Tapered legs

[GrahamIreland]

What's the best way to go about creating a taper on a set of table legs.

Is it just an off cut at the correct angle set against the fence..?

Graham

 

[AndyT]

It'll depend on the scale, your tools and the techniques you are comfortable with.
When I made a little walnut side table recently I just hand planed the tapers, which were on two sides, over most of the length.

 

[Myfordman]

What's the best way to go about creating a taper on a set of table legs.

Is it just an off cut at the correct angle set against the fence..?

Graham

Essentially yes. Make or buy a taper jig for your table saw.

Start the taper on the leg just below the apron after you have cut the mortices. Tapers generally go on the faces with the mortices in.

 

[John15]

I mark the taper on the leg starting 20mm below the rail then cut freehand to within about 2mm on the bandsaw. Finish to the line with a plane. Legs can be tapered on all four faces, or just on the two internal faces as mentioned by Myfordman. On a set of dining chairs I am making I have formed a second taper 100mm from the bottom of the legs which looks very nice.

John

 

[Benno]

I've been making a pair of small side tables with tapered legs and wanted everything to be identical so made a jig. From now on though I think I'll do it for a lot more projects, it makes the process easier and more repeatable and, provided you have the storage, the jigs can be reused.

I also made mine with a recess to hold the leg while I use the router to start the mortices, so the closest side holds the square leg for tapering, and the middle recess holds the leg and allows me to run the router into the mortice to clear the majority of the joint (which I finish with a chisel)

The leg hangs off the side, against the jig and is passed through the bandsaw.

 

[custard]

As a rule of thumb, if I've got more than eight legs to taper then I set up a jig that's mounted on the sliding table of the saw. One pass and the cut's done,

But any jig requires a certain amount of time to set it up, then it's plain common sense to run a test cut, and of course most machine made cuts require final finishing with a hand plane if you want to best possible surface. That all adds up to quite bit of faff, so for eight legs or less I just rough cut the taper by eye on the bandsaw and finish with a hand plane.

In most cases the actual tapered sides won't be jointing surfaces. So they need to look clean and true, but if they're at 91 degrees or 89 degrees it's not the end of the world, no one will notice such a tiny discrepancy. Consequently for eight legs or less (ie a pair of side tables), experience suggests I'm actually quicker with a band saw and a bench plane, and it's just not worth getting all jigged up.

 

[GrahamIreland]

Thanks all,