Tapered Wood Legs

[ckurak]

Greetings,

I need to make some tapered wood legs in two different sizes. The first set (of 6) are 4" high, 2.5" wide at the top, and 1.5" wide at the bottom. Each of these have 4 flat sides. The second set (of 8) are 6" high, 5" wide at the top and 3" wide at the bottom.

I've thought of using my PRT to cut out multiple (trapezoidal shaped) pieces, each 3/4" thick, then gluing them together. This would give me the taper on two sides, but not the other two. Hmm...

Has anyone done this? If so, a quick explanation and/or picture(s) would be greatly appreciated.

(I also have a table saw, jointer and planer in the shop, if that would help.)

Thanks,

Charles

[ron brown]

Charles,

I did some by building the "blank", leaving a square stub on the bottom. I then secured the legs "angled" on the table and planed down each side then turned and did the next side.

If the shop had been equipped with a good Joiner and bandsaw I would have marked the leg, sawed it and then finished working it down on a joiner.

Ron

[bleeth]

This is a ten minute job on the table saw. There is the option of using a store bought or a home made taper jig which is basically a sliding carriage with a back stop and can be bought from outfits like Woodworkers Supply or Rockler or plans located on woodweb. It looks like a pair of drafting dividers.

Dave

[ckurak]

Dave,

That may be true for the smaller legs, but how about the ones that need to be 5" in width at the top? My 10" blade cannot cut through 5" of stock.

[harold_weber]

Charles, for the 5 inch legs, you will have to glue up stock anyway, so you can make the legs on the table saw with a taper jig in 4 identical quarters and then glue the 4 quarters together. The two planes of symmetry run thru the centerline of the 6 inch length dimension. If that's not clear, I can send a picture.

[gene_marshall]

This could be done on the bot too.
Just raise one end of the blank and surface it.
Turn and do the second side.
for sides 3 and 4... double the size of the rizer block.

[bleeth]

Charles: Just flip them and the jig over like cutting any piece deeper than your cutting capacity.