And here is the frame of the cabinet with tapered legs. It'll get sheathing and a hinged top next weekend.
![Furniture Table Flowerpot Plant Wood]()
Which blade to taper legs?
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?
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?
21 - 38 of 38 Posts
Very nice!And here is the frame of the cabinet with tapered legs. It'll get sheathing and a hinged top next weekend. View attachment 449686
We tend to argue for our own sakes most of the time. Great job ignoring our thrashing and just getting it done!
Looks nice.. For that small of a taper, I would have used the sliding miter saw at work..
We did 6”and 8” tapered legs for seats by the 100’s on a month..
We did 6”and 8” tapered legs for seats by the 100’s on a month..
The thrashing is good, for those of us that are doing something we've never done before it's good to hear two or three ways of doing things.
I always used the joiner. It is as easy as it seems. If you haven't tried it. Maybe you should.
For me if I wanted to taper a leg 6" from the top I would draw a line on the joiner bed 6" up from the cutterhead edge n up the fence, just start my cut there by placing the top of the leg there and running it through. It will progressively take more off the bottom of the leg. Easy way to taper the inside edges of tables with square legs. And you end up with a nice planed cut.
With table saw it can get dicey too. Particularly with hard woods like maple. You need to different jig or an adjustable one to change tapers. With a joiner I can measure where it starts on stops. As taking 1" off the bottom. I like to trace a line down to where my cut starts n ends. And if making matched legs, don't loose count of how many cuts you take. A reference line helps me. I'd suggest trying it out if you have a joiner. An easy procedure to master, good luck n have fun
For me if I wanted to taper a leg 6" from the top I would draw a line on the joiner bed 6" up from the cutterhead edge n up the fence, just start my cut there by placing the top of the leg there and running it through. It will progressively take more off the bottom of the leg. Easy way to taper the inside edges of tables with square legs. And you end up with a nice planed cut.
With table saw it can get dicey too. Particularly with hard woods like maple. You need to different jig or an adjustable one to change tapers. With a joiner I can measure where it starts on stops. As taking 1" off the bottom. I like to trace a line down to where my cut starts n ends. And if making matched legs, don't loose count of how many cuts you take. A reference line helps me. I'd suggest trying it out if you have a joiner. An easy procedure to master, good luck n have fun
For me, cutting a taper on the saw the blade design will depend on the wood I'm using at times. But generally I'd use a 60 tooth for everything. But they were very expensive like 500 bucks then. And have them professionally sharpened regular
I would not use a 60 tooth blade. $500?
There are obviously several ways to make tapered legs. Depending on equipment and abilities..
There are obviously several ways to make tapered legs. Depending on equipment and abilities..
As a previous responder advised he usesDon’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.
I also use a Freud 30T Glue Line blade. Don't listen to people trying to say any old blade will do as your going to have to complete the tapering by plane or Jointer planner.. Hog wash,, the cleaner the cut the less time you'll spend cleaning it up.. These Glue Line blades are assume. And don't cost you a fortuneI use a Freud 30 tooth glue line rip blade for tapering legs.
This is not the reality. Saw marks can be removed with as few as 2 strokes, and its less than 1 minutes work.Don't listen to people trying to say any old blade will do as your going to have to complete the tapering by plane or Jointer planner.. Hog wash,, the cleaner the cut the less time you'll spend cleaning it up.. These Glue Line blades are assume. And don't cost you a fortune
Yeah maybe I’m biased toward hand plane work. It’s different strokes, not “hogwash”. 😁
It doesn’t matter if you use the best blade, it still needs to be cleaned up. Hand plane or sander…
I don't think most of us keep truly junk blades in our saws, so a comment of "any blade will do" usually means "any quality blade". 20-30T FTG is fine (that's your glue line RIP btw), 40-60TATB, 50T combo, triple chip, etc.
The only blade I recommended avoiding was a hi-atb grind, which dulls fairly fast, and you need it sharp for amazing cross cuts.
