Good way to make a bunch of small wedges?

[Tom Rick]

I have a job which requires 150 wedges.
They need to be cut accurately to 5" long, 3/8" at the butt and taper to 0. Made from teak.

Decent shop techniques to turn these out fast?
Well equipped shop with all the usual machines loitering around...

Thanks all

[Dan Hintz]

Best way? Attempt to cut 150 rectangles... Murphy will guarantee they all come out as wedges.

[Keith Westfall]

Lay one out and make a jig for your TS sled. Cut one and flip it and cut another...

[keith micinski]

Or just buy a taper jig. I sometimes build tapered table legs just because I am getting low on wedges for windows and doors around the house. That having been said I made my own taper jig out of a scrap piece of OSB I had lying around.

[Robert Reece]

With wedges that small, I'd opt for the bandsaw. The tablesaw is likely to send a few of them flying.

On the bandsaw, I'd use a piece of plywood with the wedge shape cut out of one edge, then run the other edge against the fence. You'll probably actually need wedge profiles cut out in the plywood, so that way you can just flip the board and cut another wedge. Hope this helps, if not, I'll draw a picture and post it.

You can also take a look at the current FWW magazine, the article on the trestle table shows how to cut a small wedge safely.

[Rod Sheridan]

Make a jig for the table saw that has a toggle clamp to hold the wedge down, and add a couple of sharp points on the jig to help the clamp hold the wedge in place.

( I often just clip off a small brad nail close to the surface of the jig, glued on sandpaper also helps).

Regards, Rod.

[Lance Norris]

The bandsaw would definately be my choice. A simple fence(a board clamped to the table at the angle you need) and a stop blocks for your start and stop points, and you will be done in 15 minutes. The bandsaw excels at things like this.

[Steve Peterson]

the borgs sell shims that look to be cut on a table saw. They come in blocks about 1.5" by 2" by 8". They are cut about 95% of the way through so the block stays together until you break one off. They are obviously cut using multi-blade saw, then rotated about 5 degrees for another pass.

Leaving the last 1/4" uncut would help hold everything together and in general sounds a lot safer. You could rotate the block 90 degrees and make a final cut to separate them.

Another trick I saw in a book is to use a stack of spacer blocks to position the stock. Make one cut, then add or remove one spacer to position the next cut. It iis much easier and more accurate than re-positioning the fence. In your case, 1/2" blocks with a 1/8" blade would leave a 3/8" wide shim.

Steve

[Prashun Patel]

Small tapers that require a smooth edge are done easily at the mitersaw.

You have to make a 85.x degree jig that clamps to the miter saw's fence and gets butted up to the blade.

Give enough room on the arm to be able to clamp your piece to it.

After you cut each taper from a long piece of stock, go to the tablesaw to cross cut the wedge free.

The angle of the fence and the clamp will prevent the piece from being trapped and drawn back into the blade and kicking out.

If you want to work with stock that's quite a bit longer than the deck of your mitersaw, then build 'infeed' support.
I've made table leg tapers this way.

[Ray Knight]

There is a real simple method, no jig building, safe, fast, accurate. Let's hope I can put this into words. Use the bandsaw. (that part is easy), cross cut some boards the thickness you need, crosscut at the length of wedge you need. Take your bandsaw miter gauge, with a backer board that comes close to the blade, and set the miter gauge at 1/2 of the angle of the wedge off of 90. with your stock against the miter gauge, take a thin slice off the end (that one will be too skinny of a wedge, throw it away), flip the stock, take another slice, voila a wedge. Adjust angle if you are off a little, then go firing through them, you can get them done real quick. It also helps to put a piece of backer board on the fence, let's you keep cutting closer to the blade and waste less stock. I hope this explanation makes sense. I could never make quick consistent wedges until somebody taught me this. Hope this helps. Ray

[John Coloccia]

Personally, I would take a piece of wood as wide as my drum sander and 5" long. Then I would take a board maybe 10" long, lay down some double sided tape and stick the wood to the board, being careful to line up the edge of the wood with the edge of the board. Then I'd glue an appropriate shim to the back of the board and send it through my drum sander until I had my wedge (for a 10" board you'd use a 3/4" shim to get 3/8" in 5"). Then I'd pop it off and slice off wedges however thick I needed them using my favoring cross cutting tool.

