Easy Tapered Legs on a Jointer! No Jig Required!

The great thing about woodworking is that there are approximately *74,935,902,734 ways to accomplish something. There are cheap ways, fast ways, strong ways, simple ways, and so on. Basically, I'm just trying to say that there is never a "right way" of doing something when working on a project.

So, when I needed to make some tapered legs for the Jupiter Table I was building, I thought it would be cool to use my jointer to make the tapers. If you have a jointer, this is definitely the way to go. The setup is simple and repeatable - making it perfect for a quick one off, or even batching out legs for multiple projects!

Let's just jump right into it...

*estimate

Supplies

Tools

Woodworkers Notebook (For taking notes and supporting Make with Jake!)
Jointer
Pen or Pencil

Step 1: Marking Out the Stock

Once you have your leg stock milled to the size you need, start by making marks at the following locations:

Start of the taper
End of the taper
Half way point of the taper (rise AND run)

Step 2: Set the Height of the Jointer

Next, lower the infeed side of your jointer until the depth equals HALF of the taper depth. You may need to make a few test cuts to get this right.

Step 3: Setting Up the Cut

Then, carefully, push the leg stock through the jointer blades (bottom first!) until the blades just touch the half way point of your taper. Carefully shut off the jointer, and clamp a stop block to the outfeed side of the jointer.

Step 4: The First Cut Is the Deepest

Now, run all of your legs through the jointer (bottom first) until they hit the stop block. Each leg should now have a matching cut that is half the depth and half the length of the taper that you are looking for.

Step 5: The Last Cut

After all of your legs are cut, you can remove the stop block. Now, this part is a bit tricky....

Flip the legs around so that the start of the taper is facing the blades. Press firmly down on the leg so that the the halfway point of of the taper and the end point of the taper are the only points of contact on the infeed table.

Then, CAREFULLY push the leg through the jointer. The cutters should hit your START line, and then exit at the depth mark that you made earlier.

If you're happy with the result, go ahead and mill the tapers in the rest of your legs!

Step 6: Done!

Congratulations! You just added another tool to the ole' mental tool belt, and maybe even just ordered a jointer because you are so excited to maker tapered legs on it! You're welcome!

You may also want to check out this short, 90 second video, on how to make these tapers: https://youtu.be/qgkEZkgjezk

Or check out my Jupiter Table build video here: https://youtu.be/X07vDgn_PjA

Thank you for reading!

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