I’m new to woodworking, so would appreciate some advice from experienced designers. I just spent the last couple of hours online here trying to get some guidance on table leg dimensions and leg taper ratios, without much success. Two questions:
1. Size of the Leg: What are some guidelines for determining how big a table leg should be at the top – where the rails attach? Think of two Shaker style tables – a kitchen table (I’m thinking maybe 3 inches square at the top) and a bedside table (more like 1 and a half inches?). Is there some sort of ratio of the table top dimensions to the leg dimensions that are commonly used?
2. Taper of the Leg: Let’s say the leg is 30″ high, you want to taper the two inside edges of the leg, and allow 4 – 6 inches for the rail to connect at the top. The best I could glean was to taper about 1/4 inch for every 12″ of length (run) of the leg. So (roughly) that 30″ kitchen table leg that started out at 3″ square at the top would be tapered in a half inch at the bottom (approximately 24″ of run) for a thickness of about 2 and a half inches at the bottom.
I would greatly appreciate your thoughts. Thanks.
Replies
Zeph, To try and give you some thoughts on your questions ,the size of the leg at the top has to be in scale with each individual project , so imo there is no one answer to that question . Maybe the availability of suitable materials will in part dictate the sizes you use .
As far as how much to taper , look at the footprint and again this is a question of scale and balance and design not one answer . Make a mock up of the side of the leg , take a look and determine if it is too heavy or light .
The 1 1/2" post sounds too small to begin with , but it really depends on what you want to end up with .
good luck dusty, boxmaker
Leg tapers
I usually look at what size of foot I want for a leg. I try to get at least 3/4" square at the bottom of the leg. That table in my avatar has legs 24-1/2" long (bedside table) by 1-1/2" square at the top. The inner two sides are tapered, with the "foot" being 1" square. Taper started about 5" from the top. Some of the others I've made were skinnier. I just mark how far down the taper will start at, and what size of foot I want, and cut the waste off. Lately, I've been doing the tapers with a handplane. A couple of tables to look at?
using less wood
There is form, and there is function. Sometimes, they combine in an eye-pleasing manner, but not always. A table used for carving 500-pound turkeys, for example, will require different legs than a table used to support a sleep-inducing paperback book and a lamp. While I agree with Dusty about doing a mock-up, so you can "see" if the leg is too heavy or too dainty looking, there's probably some Fibonacci-based ratio hiding in the woodwork, so to speak. Doing a scaled drawing, especially if 3-D (e.g. SketchUp), will also allow you to "see" if you have the size ratios in balance. Better to waste electrons than wood. ;-)
My system.
This is the way I do it. First of all I always do four sided tapers. I know how big a table top I need so I do a glue up first. I know how high the top must be to clear knees etc and so that dictates how wide the aprons can be if I have to get my legs underneath, my human legs. (from now on I will use the term legs to mean table legs) The leg's widest section, the top of the leg, is a matter of proportion and done by eye. Then with a pine blank or even with the actual blank to be used, I measure down from the top the width of the apron plus an inch or an inch and a half to mark the top where there can be no tapering because of the apron. At this point from the top of the leg I mark a line around four sides and carefully lay down a band of masking tape exactly even with the line and exactly two layers thick... that is I start the tape at one edge and go around twice exactly. My jointer has a sharpie drawn line from the edge of the outfeed table to the top of the fence and across the top of the fence. I line up the edge of the tape on the blank with the sharpie line (top of the leg forward) and lower the blank onto the jointer which is running and set to take a light cut. The two layers of tape prevent the cutters from contacting the wood until you start pushing the blank through. Pressure is always kept on the trailing side of the blank. Every time I make a pass in this manner I put a mark on the tape that is facing up. That tells me how many passes I have made on the face directly underneath. I'll do two or three light passes on each side, keeping track with the marks. With two or three marks on every side I'll stand the leg on end and look at it. I'll do one or two more, and as it starts to look right and in proportion I'll just do one pass 'till it looks perfect. At that point the test piece has the tape removed and a pass is made without the lowering process but with the pressure still down on the trailing edge to make a clean up pass. At this point I now know how many passes I have to do on each side of each taped leg. I don’t mind the extra work with the extra passes 'cause this is a hobby. This method could work just to make a test leg and then after taking measurements the real legs could be marked and cut on a band saw or put in a taper jig.
A couple of notes: This gets more dangerous with thinner legs. Great big table legs are safer to handle, thinner coffee table legs need push sticks to keep fingers safe. One thing I left out is that I cut the mortises on all legs before I start any tapering.
Tain't Ratios
Don't think of it as ratios for the taper, think of it as massing. Classic propotions will dictate the toe at one-half the dimensions of the head.
If the leg is 2" square at the top, the toe will taper (two inside edges only) to 1" An 1-3/4" square head will go to 7/8".
Modern designs will play with these alleged rules, and that is fine, but the classics will follow the above for the most part.
Dave S
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled