Taper Jig

[Sean Wright]

I’ve been meaning to make a taper jig for some time, and I finally got around to it. It is is patterned after the Rockler version. It is made from 1/2 in plywood (spray painted).The mitre slot runner is made from a strip of black walnut. The handle was turned from a scrap piece of mahogany. The adjustable hook is also made from mahogany, as well. The sandpaper is 150 grit held on with spray adhesive. The 2 rulers were printed on a laser printer, then I put a piece of packing tape on them. Then I cut then out and attached them to the jig with spray adhesive.

 

[Rennie Heuer]

Been meaning to build one of these for some time. I like what you have done! Maybe I need to get off my keester and make one also.

 

[Jim DeLaney]

Looks like you're using a combo blade with the jig. I've found that mine works better (less/no burning) with a rip blade. The one I use is a Freud 30 'Glue Line' ripper.

 

[Sean Wright]

Been meaning to build one of these for some time. I like what you have done! Maybe I need to get off my keester and make one also.

Rennie, thank you. It was a fun project, and fairly quick too.

 

[Sean Wright]

Looks like you're using a combo blade with the jig. I've found that mine works better (less/no burning) with a rip blade. The one I use is a Freud 30 'Glue Line' ripper.

Jim, thank you. You are correct that is a 50 tooth Freud combination blade.i have a glue-line rip blade,too. I’ll give that a try!

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Looks great, Sean. I used to have some janky aluminum jig I think I bought on the Internet years ago, and I never was impressed with how it worked. (Only used it once to try it out, and got rid of it on the last move.) If I ever have a need for repeatable tapered cuts, I'll look into building something similar to this. I like your printed scale and packing tape trick.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Looks like a real nice jig

I've used the packing tape trick as a poor man's laminate for recipe cards and the like but never thought of using it for shop scales. Definitely filling that one away for reference.

 

[Sean Wright]

Looks great, Sean. I used to have some janky aluminum jig I think I bought on the Internet years ago, and I never was impressed with how it worked. (Only used it once to try it out, and got rid of it on the last move.) If I ever have a need for repeatable tapered cuts, I'll look into building something similar to this. I like your printed scale and packing tape trick.

Thank you Vaughn! The trick to the printed ruler, is to print it at “actual size”. If You use the standard “fit” print option the ruler is scaled down slightly and won’t be accurate.

 

[Sean Wright]

Looks like a real nice jig

I've used the packing tape trick as a poor man's laminate for recipe cards and the like but never thought of using it for shop scales. Definitely filling that one away for reference.

Thank you Ryan. I went with the printed and taped rulers because the commercial adhesive backed ones are too expensive for a project like this. If I wanted to spend close to $70 on the parts for this I would have just bought the one from Rockler.

 

[Brent Dowell]

Nicely executed jig. Might have to steal that ruler idea for some things as well!

 

[Darren Wright]

Nice work Sean! One of these has been on my list to make as well. Great tip the printed rule. I assume the "hook" is sacrificial?

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Thank you Ryan. I went with the printed and taped rulers because the commercial adhesive backed ones are too expensive for a project like this. If I wanted to spend close to $70 on the parts for this I would have just bought the one from Rockler.

The other nice thing is that you can print it using whatever scale you want, which could real handy for some things.

 

[Sean Wright]

Nice work Sean! One of these has been on my list to make as well. Great tip the printed rule. I assume the "hook" is sacrificial?

Darren, thank you! The hook could be sacrificial, if needed. However the one from Rockler is not, as it is made from a piece of metal.