I'd suggest starting with a planer but I think the infeed roller would just warp whatever board you stick through there.

If you do this, just be sure to keep the double sided tape towards the thick part of the wedge or it'll break off the tip when removing them.

[Tom Rick]

There is a real simple method, no jig building, safe, fast, accurate. Let's hope I can put this into words. Use the bandsaw. (that part is easy), cross cut some boards the thickness you need, crosscut at the length of wedge you need. Take your bandsaw miter gauge, with a backer board that comes close to the blade, and set the miter gauge at 1/2 of the angle of the wedge off of 90. with your stock against the miter gauge, take a thin slice off the end (that one will be too skinny of a wedge, throw it away), flip the stock, take another slice, voila a wedge. Adjust angle if you are off a little, then go firing through them, you can get them done real quick. It also helps to put a piece of backer board on the fence, let's you keep cutting closer to the blade and waste less stock. I hope this explanation makes sense. I could never make quick consistent wedges until somebody taught me this. Hope this helps. Ray

I used this technique today and knocked out the whole run with no problems- thanks much.

The only addition I would add is that for me setting a stop at the near side- so at the pointy end, worked like a charm to keep the size right on the money. For some reason if I put the stop and the top of the wedge it I got inconsistent results.

[Tom Hammond]

There is a real simple method, no jig building, safe, fast, accurate. Let's hope I can put this into words. Use the bandsaw. (that part is easy), cross cut some boards the thickness you need, crosscut at the length of wedge you need. Take your bandsaw miter gauge, with a backer board that comes close to the blade, and set the miter gauge at 1/2 of the angle of the wedge off of 90. with your stock against the miter gauge, take a thin slice off the end (that one will be too skinny of a wedge, throw it away), flip the stock, take another slice, voila a wedge. Adjust angle if you are off a little, then go firing through them, you can get them done real quick. It also helps to put a piece of backer board on the fence, let's you keep cutting closer to the blade and waste less stock. I hope this explanation makes sense. I could never make quick consistent wedges until somebody taught me this. Hope this helps. Ray

I've used this "1/2 the angle" technique on the 12" compound miter saw ONLY when crosscut wedges were OK... like hidden shims cut from framing lumber, etc. Using the bandsaw is the safest way of doing it when you require grain running along the length on hardwoods and finish pieces. Great contribution.

[Mike Heidrick]

Best way? Attempt to cut 150 rectangles... Murphy will guarantee they all come out as wedges.


I vote use Dan's stinger :)

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

Lay one out and make a jig for your TS sled. Cut one and flip it and cut another...
I have made hundreds of Padauk wedges of similar sizes and longer and shorter using this method. The surfaces come out much cleaner and straighter than they do when I use my bandsaw.

[Rick Markham]

There is a real simple method, no jig building, safe, fast, accurate. Let's hope I can put this into words. Use the bandsaw. (that part is easy), cross cut some boards the thickness you need, crosscut at the length of wedge you need. Take your bandsaw miter gauge, with a backer board that comes close to the blade, and set the miter gauge at 1/2 of the angle of the wedge off of 90. with your stock against the miter gauge, take a thin slice off the end (that one will be too skinny of a wedge, throw it away), flip the stock, take another slice, voila a wedge. Adjust angle if you are off a little, then go firing through them, you can get them done real quick. It also helps to put a piece of backer board on the fence, let's you keep cutting closer to the blade and waste less stock. I hope this explanation makes sense. I could never make quick consistent wedges until somebody taught me this. Hope this helps. Ray

+1 This is exactly how I do it! The tablesaw is a pain to get them exactly the same (at least for me) building a jig is fine... if you really want to, This way is no jig building cut and go, don't make it harder than you have to ;)