I'm building a bookcase from a "measured drawing" from a old FWW book. It is just a line drawing and a picture or two, but enough measurements to make the case.
The guy tapered the lower legs on the case with a double taper.
He starts at 6" from the bottom and tapers the corner post down from 1" 5/8 to 1 1/8".
(each corner post is 1 5/8" square)
I have never done any real tapers and I have never tried one on a piece of stock that is 59" long.
The picture shows a very graceful look on the bookcase, so how does everybody does this sort of thing on a piece that long ???
First, a planer sled. Use 1/16 stock stacked up to get 1/16, 1/8,
3/16, 1/4 (assuming 1/4 off on each face, if it's two adjacent faces, use 1/8 stock). Position the stacks evenly along the sled. Use double-sided tape to tape the leg to the sled (use stop blocks on each end too) and run it through your planer a few times, untapered end first. This only really works for long gradual tapers.
Second, a jointer. Put a stop block on the infeed side so that the cut starts where the taper starts (or an inch towards the tapered end) and drop the leg onto the knives and joint it. Keep doing this until the taper is almost sufficient, then do one pass of the whole leg (i.e. no stop block) to clean up the transition. Again, long tapers only.
Third, a router. Get a straight edge and clamp it on the leg in the right place, and use a pattern bit (if you can find one big enough) to follow it. Alternate: use a long 1/2 straight bit and either ride the shank along the straight edge, or use a template guide.
Fourth, a table saw sled. Rip a long enough board and tape the leg to the board so that the edge matches the cut line (i.e. a zero clearance sled, so don't move your fence) and re-rip. If you do this often, build a rip sled with a guide for your miter slot, and put some toggle clamps on it.
Fifth, a hand plane.
Sixth, a band saw (followed by the jointer or a hand plane to clean it up). If your taper is only six inches long, this might be the easiest way.
You can also combine the band saw and router - band saw about 1/16" from the line, use the router to clean it up. This is a common pattern following technique.
Simplest powered method is probably a sled that rides on a runner slot. With the long leg, a sled that rides against the fence would have to be fairly wide.
Adam Cherubini would probably use a hatchet and a hand plane.
The couple of times I've done something similar I marked out the line, cut just outside the line on my band saw and then used the jointer set at about 1/64 to trim to the line.
I was going to mention it, but hesitated from perhaps doing too much of that lately. ;)
The one on the jigs and fixtures page would easily do what Pat wants, and it would be easy to do a down and dirty, non-adjustable, 'one-off' sled using the same idea, but utilizing the fence instead of a runner in the miter slot.
Having done many tapered legs using many different jigs, I believe that a TS taper sled is definitely the way to go for 'quick, ease of use, and safety'.
Everybody had several decent ideas and the sled seems to be the most voted on. That was also my method of choice and I'll probably do a "one shot deal" with my old friend MDF.
I'll run a trial version on Sunday and see how it goes. Maybe a picture or two of the trial and more advice as the project moves ahead.
I wouldn't worry about offering too much advice Swing... Your advice is well respected.
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