Glen D. Huey demonstrates how to make tapered legs for furniture using a power jointer. With a little bit of setup work, you'll be able to make hundreds of perfect, repeatable cuts.
WOW - this works great! Much better than using the table saw or band saw for me. I never tried this before on my jointer, but I am doing some table legs for a project I'm working on and this made a neat, clean taper that required minimal sanding. The alignment at the top of the taper was excellent as well, much better than I've been able to do on my table saw - but maybe that's just me and the table saw. Glad to add this technique to my inventory, thanks for posting this on RU-vid!
I made some walnut taper legs today on my jointer. This is the single best tip I've ever had from RU-vid. I have an 8" Grizzly with spiral head and the ease and time savings are great. I made a taper jig for the table saw and it's a pain in the butt and slow. Thanks for sharing.
just bought another surface planer like the one in the video due to my last one ejecting the head and blades at full speed cracking the cast iron top and damaging the walls in the workshop, steered nuts and broken blade fragments everywhere along with clumps of cast iron. looks like a nifty method of doing tapers however my experimentation days with planers are over. be careful guys these things don't mess about and if they decide to fracture under strain and throw blades it's very nasty. Taper jig or band saw maybe even rough cut on a band saw and then a trim bit on a router table providing you have a template. Admiration to the guy in the video as he really does have a set of cast iron balls for doing this but for me it's just straight edges from now on. Be safe!!
I just got a jointer for Christmas! And I saw this video as I was looking for advise on rabbiting on the 8” Jet I got... well I wasn’t making a table but I had to try this. It’s very easy and wow what a nice cut it leaves. I’ll never use the table saw again for tapers. Old video but great teachings.
For those worried about safe use of the jointer to do this, why not use a router table converted to a jointer using fence shims? I think there is a video on youtube for converting a router table to a jointer. At least then, the cut is made without having to worry so much about kickback. Also, there are lots of safety precautions one can use on a router table to protect your fingers from Mr. Blade... not so much with a jointer. Personally, I use a table saw, but this method is indeed nice and clever and could be made safer using a router table with proper set-up.
I'm am thrilled to see this done like so. I have to taper my 4" square legs and was going to have to use my table saw, take two passes per side (because my table saw, like most, does not cut 4" deep), and use two different jigs(for the two passes). This is a much more sensible way for thicker legs. Thanks for sharing. Knowledge is power. Knowing more than one way to skin a cat may save your life when all you have to keep you warm is a cat hide.
One down side to this method is that your are turning the entire waste piece into shavings with jointer blades that need frequent sharpening. With a table or band saw only the kerf gets changed to dust. And a taper cutting jig is just as accurate & repeatable. So unless there is a good reason to use the jointer, such as with wide stock as previously mentioned, I think the table saw is the better choice.
Serious question: why are so many people going on about how dangerous this is? I can’t see how it’s any more dangerous than any other use of a jointer. I understand that he’s removed the blade guard, but you don’t actually need to do that to use this method; he’s just doing it for demonstrating the cut. And if you use a stop block on the first pass, that gives a pivot point to use to lift the piece cleanly off the blades. And if you’re really concerned about that part, you could just stop the machine by hitting the switch with your knee. I’m not trying to encourage risky behavior, but I honestly don’t see the problem here. If someone could explain their concerns, I’d really appreciate it.
There is no tool i fear more than my jointer. I do not look for more ways to use it. You lose a finger on a table saw it can be reattached with luck. Jointer injuries are gruesome and permanent and no cosmetic surgery will help. I am trying to flatten my boards with a hand plane to avoid using the jointer. I still use the jointer but less than I used to.. Edge jointing on a jointer is no worries though. You can do beautiful tapers with a hand plane as well.
I see some people here mention the danger of this method? I don't know the fellow that made this video but I can assure you the danger using this method is no more dangerous than simply jointing a piece of stock,as a matter of fact it is less dangerous. If you noticed he used push sticks not push pads. His hands were further away from the blades than it is when you do basic jointing. If you are scared of a jointer don't try this but this method is used in many shops. I will continue to use this method .I know the jointer is a dangerous machine to use but I have used one in my shop for many years and still have all my fingers.I made a living in my shop it was not a hobby it was my livelihood.
Re table saw tapering safety, make a wide sled, position the workpiece using blocks screwed to the sled, hold the workpiece down with hold-down clamps, and keep your hands far away from the blade while making repeatable cuts. By having the workpiece secured to the sled, keeping the sled firmly against the fence, and moving it steadily through the blade, one can achieve a smooth cut.
