, this serves as a guide for your chisel and you don't have to worry about chipping on the end when breaking the parts off. This is done regularly on construction sites, with practice it will make a tight neat joint.

 

Frank nailed it. Yes you can make perfect dados with a single blade and a chisel. Dados were probably cut this way for the first couple centuries until they invented the dado stack set. Currently done hundreds of times daily on construction sites all over the world

 

Don't limit yourself to a table saw or circular saw. A simple router jig will also work. So will 2 cuts with a hand saw.

 

I was just going add that. I used my smallish Ryobi 10" TS and my Ryobi 1/4" router to build a set of bar door type closet doors for my wife out of 2×6 Dugfir. Cleaned em up with a sharp chisel.

 

As stated above, there are lots of ways to cut dados - table saw dado stack, router, etc.

If you use a table saw, you can cut the sides with a single blade to establish the shoulders (edges) of the dado, then use that blade to cut out the area between them. There are a variety of simple jigs you can buy or make for yourself that help you line up the two edges.

-> Do a web search for "kerfmaker". You will find many products and examples and designs. There are also YouTube videos. A kerfmaker helps you position the table saw to cut the two shoulders, and then you cut out the in-between part.

Stopped dado cuts with a table saw leave a curved end that matches the blade. You will have to decide whether it is acceptable, or how you will deal with it if it isn't. Here are two photos where I made stopped dados and ignored the curve - they didn't matter.

 

Tenoning Jig Modified

This jig is an old Craftsman tenoning jig, but I never liked the thumb screw bolts to hold the work piece and the short vertical height off the table so..... after a few mods I came up with this version: The right side of the jig is butted to the fence to make a reference stop. Then various...

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A tenon jig that will hold the pieces vertically will make cutting the tenon faces a lot easier and faster, BUT you can't usually stand a 6ft 8in storm door length vertically on a tablesaw with limited ceiling heights, like in my shop. So you are confined to keeping them flat on the table saw surface and either using a dado set or nibbling away the waste. A router will get rid of the waste faster ...in some cases, not all because you'll need to take several passes at increasing depths.
My preference is to use a bandsaw to make all the cuts, shoulders and tenons and using stops on the fence will keep it accurate.

 

@woodnthings your bandsawed tenons are smooth and accurate enough to be ready for glue? I need to improve my bandsaw skills, ok, I knew that already lol, along with all my other ww skills.

 

Yes, depending on the set of the teeth on the blade you can get pretty smooth faces:

A sanding block with remove the ridges that are proud of the surface and make it smoother. Good enough for a glue joint on long grains.

 

I built a tenon jig using 1 piece of scrap ply and a piece of scrap poplar. I use it to make tenons and half laps on the table saw.


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Don't overthink it from the tool backward. It is as simple as how can you remove the material, and there are a ton of ways. Yo can use the table saw, as mentioned previously. I would opt to make a simple fixture and use a router. You will get a smoother face and have an easier time getting your depth right. You can make a fixture for your table saw to make the cheek cut in one pass, or use a tenoning jig (made or purchased) to make the cut. If you have access to a bandsaw you can do it there too. As for the throat plate, make one. Surface some hardwood you have around down to the thickness of your existing throat plate. Then attach your throat plate to the blank with double stick tape. Then just use a flush pattern bit on your router to copy it. Copy the holes and attach it to the saw. With the dado lowered, turn the saw on and slowly raise the blade to make a zero clearance throat plate.

 

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I built my bench with T&M joints all hand done with a handsaw and chisels way before I really knew what I was doing. Quite some time later now it's still rock solid. Nice, sharp chisels and a decent backsaw will do most anything you need to do
I'd practice on scraps first for gaining confidence before digging into expensive materials, but it ain't rocket science at all..

 

i have built my share of doors, built all the interior doors when i built my house. yes, as others have, said you can remove the stock a dozen ways. BUT, how true is the joint when you are done. not so much - can you get the joint to 90 degrees - that is the easy part. its when its all assembled, how flat is the door?? if it is not very flat, when the door is closed, either the top or the bottom will not be up against the door stop.

use a flat surface for assembly, do dry test fits clamping the half lap joints to see how well they are.

 

No it's a pain in the ass to change out, Buy a Router