I would like to know how to cut strips at an angle on a table saw.
Say cutting flooring to fit, 4ft long 1.25in by 1.5in wide.
How to set up to get an accurate cut.
Is there a formula that will get the amount of difference? If I kick out the tail by 1/8in and over 4ft what will be the difference?
Hope that I am making sense.
James
Life is short, so live it.
Replies
Hope this helps. I purchased one of these from Wood Craft. Works very well. You can even make one out of wood to accomplish the same feat.
Semper Fi
Well that didn't work too well. The picture that is. Look at woodcraft.com and look for a taper jig.
Edited 10/3/2006 2:39 am ET by Jarhead
Jarhead is right. You can't safely cut a tapered piece by setting the fence on an angle. You set the piece to be tapered at an angle and fasten it to a jig that will ride the fence straight through. One of the safest ways to shape the piece you describe is to rip it to 1-1/2" wide and use a hand plane to taper the edge.
Freud America, Inc.
Just to reinforce the other two replys, you cannot angle the rip fence it must stay parallel to the blade. An angled fence won't give you the cut you want and will possibly get you hurt. You need a jig of some sort to do this cut.
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
There are many plans "out there" for making your own taper jig. Such a jig would have hold-downs to secure the stock, keeping your fingers safer than the cheap aluminum jigs in various catalogs (usually run around $15).
Here's an example of a plan from Wood Magazine:
http://store.woodstore.net/supsimtapjig.html
Here's an example of a simple jig with no hold-down, designed like the aluminum ones, but with more heft and probably safer.
http://www.knottyplans.com/index.php?page=10081
A hint about posting a new thread: You might need to wait 2 or 3 minutes for it to show up at Knots. Sometimes just a half-minute. Who knows?<grin>
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Thank you for your links and such.
I never intended to angle my fence, just make note of that.
I had a look at the jigs, and they would work for short material but what about longer stuff. Is there a formula like if I take a 4ft piece and angle it 1/8in what the cut will be in difference?
Life is short, so live it.
Edited 10/3/2006 1:01 pm by rrekih
If you put either end of the board 1/8" further out than the other end, the difference will be 1/8" total, as long as the saw blade touches the wood the entire length of the board. Over a 4-foot long board that would amount to 1/32 inch per foot.
If you skewed the board 2", then you would have a total taper of 2" along the length, or 1/2" per foot on a four foot board.
Make a sled from a piece of plywood, put a T-rail on it that you can use with clamps--or any other method to firmly clamp the board-to-be-tapered. Set the fence so the edge of the blade just touches the sled. With a board that is cut to the length needed--say, 3' 9 7/16"--mark the two ends with the correct measurement--say 3" at one end, and 2 3/16" at the other. Clamp the board to the sled so each of the two (taper) marks are over the sled's edge, and the waste side of the board is on the side of the blade, the good side is securely clamped to the sled. Put on ear plugs, safety glasses, dust mask, figure out where your hands are going to go (make the sled wide enough to allow room to push). Lower the blade guard, start the saw, and feed the board while keeping the sled against the fence.
When you measure to determine board length, don't measure the diagonal distance, measure the 'straight' side. Everything will work out, that way. I made a simple sled to put a 2" taper along a 38" board. I used hot glue to secure blocks to the sled to hold the boards as I had to make 12 of them. Works just fine, no trigonometry needed.
HTH
Thank you Bob, but you didn't have to be so condescending with your remarks about safety etc. I got pretty much the same info from John with out the extra.
JamesLife is short, so live it.
hmm, no offense, but i don't see the condesendsing that you see. on my read it seemed like sound advice.
Hi gmoneyNo offence, from you?I don't know where you fit in on the discussion?Yes it is sound advice that I follow. But I don't know what it had to do with the question that I had asked. Possibly because I was asking a easy question that he thought I didn't know anything. So far at the end of every day I still count to ten. That includes my feet too. I need all fingers to play with my grandchildren.Life is short, so live it.
Edited 10/5/2006 1:21 am by rrekih
I apologize if you read condescension. Some of the best advice I have pulled from this forum is "where are your hands going to go if the wood evaporates?" I have re-rigged cuts and jigs thinking about that. On a couple of occasions I have been so pleased to figure out how to jig a piece, that I have turned on the saw, and then realized it's noisy, and I can see really well without my safety glasses. So, I guess my reminder was as much for me, as anyone else.
As far as gmoney's response, you did post your reply to ALL. As far as easy question, a question is only easy if you know the answer. In my classroom, students often say that they have an easy question. I'm not sure how they know that. They don't know the answer, and I may not, either. I spoke up as I didn't think the question you asked had been answered, which regarded cutting a taper to fit into an existing location for flooring.
I find this forum great because it seems that everyone is trying to help out, and the flame factor is extremely low. So, again I apologize to you, and to anyone else who may have thought that my answer was anything short of an attempt to help in the finest tradition of Taunton Citizen Journalism!
Drive safely, and keep right except to pass.
Hi Bob
Thanks so much for responding to my ranting.
Sometimes it hard to understand how a saying was meant with out being there.
JamesLife is short, so live it.
The simplest jig for cutting a taper on the saw is to cut a board to a width and length that will accommodate the piece you are tapering with ample room to spare to mount blocks and clamps to mount the stock being tapered onto the board. For your project, a piece ripped to 6" wide and 54" long would be about right. The board can be just a scrap of MDF or plywood.
Now place the piece to be tapered on the board with the part to be trimmed off overhanging one edge. Now screw or glue blocks onto the board at either end and at a few places along the length of the piece to be tapered locating the piece so it can't shift. You will also need to create some way of clamping or screwing down the piece so it won't shift or come loose when you make the cut.
To make the cut, set the saw's rip fence so that blade will just skim along the side of the base piece and then run the assembly past the blade, trimming off just the portion of the piece to be tapered that overhangs the blade. If you are tapering opposite sides of the piece you will have to reposition or shim out the locating blocks to properly position the workpiece for the second cut. This jig will work just as well on a band saw and the operation will be less hazardous on that machine.
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
Edited 10/4/2006 2:12 pm ET by JohnWW
Thanks very much, I knew there was an easy way.Life is short, so live it.
I think I follow what you aer wanting to do. Have you thought about doing it on the joiner? The joiner does a fine job of tapering.
Good luck, David
Buy or make a tapering jig. What's an accident worth for a few scraps of wood?
Besides, you'll have it for future projects.
...a bad day at the beach is better than a good day anywhere else... :)
Hey there oldbeachbum, I guess you haven't been reading the post since the beginning. Otherwise you would see that topic has been covered.
Thank you for your input though.
JLife is short, so live it.
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