# tapered table legs



## kjhart0133 (Feb 4, 2009)

Hello all,

I'm making a dining table for my son and his new wife. (See attached sketch.) They wanted tapered legs as opposed to turned spindles. Since this is going to be a fairly good sized table, I planned on using 3" square blanks for the legs and making two-sided tapers on my tapering jig. I've done this before, but never for a 3" blank. After making up the blanks, I realize that they are too big for the tapering jig, mainly because my 10" table saw only shows 3" of blade at max height. Subtract the thickness of the tapering jig deck and I've only got about 2-1/2 inches of blade showing.

I suppose I could cut the tapers on my band saw and clean up the blade marks with a smoothing plane and some sanding, but does anyone out there have any other ideas?

Thanks,

Kevin H.


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## Hammer1 (Aug 1, 2010)

Don't know what you have for tools or the type of taper jig. With many, you can flip the leg over and cut from both sides to meet in the middle, more or less. You can cut all the way through with most bandsaws. The cut can be cleaned up with a belt sander, hand plane or jointer. Clamp the legs together if sanding or planing so they will all be relatively equal.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

You could cut them on the band saw, or use a simple hinged/pivot tapering jig that goes between the stock and the fence. I might leave a bit more than 1" on the leg bottom for a table that size.









 





 
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## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

My taper jig is an inexpensive one which looks like this one from Woodcraft. I think mine was purchased from Sears.

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/2003184/10615/taper-jig.aspx

It holds the wood at an angle and does not consume any blade height.

You can make a plywood equivalent using the present jig to get the angle. Just need an "L" type foot to push the wood.


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## clpead (Oct 10, 2012)

you could make a jig specific for this project. one that allows the leg to move across the table. I just did something similar to this. just make your spacer block the distance of the material that you want to remove. so if you want your final thickness to be one inch, then make your spacer block 2 inches.

Sorry, I didn't read Dave's post. Same thing he is saying basically.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

clpead said:


> Sorry, I didn't read Dave's post. Same thing he is saying basically.


Same thing I was saying too.:yes:








 







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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*this is dirt simple*

It uses a screw that adjusts in and out for the amount of taper you need. It has a foot on the end to catch the end of the leg so you can push it through the saw:






If you have a jointer:


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

Dave Paine said:


> My taper jig is an inexpensive one which looks like this one from Woodcraft. I think mine was purchased from Sears.
> 
> http://www.woodcraft.com/product/2003184/10615/taper-jig.aspx
> 
> ...


That is the most common tapering jig I have seen. Same one I have. Same thing to which Cabinetman was referring.

That should do the job for you. You can easily make one just like that.

George


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## Rockerbox1 (Jan 21, 2011)

I was going to try to explain how to do it with a jointer, but I see a vie has already been posted. Done this once, many moons ago, works like a charm


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

IMO, doing the taper on the table saw, or band saw with a two part pivoting jig would offer a more accurate and faster process. It would be a one pass per taper. Doing it on the jointer would require many passes, and be more difficult to make accurate repetitious profiles.








 







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## johnmark (Jul 21, 2012)

if you want to go old school, you could draw a line, make saw cuts down to the line every few inches, chisel, then plane it flat

most people make a hinged jig and run it through a table saw though.


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## Midlandbob (Sep 5, 2011)

Yes

A pencil, a straight edge, a band saw and a good hand plane (ideally at least a # 5 or #6). You could do four legs in 30 minutes plus or minus a few.


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## kjhart0133 (Feb 4, 2009)

Thanks all for the helpful replies. I ended up making a custom taper jig for just this use out of two thickness of plywood.

The first picture below shows the jig that I cut on the bandsaw. It was a nice tight fit. I also made a test leg out of plywood that I tapered first. The picture also shows a finished walnut leg. When I tapered the walnut leg it was two inches longer (30"). I make it longer so that when I cut the mortise and fit the tenon, I don't split the top of the leg. Once I have the mortise and tenons done, I cut off the extra two inches as shown in this picture. 

The second picture shows the test leg fitted into the jig. The third picture shows the test leg and jig on the table saw. In the fourth shot my Lovely Assistant keeps gentle pressure on the outfeed side to prevent the leg and jig from drifting away from the far end of the fence.

I made one mistake and had to remake one leg from scratch. I had the wrong side up when I started the taper. Since the mortises were already cut, I had to have the correct side up so I would have the mortises on the proper sides when the tapers were done. Well, wouldn't you know on the last leg I got the wrong side up and realized when I was half way through the cut. Dang! 

After making a new leg, all four legs are now tapered and they came out fine. Glad I'm done with that, though.

Kevin H.


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## ryan50hrl (Jun 30, 2012)

Nice work!!


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## makin_sawdust (Dec 24, 2012)

OMG, I have read about making tapered cuts on a table saw so many times, and never fully grasped the concept until reading this thread and seeing the pics, THANKS


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