Clean up any cut per above
The only blade I recommended avoiding was a hi-atb grind, which dulls fairly fast, and you need it sharp for amazing cross cuts.
Clean up any cut per above
It just needs to be a rip blade and not a plywood blade.
These legs I could have used the slider
These legs I could have used the slider
Similar from the Wood Whisperer...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
View attachment 449685
Wow, that looks nice but it would take longer to build the jig than the cabinets I want it for LOL
If I thought I'd taper more than a dozen legs a year then maybe but some of us are only weekend warriors.
This is a great project for someone young who needs content to run a youtube channel or someone old and retired that has nothing to do all day. I'm still stuck in the middle - I work all week and only get Sat and Sun in the woodshop. I want to build cabinets and doors and face frames and stuff not fancy jigs.
Looks nice though.
If I thought I'd taper more than a dozen legs a year then maybe but some of us are only weekend warriors.
This is a great project for someone young who needs content to run a youtube channel or someone old and retired that has nothing to do all day. I'm still stuck in the middle - I work all week and only get Sat and Sun in the woodshop. I want to build cabinets and doors and face frames and stuff not fancy jigs.
Looks nice though.
Jigs have three purposes, #1.. to make the task easier and #2… To save time. And #3… to make it safer..Wow, that looks nice but it would take longer to build the jig than the cabinets I want it for LOL
If I thought I'd taper more than a dozen legs a year then maybe but some of us are only weekend warriors.
This is a great project for someone young who needs content to run a youtube channel or someone old and retired that has nothing to do all day. I'm still stuck in the middle - I work all week and only get Sat and Sun in the woodshop. I want to build cabinets and doors and face frames and stuff not fancy jigs.
Looks nice though.
If you made the jigs to start, you would have all three of these features..
Sounds like your impatient..This is one of the number 1 skill for high end furniture…
I worked in a cabinet shop all day, 5 days a week and came home and built cabinets at night in my shop for customers.
Hi Rebel
I didn't mean that I didn't want to build a jig, just that I didn't want to expend the amount of time to build one that fancy.
I'm actually very patient and I did build a jig.
The jig I built is the same design with the exception that to adjust from one taper to another, you need to undo 5 screws, move the fence then screw it back down. It only takes a minute and for those of us that don't work production I think it's fine. I'll be lucky if I use this jig twice a year and if I find myself using it a lot I'll buy the microjig from the local tool supply store.
Maybe after I'm retired and I have more time and less money I'll build beautiful jigs but right now I can bill $200+/hour repairing electronics so why spend hours building a jig that can be bought for $160Cdn especially if it delays the current project while I build it and then doesn't get utilized later. Just doesn't make sense to me.
It's a beautiful, safe, easy, time saving jig, just not for me...
I only need a useful, safe, easy, time saving jig.
I didn't mean that I didn't want to build a jig, just that I didn't want to expend the amount of time to build one that fancy.
I'm actually very patient and I did build a jig.
The jig I built is the same design with the exception that to adjust from one taper to another, you need to undo 5 screws, move the fence then screw it back down. It only takes a minute and for those of us that don't work production I think it's fine. I'll be lucky if I use this jig twice a year and if I find myself using it a lot I'll buy the microjig from the local tool supply store.
Maybe after I'm retired and I have more time and less money I'll build beautiful jigs but right now I can bill $200+/hour repairing electronics so why spend hours building a jig that can be bought for $160Cdn especially if it delays the current project while I build it and then doesn't get utilized later. Just doesn't make sense to me.
It's a beautiful, safe, easy, time saving jig, just not for me...
I only need a useful, safe, easy, time saving jig.
Fancy to me is a jig that works and is repetitive, but I have made plenty of one time jigs for specific jobs that won’t repeat…
I personally don’t like to spend a lot of times on shop projects, but sometimes it’s needed..
I personally don’t like to spend a lot of times on shop projects, but sometimes it’s needed..
4 decades ago I cut 4 tapered legs from Big Box store stock using a router and jigs - its all that I had available at the time.
21 - 38 of 38 Posts
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