turning legs with a router

[sawdustmaker]

Has anyone ever turned large (dining table...)legs using a router and a jig? How did they turn out? I'm going to biuld a table for my son and his wife and don't have a lathe.

[Bill]

Too vague. I don't see how you can get helpful feedback without at least a drawing.

using a router and a

[hubops]

[Bill]

I was unable to follow the link, but a cylinder is quite a lot different than a table leg, isn't it... I think if you have to ask how to go about this, than you are in over your head. Just use a table saw and be done with it (you can play with your router for the entire rest of the day, after you are finished). If you are not going to go with the table saw or lathe approach, I think cabriole legs are quite nice. If you can't explain what you wish to do, how can anyone assist you? Just thinking, if you want "cylinders", you can probably order some ready made.. HTH.

Bill

[Unquestionably Confused]

Interesting jig. Cabriole legs are out of the question with it, but it does allow for tapered legs and straight columns. Also, with a bit of imagination and using the multiple holes placed in the which could be used for indexing the work piece, you could have fluted columns (straight or tapered). Taking it a step further you could add some "banding" to it using core box bit in the router and fixing the router carriage in place as you go along.

[Leon]

Sometime this can be more trouble than it is worth. I would consider tablelegs.com

[shiggins]

For a while, I used a Sears Router Crafter to make full length gunstocks. The whole machine was a little loosey-goosey so I made my own borrowing some from the Crafter. Instead of using a cable to advance the router along a template I used a piece of 10-32 all thread. I attached an old damper control motor to the all thread so I didn't have to crank the router along the work. End switches allowed me to do other things while the machine did its work. It had manual depth adjustment. I was always going to install auto depth but I sold it before I got around to it. Sorry. No pics as I don't have either machine anymore.

Steve

[Larry Kraus]

I used a similar idea to turn a couple dozen spindles for the sides of a cradle, probably better described as tapered dowels.

I actually had a lathe as one function of my Shopsmith, but lacked the skills to create uniform spindles. (and had no time to practice - baby was coming soon!)

I made a small table that slid on the rails to support the router over the workpiece. I offset the outboard lathe center so that it was sufficiently higher than the drive end to get the needed taper, much the same way the video jig has different height holes. The fact that I had an actual lathe to rotate the workpiece helped. I had both hands free to operate the router and because it spun the workpiece much faster than a hand crank, no sanding was needed.It's been twenty years or so, but I seem to recall several failed attempts while getting the adjustments just right. Practice on something cheap before committing to your good wood.

The spindles were tapered throughout and glued into holes matched to their diameter at either end. Table legs will probably need to retain a square section at the top, I think it would be simplest to shape the square-round transition with hand tools.

[Sonny]

Or the table's skirts, themselves, if applicable, could be mortised into th e round legs, a bit, plus dowels or tenons, then apply a diagonal corner br ace. This process may be (probably would be) more work (and troublesome), than retaining a square leg-ends, as Larry suggests, in the first place.

In this or any leg-configuration case, it would be best to cut the mortises , before turning, but I suppose you already know that.

As to that router jig, that seems a pretty neat solution, to a no-lathe "pr oblem".

Sonny

[Martin Eastburn]

Not only for non-lathe users - but for those of us who have lathes and can use them but need many identical legs. Hand lathes are great for 1 of but 20 of or even 4 of.

Martin - I've been turning since the 50's. I'd do it myself.