Tapered Box Legs

Work_2_live

New User
Keith
Morning,
I'm going to be building my kitchen island with the design being in the attached picture. The legs will be box style and tapered. I'm going back and forth with how to construct them. I'm debating between mitering them or trying to use a lock miter. I know either way may be potentially tricky to get perfect results which is obviously what I'm looking for because I will look at it every day (you know what it's like having a project not look the way you want it to and having the constant desire to take it apart and redo it). Any of you have any input based on experience?
20210214_083929.jpg
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
The problem you're going to have is the outside corner if mitered, will be a compound miter. Im guessing from your materials, this is craftsman style, QS oak. Typically, like Stickley, these would be box construction to have QS face grain on the 2 showing faces minimum, Stickley has it on all faces.
 

tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
" Stickley has it on all faces. "
Can you please explain? None of my pictures are detailed enough. So he would have mitered the corners and used QS for all?
 

Work_2_live

New User
Keith
You laminate up legs, then taper. Apply a thin veneer (about 1/8" thick) to edges that show lamination. Presto, instant quarter sawn on all four faces.
I like that idea. I have a bandsaw but have never resawn anything yet. I'll do some studying up and tuning up. It's nice to add a skill to the skill set.
 

tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
But a 1/8 is going to show an edge. I like the miter used as above.
Done some slicing, but to do good veneer, do you really need a drum sander too?
 

junquecol

Bruce
Senior User
Or laminate them up, then cut them out on a diagonal, From the top, the cuts would look like a diamond. Straight cuts all the way down first, then taper them using jointer. All faces will be quarter sawn.
 

Alan in Little Washington

Alan Schaffter
Corporate Member
Lock miter square, then make taper

Not sure how tapering a glued, square lock mitered leg would look. You would need to taper each face the same amount and even then would be crossing the lock miter profile at a different point. Depending on the amount of taper that might not turn out well. Also, only the two outside faces of the legs appear tapered in Keith's drawing.

You could cut the taper on the leg pieces then cut the lock miters, but if the narrow end is too narrow (what is the scale of the drawing?) it might be difficult to hold and feed the stock on a router table. You might need to use double-sided tape or glue to attach a "gripper" piece of wood to the outside faces like in the article at the link below.

With lock mitered legs, it is best to cut both edges of the opposite faces with the same profile and both edges of the other pair of faces with the other profile- see pic below. (Not like the alternating profile in this article: http://stuswoodworks.com/assets/components/pdf/projects/locking-miter-story 2.pdf )

If you go surfing for articles about lock miters, don't believe the horror stories about setting the bit and fence. Save yourself a lot of agony and frustration and invest in the patented Lock Miter Master jig. I think someone here might have invented it and be willing to assist?

00-lmm_base_4.jpg
 

tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
I saw that set of jigs. Couldn't you do as well by just keeping a scrap of one correctly cut as your setup tool?

In the mean time, I am a fan of modern chemistry. No need to make it this complicated as when they had to rely on hide glue.
 

Work_2_live

New User
Keith
Not sure how tapering a glued, square lock mitered leg would look. You would need to taper each face the same amount and even then would be crossing the lock miter profile at a different point. Depending on the amount of taper that might not turn out well. Also, only the two outside faces of the legs appear tapered in Keith's drawing.

You could cut the taper on the leg pieces then cut the lock miters, but if the narrow end is too narrow (what is the scale of the drawing?) it might be difficult to hold and feed the stock on a router table. You might need to use double-sided tape or glue to attach a "gripper" piece of wood to the outside faces like in the article at the link below.

With lock mitered legs, it is best to cut both edges of the opposite faces with the same profile and both edges of the other pair of faces with the other profile- see pic below. (Not like the alternating profile in this article: http://stuswoodworks.com/assets/components/pdf/projects/locking-miter-story 2.pdf )

If you go surfing for articles about lock miters, don't believe the horror stories about setting the bit and fence. Save yourself a lot of agony and frustration and invest in the patented Lock Miter Master jig. I think someone here might have invented it and be willing to assist?

00-lmm_base_4.jpg
True, only two sides will be tapered and the drawing is 1" equals 1'. I did question how the lock miter would work on the tapers because of the compound angles which creates some of my hesitation. I feel like there's a good opportunity for disappointment with the lock miter.
 

Work_2_live

New User
Keith
Not sure how tapering a glued, square lock mitered leg would look. You would need to taper each face the same amount and even then would be crossing the lock miter profile at a different point. Depending on the amount of taper that might not turn out well. Also, only the two outside faces of the legs appear tapered in Keith's drawing.

You could cut the taper on the leg pieces then cut the lock miters, but if the narrow end is too narrow (what is the scale of the drawing?) it might be difficult to hold and feed the stock on a router table. You might need to use double-sided tape or glue to attach a "gripper" piece of wood to the outside faces like in the article at the link below.

With lock mitered legs, it is best to cut both edges of the opposite faces with the same profile and both edges of the other pair of faces with the other profile- see pic below. (Not like the alternating profile in this article: http://stuswoodworks.com/assets/components/pdf/projects/locking-miter-story 2.pdf )

If you go surfing for articles about lock miters, don't believe the horror stories about setting the bit and fence. Save yourself a lot of agony and frustration and invest in the patented Lock Miter Master jig. I think someone here might have invented it and be willing to assist?

00-lmm_base_4.jpg
Is the setup jig universal to all brands or are they brand specific based on exact profile?
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
Well, we have better glues than he did, so the internal rebate is probably OBE.
"OBE" - One bad idea? Im pretty sure the glue had nothing to do with it, The internal rebate is so it can be cross clamped, and simply made on a tablesaw, quite ingenius really.
 

tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
I can clamp with a bit of string just fine. But whatever one likes to do. The best joint is one you can do. The only bad joint is one that fails.

"Obe" meaning obsolete. Not sure you might have miss-interpreted my comment.
 

Alan in Little Washington

Alan Schaffter
Corporate Member
I saw that set of jigs. Couldn't you do as well by just keeping a scrap of one correctly cut as your setup tool?

Only if the set-up tool is the same thickness as the stock being used. That is the problem with many of the setup blocks sold by vendors. I'd hate to be limited to one thickness of wood. The Lock Miter Master works with any thickness of wood (even wood of different thicknesses) as long as each piece is within the cutting range of the lock miter bit.

The Lock Miter Master works with almost every brand of router bit (there is a compatibility table and full instructions on the Infinity website), even though the bit profiles may be different. All lock miter bits have a virtual center of geometry which the LMM exploits. There is a certain class of router bit (very few) and shaper bit (slightly more common) where the cutting edge is a chord (A) and not a radius (B) which can't fully utilize the capabilities of the LMM - see drawings below. The LMM can be used to set the bit height, however an additional step is required to set the fence.

(A) cutting edge is a chord:

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(B) Cutting edges are radii:

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Frankly, before the LMM I was afraid of my lock miter router bit and was rarely ever able to set it properly so it sat gathering dust in the back of a drawer. Now, I like it and have used it (and the LMM setup jig) to make ply and solid wood casework and even used it to attach solid faceframes like I did with this bookcase I made for my grandson. The top, bottom and sides are Borg (23/32" +/- (??? certainly not 3/4"!!) birch veneer ply and the faceframe is 3/4" cherry. All ply-to-ply and solid cherry-to-ply joints were made with a lock miter router bit set using a LMM jig. Those joints should be good enough for A&C legs don't ya think? It sure made the glue-up and clamping a breeze:

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