# Making a trapezoid (wastebasket)?



## Vexorg (Apr 16, 2014)

How would you make something like the below image?

I feel like this would be a fairly simple project and would plan to make it out of plywood and paint it. I was thinking the angles might be a little complicated but I was planning on using sketchup to figure that stuff out...

Has anyone seen any plan for something like this or as personally built one?


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Looks like a splayed miter joint. The same style joint is used a lot in wood turning for making bowls and the like, the only difference in that basket is it has fewer sides than most bowl blanks ive seen and hasnt been turned.

http://woodgears.ca/miter/

That page should help you out with tha calculations. Be warned though, those buggers can be devilishly tricky to accurately cut


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

The corners would be mitered at a 45 degree angle however the parts are tapered wider at the top than bottom. The easiest way to find the angle of the taper would be to draw the side full scale on a piece of plywood. Drawing it out full scale would also let you know the size and angle of the bottom.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*same as this with bevels*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfqvVhP3Fes


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## Vexorg (Apr 16, 2014)

Thanks for all the replies guys! I will review the items posted. This may be a good project for me to use my recently purchased Incra 1000HD.


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## pweller (Mar 10, 2014)

This is basically just the definition of a 'compound miter'. You got a 45 degree bevel, and probably 5 degree or so taper. No biggie, just cut it out - angle the table saw blade at 45 and taper it going through the fence. The only little trickie would be how you wanted to finish the top edges, if you want them perfectly horizontal you'll need to angle those cuts as well (they won't be 90 degrees).

I like the digital protractors for measuring these angles. They're pretty cheap.

Also, before you cut the pieces, just draw rough lines indicating the cut directions so you don't get confused. Tapers and miters have the be coordinated.


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## igster (Oct 31, 2013)

I made one for my wife a while back....gonna have to take a pic of it and post it. Meantime, here's something similar I did on a much smaller scale:










Same principles involved...the corner miters were 45degrees(done on my bandsaw) and the top to bottom angles were basically eyeballed(also on the bandsaw), and the cutouts were done on my scroll saw.


Mark V


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## Vexorg (Apr 16, 2014)

igster said:


> I made one for my wife a while back....gonna have to take a pic of it and post it. Meantime, here's something similar I did on a much smaller scale:
> 
> 
> View attachment 99050
> ...


That looks awesome!


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## Bonka (Mar 24, 2011)

Give this site a shot: http://www.perfectcuts.com/index.asp


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Woodgears has a chart that will give you the angles for cutting:
http://woodgears.ca/miter/


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Double post


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## igster (Oct 31, 2013)

Here you go:




















It started out as a small wastebasket but ended up being a doggie toy bin  Made of 3/8 inch ply, stained a sort of walnut-ish. The corner joints are not mitered at 45 (my bad, sorry 'bout the memory fart there  but rather lap-jointed, cut with a straight router bit(which could also be done wit a dado set on the table saw).


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