cutting tapered legs

[ebanks]

I am in the process of building a dining table from hard maple.
I have some 3" x 3" x 30 " stock for the legs and plan to do a double taper on the legs but not sure of the safest way to do the tapers. Bt3100, bandsaw, planer, etc.

What do you think?

[drumpriest]

bt3100 with a tapering jig is how I'd do it. Pick your outside and inside faces, then cut your 2 tapers. Clean up with a hand scraper.

[Thom2]

got a jointer?

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/fe...23sidebar.html

can't get much quicker than that

[drumpriest]

Thom, have you tried this method?? A 1/2" cut on the jointer seems pretty extreme to me, I guess.

[ebanks]

I wasn't sure if a 1 pass 3 inch cut would bog down the BT3100 motor and possibly kickback the wood.

What do you think.

Sorry I do not have a jointer.

Eric

[BobSch]

I wasn't sure if a 1 pass 3 inch cut would bog down the BT3100 motor and possibly kickback the wood.

What do you think.

Sorry I do not have a jointer.

Eric

If you use the right feed rate bogging down the saw shouldn't be a problem and cutting a taper with a tapering jig souldn't be any more prone to kickback than a straight cut.

[atgcpaul]

I am in the process of building a dining table from hard maple.
I have some 3" x 3" x 30 " stock for the legs and plan to do a double taper
on the legs but not sure of the safest way to do the tapers. Bt3100, bandsaw,
planer, etc.

What do you think?

Doing tapers on any table saw is one of the scarier operations
for me. I have tried the metal adjustable angle taper jig
and for the most part they are flimsy and don't give your
hands too much clearance from the blade. They also don't have
any holddowns to secure the piece.

If you own a bandsaw and the BT3100, you could cut close to
the line, then make some kind of plywood sled that slides
against the fence, and holds your legs tightly down to the
sled. I've seen many variations of this on the web and in
books. If you make it right, your hands will have plenty of
clearance from the blade. Usually, this is one of those
no-guard cuts.

A planer sled and your bandsaw would also be pretty safe.
You'll have to devise some kind of wedge to keep your leg
at the right angle, but that's not too hard. Again, you'd
cut away most of the material with your bandsaw and then
run it through your planer.

One more, bandsaw and handplane. Same principles as outlined
above.

Paul

[onedash]

Taper jig.....Just make sure you cut in the right order. so you have a flat piece on the table for both cuts.

[kbyter]

I just made a small outdoor table with 2 inch legs, tapered to 1 1/8. Used the metal taper jig with no problem. Set the jig once and did all 4 legs in a few minutes. Doing them on the bandsaw requires a bit of cleanup of the edges, probably need a planer.

I did use a SAW AID to push the wood through. But, even doing a straight cut on that size wood requires some sort of push stick to be safe.

kent

[drumpriest]

If the 3" is too much, I suppose that you could make the cut in incremental passes, raising the blade. A non-through cut. I'd feel ok doing this, but I have a shark guard, and the splitter would still be in place. It'll give you more cleanup though.

[Brian G]

I did double tapers on the legs of the Table I made in the 2 x 6 challenge.

My method was easy to do, but it's not so easy to describe.

First, get yourself about a 4' length of 1/2" MDF (or plywood) that's at least 12" wide and has at least one straight edge. Exact dimensions are not important. Check the cull bin at your favorite Home Depot and you might get a cheap chunk.

Next, set your ripfence so that it just trims the edge of your piece of MDF. Use a featherboard to keep the stock snug against the fence. Cut your piece of MDF to width (how about 11.75"? more or less. . . suit to taste. . dimension is not important). Do not move the ripfence after this. You will be using the MDF as a carrier board for your maple legs.

Next, put a mark on a maple leg where you want the taper to start, and a mark where you want the taper to end. Line up the marks so that they are flush with the blade-side edge of your MDF carrier board, and clamp it to the carrier board.

I raid my scrap bin for straight pieces of scraps, and screw them to the carrier board so that they help align the subsequent tapers. Now you can remove the clamps that hold the leg to the carrier board. I also screw two hold-down clamps to the carrier board. I use these to hold the leg to the carrier board during the cut. You could probably get by with using double-face tape.

It's easy to get confused with the orientation of your legs and the tapers, so mark each leg for orientation, and draw the taper on the leg. Be aware that you want to cut your first taper such that you still have a nontapered face against the carrier board for the second taper. For example, if you're cutting the tapers for the right front leg, cut the taper on the inside front of the leg first, then rotate the leg 90-degrees and cut the taper for the inside back of the front leg.

None of that makes sense, does it? If you'd like, I can mock-up my method and snap some photos. It won't be until the weekend, though.

[ebanks]

Makes perfect sense.
That is a good idea. I will give it a try.

Thanks for the feedback.

[JimD]

I have done taper cuts in 3 and 1/2 inch thick oak successfully on my BT3100 with the stock blade. I prefer my dedicated ripping blade (Freud 72) but the stock blade will do it. You have to use a slow rate of feed and will probably get burning in hard maple. Make sure your blade is clean and if you use a slow but consistent feed rate you may not get any burning. If you do a scraper or a belt sander will remove it.

Jim