Square splayed furniture legs can add a touch of elegance to any piece of furniture but can be difficult to achieve. Hand holding a piece of wood and cutting on a table saw can produce inaccurate results and potentially very dangerous.
However, with a simple inexpensive shop made jig tapered legs can be created with ease and in a safe manner.
The jig requires a scrap piece of plywood, an offcut of wood to act as a fence and some ironmongery.
The jig example below fits to the track on a sliding table saw however it could be adopted to fit any type of table saw that has a recessed track parallel to the blade.
Firstly, cut two slots in the plywood that used to secure the adjustable fence allowing any size of table leg for tapering.
The fence is positioned and locked with a couple of plastic screw knobs.
A piece of hardwood in this instance 16 x 16mm is glued and screwed to the bottom of the plywood parallel with the leading edges. This allows the plywood panel to fit snuggly into the track on the sliding tabletop.
Jig in position on the sliding table saw.
Clamps are used to secure the wooden leg to the jig preventing any movement during the sawing process. The clamps in the image below are by Kreg which are very handy as they adjust automatically to the size of the wooden leg. Once clamped no further adjustment is necessary and they hold the wood securely.
That’s it you’re ready to cut tapered legs.
A simple jig producing fantastic results that speaks for itself.
