How do you cut tapers on the jointer?

[Silas Smith]

I read in a book that a joiner does a good job of cutting tapers. Is this true and how does it work?

[Dave Wright #2]

Yep. I taper at the jointer instead of the table saw. Setup is fast and the results are great. Set the leading end of the board just barely resting on the outfeed table. Then push through the jointer as you would normally. This puts the wood at an angle, which then becomes the taper. You will probably have to do this a number of times, getting more taper with each cut, until the results are what you want. You may then want to make a final shallow normal pass to clean up and flatten the entire tapered surface.

Take care lowering it down, because it will contact the knives right before it touches the outfeed table. There is the potential for kickback if you are not careful. Folks who are very cautious, and have long enough infeed tables, can prevent kickback by clamping a stop on the infeed table to prevent the stock from moving in the wrong direction.

[Jason Tuinstra]

I read in a book that a joiner does a good job of cutting tapers. Is this true and how does it work?

Silas, Kelly Mehler in his video "Building a Shaker Table" cuts his leg tapers this way. I'm not convinced that it's better, though. There is still some work that you have do after cutting them on the jointer, like smoothing out the transition between the flat area and the taper. As for me and my tapers, I'm sticking with the table saw and my trusty jigs.

[Ralph Steffey]

Though this is possible it is a dangerous way to do it and time consuming just build a tapering sled. :D

[Earl Kelly]

Depends on the size of leg, I use the bandsaw to rough cut to the size and cleanup on the jointer with one or two passes.

[Rob Blaustein]

Though this is possible it is a dangerous way to do it and time consuming just build a tapering sled. :D

Why would this be more dangerous than using a table saw? My wife and I took a woodworking class with a retired cabinetmaker and when we had to make tapered legs for our tables he told us he much prefered doing it on the jointer. He showed us how to do it for the first one, and we did the rest (as described in Dave's reply). We marked a line on the bottom and made several passes until we just hit the mark. We made two tapers per leg and just rotated it 90 degress and repeated the process. It was pretty easy.
-Rob

[Tom Hintz]

Depends on the size of leg, I use the bandsaw to rough cut to the size and cleanup on the jointer with one or two passes.
What Earl said. I think this is the easiest, fastest way to make very nice tapers on legs.
Since Earl AND I do it, it's gotta be right!
(Earl's not pointing anything at me is he?)

[Doug Shepard]

What Earl said. I think this is the easiest, fastest way to make very nice tapers on legs.
Since Earl AND I do it, it's gotta be right!
(Earl's not pointing anything at me is he?)

Other than using a TS instead of a BS, I've been doing them that way too. I usually cut about 1/32" shy then do 2-3 passes on the jointer to clean up and trim up to the layout line. Works really well for cleaning up the sawcuts, but cutting the whole taper on the jointer seems like it would take an awful long time in comparison.