Making a very long slim wedge or fillet..

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skeetstar

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I'm not sure fillet is the right term, but here goes.
I need to make a piece if timber circa 10mm wide.
It needs to be 5mm high at one end tapering down to 0mm at 12in.

Is there an easy way to do this? I'm thinking of making up some
sort of jig for my table saw and cutting it from wider stock, maybe and inch or so, on the angle
and then cutting down to 10mm width by hand.

Is there an easier way?
 
I'd call it a fillet too.

If possible, I'd hand saw it oversized and then plane it to finished size. I'm just guessing here but you try the 'crimson guitars' method of work holding to your bench (superglue and masking tape). Alternatively search youtube for table saw tapering jig, theres loads. I'm not sure if the point on your fillet will survive though..
 
If it were me I would get a piece of sheet goods (MDF etc) and hot glue or tack the wood to the edge. Take your mitre gauge, set to the angle you need and make the cut on the table saw. The MDF will keep your hands safely away from the blade and if the angle isn't quite right you can adjust and cut again. If you have a small saw where there isn't quite enough length before the blade you can use the same MDF and a strip tacked under to run in the mitre slot. Basically making a sled to hold the strip while you cut the taper.

It probably took me longer to type the description than it would have taken to cut the wedge. :wink:

Pete
 
How good do the surfaces need to be? This is easily doable by hand planing, which will also give the best surface and possibly the greatest accuracy if that's at all a requirement.
 
I'd make a stick 10x5mm and 13 inches long (to allow for errors). Mark out my taper on one side. Stick it to a sacrificial piece of timber so that the 0mm end is at its end and clamp to my bench so that the angled plane will miss the end of the bench. Then plane down to the line (probably snipping off a sliver of the timber I'm clamped to, this means I get a down end to the fillet).

I'm guessing this needs to fit exactly somewhere, so I'd stop a fraction short of the line, offer it up to the gap, and then finesse the fit with a block plane, sawing off the extra length.

It would take about as long (final fit aside) as it took me to type this on my phone.
 
Thanks fellas, I really appreciate your input, I'll try the planing route as my TS has a rip blade and as someone mentioned, I doubt the pointed end would come out as good as it would need to be,

thanks again
 
If you cut the piece overlong, then I am sure it would work out perfectly OK on a TS, because you would just trim the end/s off afterwards. Bandsaw and hand plane in my workshop, but everyone is different, and there's a cat out there that's been skinned 99 different ways.
 
I agree wits Sunny Bob. I needed to do similar to fill some flooring gaps (in a barn - walls are not parallel) and I did it on the bandsaw. In my case I did it freehand following a line on the wood, then final finish on the bench belt sander. Took less than 10 minutes overall.
 
Got to say thanks for the advice.

I glued an over wide section of oak to a bit of softwood, making sure that I left about half the width of the Oak unglued. Marked the fillet on the edge of the Oak, put it in my vice, and planed to size. Got a perfect shape, tapering to zero. Then cut the taper lengthways and the bit I needed came free of the softwood

It took me longer that it did to write this up, but not much more..

I now have another technique in my armoury. Thanks Fellas.
 

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