How to Cut a Tapered Board with a Table Saw
Quick Summary
This video teaches you how to successfully cut a tapered board using a standard table saw, despite the blade and fence being parallel. You will learn to construct and use a simple wooden sled, or jig, to guide the workpiece safely through the blade. This specialized information is valuable because it provides a technique to create perfect, non-parallel cuts for custom joinery or furniture components. It ensures you can produce a "perfectly tapered board" that traditional methods cannot achieve.
What you'll need and what to do
To try what's taught in the video, here's what you'll need and the exact steps to follow.
What You Will Need
• Piece of wood (the board to be tapered)
• Secondary piece of wood (the sled)
• Table saw
• Pencil (to lay out the taper cut line)
• Scrap wood (for use as clamps)
• Screws (to hold the scrap wood/clamps)
Action Steps
1. Lay out the taper cut line on the piece of wood you are about to cut.
2. Run the secondary piece (the sled) through the table saw to ensure it has two nice, parallel straight edges.
3. Set the piece that you are going to cut on top of the sled.
4. Raise the blade so it is about an eighth of an inch proud of both pieces together.
5. Line up the pencil layout line (on the board to be cut) right over the edge of the sled.
6. Hold the whole thing in place using a couple of pieces of scrap wood screwed down like clamps.
7. Run the assembly through the table saw.
8. Pop those clamps off.
Word for word video transcript
Hey everyone Brandon nelson and in one minute I'm going to show you how to make a tapered board with a table saw on a table saw the fence which is the guide that the board rides along and the blade the fence and the blade are parallel to each other so you feed a board through it and it comes out as a straight board with parallel sides but what if you need a board that's tapered you can't just take the fence and make it all crooked that just doesn't work you do it with a secondary piece of wood that works like a sled let me show you first thing you do is lay out that taper cut line on the piece of wood you're about to cut then you take your secondary piece your sled and you're going to run it through the table saw to make sure it has two real nice parallel straight edges now the next step is we're going to take the piece that we're going to cut we're going to set it on top of our sled and we're going to raise the blade so it's about an eighth inch proud of both pieces together now the edge of our sled we know that's our cut line so all we're going to do is take our piece that we want to taper and we're going to line up that pencil line the layout line right over that edge there's a look at the whole thing edge line and blade are all in alignment now we're gonna hold the whole thing in place with a couple pieces of scrap wood screwed down like clamps just like this okay let's run it through now you just pop those clamps off and there is your perfectly tapered board this has been Brandon nelson for one minute I'll see you next time
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