I have seen this done, and I don't consider it dangerous if you simply use two push sticks. Beautiful results, ready for a light sanding, and very fast. For those expounding on use of a table saw, yes, that is very viable, but remember that the shoulder of the taper (where the cut starts) will not be 90 degrees to the length, due to the curvature of the table saw blade. You can fix this by starting with the the square blank over-sized, cutting the taper, and then shaving the non-tapered part (which is under the apron of the table, assuming you are making a table leg) through the table saw to bring the shoulder into the taper. Now your shoulder is a crisp 90 degrees. Okay, but now your taper starts slightly lower on the leg; did you account for this at the beginning? Just something to think about when tapering with a TS.
If I was to see anyone use this method in my shop..they would be out the door with my size 12 up their arse...highly dangerous a sure way to get 'kickback' and lose fingers.....use a tapper fence on the table saw
nope.. how do you hold a tolerance ? or do you just live with all your legs being different after you feed them into a jointer? and dont try to tell me it will take an even cut, ive done this for 30 years.
I have wanted to make a table with tapered legs for quite some time. All of the videos I see for making jigs for doing this on a tablesaw are way too time consuming and I feel I wont get the results I want from me making the jig. Much like the ever so popular tablesaw sleds which I have a pile of that were a waste of good wood. They never sit in the slot snug, NOTHING ever comes out of them straight and making the sled is far more dangerous than the cuts I'm trying to make without them. I just got a jointer and will be experimenting with this technique in the morning. I see the safety police out in full force in the comments. How about a tall glass of stfu? The guy just pulled this off with relative ease and less bs than hours making a jig to do it your way.
I didn't know ANYONE used this technique anymore. As long as the human eye is trying to consistently decipher the edge of a Sharpie line, any identical properties in a multitude of legs with a minimum of two cuts per leg will at best be accidental. Not to mention the time it takes to cut each leg twice. You could be more consistent using a dedicated sled on the table saw and doing the final cleanup on the jointer using the jointer as it was designed to be used.
Mmmmm no, I would never use my jointer like that. I’ll stick to my table saw using my taper jig. That’s a very dangerous and scary method of tapering. I’d advise against it! Good luck though and be safe.
How is this dangerous? Looks more efficient than a band saw. The second your tools start to intimidate you is the second you should start to sell all your shit and give up! There is a safe way to do everything ! Band saw does not have a blade guard Its prob more dangerous than a jointer!!!
As long as you hit the mark...one little mistake and that leg is ruined. If you are doing 4 legs, that's 4 sides per leg, 2 cuts per side for 32 total cuts, if you stop exactly where the lines meet. Any imperfection with a shadow or just human error and you have a ruined leg. This jig is much simpler and far easier to replicate the cuts with far lower chance of error, and far more people have a table saw than a jointer. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ywAmEcNozJ4.html To be fair, this would be much easier if you set a clamp to stop the cut where the lines meet to keep consistent cuts over eyeballing it.
Oh sure, you can use a jointer to taper legs. And most of us have all the time in the world to watch water come to a boil too. Was the invention of "tablesaw" not out when this video aired?
Don't see the problem with this technique. I've used it for years, at times tapering all four sides. Don't generally taper by 3/4, but don't see that as a problem. Have a problem? Try sharp blades, Sharp matters.
I recently made some legs for a dining table using this method. I did not feel safe doing it on the table saw using either jig I have, as the blade would have been extended almost full height due to the depth of the legs. This worked great after only one practice cut. BUT, the practice cut made me very nervous - I did not like rotating the workpiece down onto the blade. I added a stopblock which gave me a very solid point form which to rotate the piece. Its much safer, and eliminates any miscuts. See the resulting legs at lumberjocks.com, crmitchell.
This video isn't descriptive enough for novice woodworkers. He's using straight-grained poplar for his material. Try doing this with a normal piece of wood... This technique doesn't allow you to take grain direction into account when making a cut. Seems like an okay way to do it under some strict conditions, but I prefer to either use a tablesaw jig, or make the cut on a bandsaw and clean up with a handplane. Horrible video in my opinion.
I agree with you completely! Viewers this is a very unsafe procedure. I was furniture mfg. for 20 years. You never hold a piece a of wood into a cutter head that is not fully supported. Chance is right.
The piece he used in the video is a relatively soft, straight-grained piece of Poplar, and not a realistic piece of wood that most people would be using to build furniture. If you tried this with a piece of flatsawn walnut, for instance, you'd get a bunch of tear-out.
Amateur! Dust extraction not even setup and look at the shop floor. Nothing but garbage and tripping hazards. He was lucky he didn't slip on those "rolled oats" cutoffs on the floor when he was making those cuts. LOL!
