Using our story stick we can lay out this back tapered leg.
First the legs should be crosscut to equal and final length according to plan
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| be sure they are square! |
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| Daniel shaped his story stick to use it as a pattern. |
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| Starting with some 5/8" MDF and a length of 1 1/4" X 1 1/4" poplar a taper jig is set up. |
the MDF must be parallel, in this case it is 6" wide
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| the Taper on the Leg pattern is traced onto the MDF |
Aligning the tapered side to the edge of the MDF
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| now the poplar can be screwed to the mdf along the traced out line representing the non tapered side |
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| add the screws from underneath the jig and be sure they are well countersunk |
Then a stop block is added as well as two hold-downs
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| The pattern is being used to position the stop block. it is also screwed from underneath |
Ready to go :)
As you can see, building this jig with our pattern was a sinch.
All that is left to do is adjust the hold-downs to secure the leg properly
The jig rides along the rip fence with the leg secured at a slight angle on the jig.
Whoops!
it's ok. we have everything under control. The riving knife is crucial for safety.
Also the hold-downs or toggle clams a great handles.
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| Daniel verifies the taper with his pattern |
We realized after the first cut that if we had done the other one first, the leg would have been sitting on the non-tapered side. The problem here is the pressure from the Toggle clams counter each other because the surface is not flat. not to worry. we simply shimmed one side with the offcut from the first cut.
Second Taper with shim.
We have a lot more practice with this jig now.
except what was holding the the jig for the split second Dan reached for a push stick?
And there we have it :)
Four (5) tapered legs.
Alex and Kho decided to taper all four sides of their legs
This requires tapering two sides and then setting up for the other two
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| Add caption |
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| It can be done with the table saw jig, but Alex insisted we try the planer. So here is a jig we built also on MDF. |
The leg will be held on both sides by 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" poplar with a stop block in the back.
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| A pin or nail wad added to keep the leg from rising up when the infeed/outfeed roller and pressure bar force down the other side |
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| a shim is placed at the other end. it is the thickness of the taper, 5 / 16" |
Because it is a taper, the stock can be sent through removing 5 /16" from the bottom of the leg at once. it will quickly taper off to 0
Now that two sides are done, another shim is added in top to do the second round 
Bravo!
