Taper on small legs

[lou Brava]

I'm looking for advice on which way to taper short 16" tall curved coffee table legs. The legs will be cut from 8/4 X 8" x 18"oak.
The taper will be on the 2 8" wide face aprx 3/8" taper on each face than I'll cut out the radius/curved shape after face is tapered. I could the taper it on a band saw or a jointer. I've never used a jointer to taper & wondering if an 18" long board may be a bit short & it would safer to use a band saw ? My jointer has helical head and leaves a super smooth finish so I would have very little sanding using the jointer but don't want to find out the hard way the jointer is not a good choice.
Thanks

[John Kananis]

I've not tapered on a jointer but bandsaw is easy peasy. Mark and taper each leg individually, then clamp them all together and make them smooth and identical with a hand plane.


I'm looking for advice on which way to taper short 16" tall curved coffee table legs. The legs will be cut from 8/4 X 8" x 18"oak.
The taper will be on the 2 8" wide face aprx 3/8" taper on each face than I'll cut out the radius/curved shape after face is tapered. I could the taper it on a band saw or a jointer. I've never used a jointer to taper & wondering if an 18" long board may be a bit short & it would safer to use a band saw ? My jointer has helical head and leaves a super smooth finish so I would have very little sanding using the jointer but don't want to find out the hard way the jointer is not a good choice.
Thanks

[lou Brava]

Thanks, I've always used a band saw or TS for tapers I know it works. I'm just curious on the jointer or am I asking for trouble ?

[mike calabrese]

there are a bunch of videos on youtube on the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tapering+on+a+jointer
calabrese55

[Jamie Buxton]

I routinely taper straight legs on my jointer. I start a leg blank by placing it so that leading end rests on the outfeed table, and then I run it through. One pass tapers the leg by whatever you’ve set the jointer to. Multiple passes tapers by that increment each pass.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I just tapered my first ever table legs on my bandsaw. I made a simple jig that started with a piece of scrap plywood with a straight edge as a base. I marked an octagon table leg with the start of the taper on the side of the leg and the thickness I wanted removed on the bottom of the leg. Then I laid the leg on the plywood base with the desired removal area hanging off the edge of the plywood (I aligned the marks with the edge). Using double-stick tape, while holding the leg to keep it from moving, I taped a long block of wood on the side of the leg and a small block at the foot of the leg. I removed the leg and screwed through the plywood into the two blocks. Then I added 2 clamps to hold the leg against the alignment blocks. it was just a matter of setting the fence on the bandsaw to place the edge of the plywood base against the blade and sawing off the desired area of the table leg hanging off the jig. Since I was working with an octagon leg, I repeated it 8 times on each of the 4 legs.

My bandsaw and blade worked well enough I used a sharp block plane to clean up the blade marks. It was quick.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Ken - exactly how I do it. Cheap scraps make a one-off jig that duplicates the cut

I used to keep them, but when I needed one none of the old ones were quite right. So I pitch them.

[mike calabrese]

The other option is to use a router and a template. The pics here are 32 in tall legs in red oak using a tapered template.
The only hitch in this is after you cut the first two opposite sides you will need to shim the same template to the tapered sides to keep the template parallel to the router table surface.
Here are some pictures that may explain better, ask any questions.
calabrese55
510271

510272

510273

510274

[Mike Henderson]

I use the bandsaw and run it through the jointer afterwards to get the surface straight and smooth. The bandsaw always leaves blade marks and I'm usually not perfect with my cut on the bandsaw.

Mike

[lou Brava]

I guess I didn't word my question correctly it should have just been, Is it safe to taper a 16" long board on a jointer ? I ended up just making a sled for the band saw. That just seemed less complicated and a safer way to go. I tapered the 8" wide stock before I cut the curves.
510732

[Jim Becker]

Lou, it completely comes down to workpiece holding relative to your question about safety, regardless of the method you use to do the tapers. I personally like sleds for the TS and BS for this kind of thing because the nature of the jointer makes it a little more difficult when pushing small pieces through for a partial cut which is the nature of tapering on the jointer.

[lou Brava]

Jim I get that holding part, on these legs the taper stops where the top radius ends. To do this on a jointer would have required starting the taper cut by dropping the part onto the cutter head & having a small 2.5" section on the out feed table. In the end I just didn't feel like that was good idea for a few reasons. Building the sled took about 30 minutes and worked great !
Thanks

[Thomas McCurnin]

There are many ways to taper, e.g., many ways to skin that cat.

About half the time, I use a traditional scissors tapering jig and it works OK, but not great. That type of jig doesn't have great hold downs and one's fingers are pretty close to the spinning table saw blade.

One of the best tapering jigs I've ever seen was written up in the July-August 2005 copy of Fine Woodworking, called A Better Tapering Jig by Richard Beebe II, which features a moveable fence and an adjustable hold down operating from the fence of the table saw. There have some so called improvements on this design using the table saw miter gauge, but the design remains one of the best and safest tapering jigs I've ever seen.