Replies

1. 
   timburnisher | Aug 24, 2002 01:10am | #1

   Joe,

     I know a fellow craftsman who wanted to build a pencil post bed, and here's his solution:

   1) cut the posts rough on the bandsaw to make them tapered squares

   2) joint the rough cut tapered square posts

   3) use a router with a 45 degree chamfer bit to make the posts octagonal (even though its not the same octagon all the way up, it still achieves the desired visual effect)

   4) sand/plane/scrape until you're an old man

    My friend's finished bed came out fantastic.

   Good luck,

   Tim

1. 
   JoeCoty | Aug 24, 2002 08:07pm | #2

   I never considered that method. He must of used an angled fence jig when bandsawing the tapered blank. I looked up chamfer bits: a 22.5 degree bit is available to complete an octagonal shape.

   I'm still leaning toward the jointer since there seems to be a higher degree of precision- and less opportunity to make a mistake!

   Thanks for the idea, I think I could do that.

   Joe Coty

1. 
   timburnisher | Aug 24, 2002 11:09pm | #3

   Joe

   He actually just made the cuts freehand- that is to say, without a fence, just following the line.

   Just thought I'd let you know that it's possible (though perhaps harrowing) to do it that way.

   Tim

2. 
   SgianDubh | Aug 25, 2002 01:27am | #4

   Another way would be to make a U shaped channel out of plywood the same length as the leg so that that a plunge router base can run on the top edges of the channel. A piece of ply fixed at each end of the channel at an appropriate angle from perpendicular to the channel base would tilt the leg via a hole and a peg or dowel into the centre of each end. Your octagonal profile can be drawn at the top of the leg and the leg indexed and rotated to present each required face of the octagon parallel with top of the channel where the router runs. Use a bottom cutting planing bit in the router rather than a plunge type or trimming bit. You could still rough saw close to the line prior to using the jig and router. One advantage of this method i can think of is the accurate repeatability for this one job, and perhaps in the future. If a hole in the top of the leg is unacceptable, you could make a finial to plug it, make the leg over long and cut the end (and hole) off later, or devise an attached means to hold the end firmly in place. Slainte, RJ.

   RJFurniture
3. 
   WilliamHF | Aug 25, 2002 05:35am | #5

   In the summer of 1989 I built Carlyle Lynch's Pencil Post Bed. Mr. Lynch has been deceased for several years now but some company or other advertises his plans for sale; saw the adv. somewhere recently. Lynch's Plans are in the form of hand-made blueprints and are excellent.

   I had previously made several Shaker style night tables with tapered legs and had learned to taper stock on the jointer.

   If this happens to be unfamiliar to you try to get hold of a copy of "Woodsmith" magazine issue No. 61, February, 1989, page 22, for a simple description of the method.

   But in essence here's how it works:

   You mark on the work a pencil line where you want the taper to begin. Then wrap two thicknesses of the tape about the piece/Post so that the lower edge of the tape coincides with the marked line for the taper to begin at.

   The masking tape prevents snipes. It works.

   Mark on the masking tape the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 to help remember which side of the Post is which.

   Then lay the penciled line on the beginning of the outfeed table. Set the depth of cut for some fractional part of the taper amount you want to wind up with. When making the first pass or two, set it lighter as to depth of cut that you think you'll need just to see how things go.

   Make a pass on each of the four sides of the Post. Measure what the result is, make a quick mental calculation of how many more passes are needed to get the finished taper dimensions you're aiming at and press on.

   Imagine now that you have the Post tapered on four sides to where you want it.

   Clamp the now-tapered Post to the top of your bench. Get out your good hand plane, whichever one you like best and which has a good just-sharpened blade in it ready to go to work. Clamp the Post such that the line defining the junction of two of the sides of the Post is vertically perpendicular to the plane of the top of your workbench. You can devise plywood or other wood pieces with cutouts in them which are half of a hexagon. Those pieces will hold the Post so it will be in the right orientation for you to work on the Post with your plane. Do whatever it takes.

   Plane the not-tapered part of the post on its four "corners" so that you create the other four flats of the Octagon. (This presumes that you are making the classic octagonal shaped sections on your Pencil Post Bed's Posts.) It may sound like a lot of work; it isn't really. And like everyone, you like the feel and pleasure of using your plane I'm sure.

   Yes there are other ways to taper Posts. But if you ever use your jointer to do the tapering you'll wonder how tool vendors ever sell those tablesaw tapering jigs.

   Good luck,

   William

   I make something, sometimes twice, each year.
1. 
   JoeCoty | Aug 25, 2002 06:50am | #6

   Ok, I got it-

   It's the angle formed from the outfeed table being higher than the infeed that creates the angle of taper on the stock. So when beginning the cut, the desired parallel length of stock bypasses the knives and rests on the edge of the outfeed table with the tape indicating the point to be placed over the knives. The stock is then fed keeping pressure down on the infeed table to maintain the angle of taper. The outfeed section of stock remains off the table (except the edge near the knives), throughout the entire operation.

   Thanks,

   Joe Coty