[JayArr]

Hi All

Which blade do you put in your table saw to taper a leg for a table?

My wood is poplar.

One side of my brain says to use the cabinetry blade, 80 tooth.

The other side of my brain says it is still basically a rip cut, use the 24 tooth rip blade.

Which one do you guys use?

 

[Tom-G]

I use a Freud 30 tooth glue line rip blade for tapering legs.

 

[sunnybob]

Its a rip cut, the less teeth the better. Youre still going to sand arent you?

 

[woodnthings]

You want a fairly smooth cut without burning, so I'd use from 30 teeth, a 40 tooth or at most a 50 tooth.
Poplar is pretty forgiving, so I'd start with a 40 and see how it goes.
Thickness about 2" or so?

 

[DrRobert]

Don’t worry about the blade, you will be surfacing the cut edge, preferably with a hand plane . Nothing beats a hand plane for removing saw marks and nothing beats the resulting surface. Sanding is not good way to remove saw marks and is much slower than planing. 3 or 4 strokes of a plane and you’re done.

I’ve never seen a saw blade that doesn’t leave some marks. An excellent sharp blade may seem to leave pristine surface, but the saw marks show up when the finish is on. The closest I’ve seen is a glue line rip.

For some tasks like this one, I think we should get away from the idea of achieving perfect cuts off the saw. A better method is get it close and bring it to final dimension with hand tools. Takes the pressure off, saves on mistakes, best of all you get to use your hand planes, which will remind you you’re a craftsman 😁. In the case of a tapered leg, the cut is only as accurate as you can make it.

 

[Rebelwork]

I use a Amana Euro rip on most everything..

 

[BigCountry79]

I wouldn't change my blade for this cut unless I had a dado or high tooth cross cut blade in the saw.
General purpose, combination blade, or rip blades should all be fine.

 

[Steve Neul]

If you have a jointer it's better to taper the legs there.

 

[builtinbkyn2]

If you have a jointer it's better to taper the legs there.

Steve the pic is a bit small so the text is unreadable. How do you control the taper using this method? I've done a bevel with my jointer, but not a taper.

 

[Rebelwork]

Unless there larger than my jig and blade can handle , I don't use the jointer for anything more than taper cleanup.

 

[Steve Neul]

Steve the pic is a bit small so the text is unreadable. How do you control the taper using this method? I've done a bevel with my jointer, but not a taper.

You clamp a block of wood to the infeed table so it has the same starting place and lay the board down across the out feed table and push it through. That way each time you run it across the jointer it takes off wood just on one end.
Maybe this image is better.

 

[Dave McCann]

Another jointer method;

 

[DrRobert]

I’m certain it’s not that straight forward. I suspect its favored by those don’t use hand planes.

No thanks, I’ll stick the the table saw. 😁

 

[woodnthings]

No thanks, I’ll stick the the table saw. 😁

You could use the bandsaw and cut to a marked line, THEN use the jointer for final surfacing. I'd make a layout template to get them identical.

 

[calabrese55]

The blabe is not that important in as much as if you have table saw skills. You can use any blade if it is in good shape and cutting dry lumber. Yes rip blabes rip better and cross cut blades cross cut better but there are also blades that just don't seem to really care what they cut.
For me on my 52 year old Sears table saw that is garage quality machinery I use exclusively the following blades for everything cross cuts , cutting segments, rip cuts on everything from plywood to hardwoods.
Not saying that this is right just saying it works for me . If you are concerned about the blade type maybe , maybe, you are looking too close to the task and missing othere lelments involved.
examples
https://www.amazon.com/Freud-D1060X...locphy=9005146&hvtargid=pla-524583072950&th=1

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Spyder-Fine-Finish-10-in-60-Tooth-Tungsten-Carbide-tipped-Steel-Miter-Saw-Blade/5004785549?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-tol-_-ggl-_-LIA_TOL_215_Power-Tool-Accessories-_-5004785549-_-local-_-0-_-0&ds_rl=1286981&gclid=CjwKCAjwiOCgBhAgEiwAjv5whLsLczWRZf5I0hI7yT00Gn1vNEwO2pOapb2zrjndCL4cbXbb0lRv0xoCABgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

calabrese55

 

[BigCountry79]

Another jointer method;

The first time I tried this I was amazed at how easy it was. You are limited to tapers twice as deep as your thickest cut.

 

[builtinbkyn2]

You clamp a block of wood to the infeed table so it has the same starting place and lay the board down across the out feed table and push it through. That way each time you run it across the jointer it takes off wood just on one end.
Maybe this image is better. View attachment 449562

I have to say that method looks pretty nifty and not as unsafe as it originally appears.

 

[Dave McCann]

You are limited to tapers twice as deep as your thickest cut.

Not really. Just treat the taper cut as your new fresh edge and repeat the process. As many times as may be needed.

 

[BigCountry79]

Not really. Just treat the taper cut as your new fresh edge and repeat the process. As many times as may be needed.
View attachment 449658

Correct, but your centerline just changed for your second pass so you need to lay that out again or else take what it gives you. You are jointing against the grain for the second pass and tear out can become an issue.

You can also cut to full depth but only 1/3 of the way to the final taper. Then finish with a full-length pass on the bottom. This doesnt cut against the grain.

Both of these become more complicated though, so @DrRobert 's argument of "just use a table saw or a hand plane" gets pretty convincing.

Tom

 

[JayArr]

Hi All

This was for outside patio furniture and more importantly to "practice" a new skill. The jointer idea looks interesting but I'm still new on the jointer and hesitant to take that much of a bite with an 80's Craftman 6" jointer so I went with a table saw jig and I kept my 24 tooth rip blade in.

The jig was simple, a piece of maple to sit in the mitre slot. A piece of 1/2" ply was then cut using the mitre slot so it's right on the blade. The fence is just screwed to the plywood with five screws so it's "adjustable" just not fancy. I lined up the end of a leg to take what I wanted off, then I moved the leg so the start of the cut was on the edge of the sled then I put the five screws in to anchor the fence. The hold downs were placed so they clamped onto parts of the leg that weren't getting cut.

Once the jig was set I just ran the legs through on all four sides, the tapers are even and consistent for all four and a quick sanding took out the saw marks.

Here's the jig