I need to make some taper cuts on my table saw so I thought it would be great to whip up a taper jig!
Stuff You’ll Need
Tools
Table Saw
Miter Saw
Router Table
Wood
½” Plywood (Birch)
1×3 Pine
Materials
Wood Glue
T-Track Knobs
Toggle Clamps
Instructions… Kinda…
Cutting Wood
I lucked out and had a piece of ¾” birch plywood that was close to the size I wanted, so I just needed to trim it down.
I was double lucky because that piece of scrap I shaved off was the perfect size for my DIY miter bar.
I then grabbed a piece of 1×3 from a previous project. Again, it was close to the size I needed, but still required some trimming.
Routing the Slots
With my two primary pieces cut, I laid the arm on top of the base to get a general idea of where I needed to cut out the slots.
I measured 4 ½” in from each end, and then drew a line across the base with my speed square.
I had to get creative with running this on the routing table. If I had a plunge router and a guide, I may have been able to pull this off. Unfortunately, I only had an old Craftsman router and my fancy new routing table, so I had to make due. If you’re going to attempt this by yourself, make sure you’re wearing goggles, gloves and hearing protection.
I started routing with a ¾” straight bit to make a slight indentation on the bottom of the base. This will allow the head of the screw to sit just above the base so it doesn’t scratch the surface of the table saw.
I then followed this up with a ¼” straight bit for the pole of the screw to go through.
It takes a few passes on the router to get through. Take it slow and steady. Raising your bit up a bit with each pass until you cut through.
For the arm, I just routed a 1/4” wide by 6” long slot down the center of each side.
If you don’t have a router or router table, this can be just as easily accomplished with a drill and a jig saw. Just mark the slot on the board, drill holes in each end to allow you to plunge your jig saw blad in, and then cut out a 1/4″ width across.
Install the Miter Bar
Now that everything’s cut, I wanted to add in the miter bar.
I put down a couple dimes and washers to help elevate the miter bar up and make it a bit proud, so the glue catches nicely to the base.
I covered the miter bar with glue, put the base on , clamped and then put a weight on top.
Installing the Toggle Clamps
I measured an inch away from the slot, drilled my pilot holes, and then screwed the clamps on by hand. I wanted to be careful to not split the wood. I’ll be honest, on the second one I used the drill to screw them in.
Attaching the Arm to the Base
Now the fun part. To attach the arm to the base I pushed a ¼” machine screw through, and then screwed on an old knob I had laying around. This helped tighten down the arm to the base so when running through the saw, the jig won’t move.
After filming I swapped the wood knobs for some real T-Track knobs.
And now you’re ready to cut tapers!
Credits
Intro Music; Straight Through by Groove Bakery | https://groovebakery.com Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…
Clip from Jurassic Park (1993), Universal Pictures/Amblin Entertaiment
