Whenever I’m building a project that requires tapered legs I always mill an extra one. The main reason for this is you never know what you might find with the grain once you have them tapered.
This allows me to choose the best 4 for my project to continue with & gives me an extra one to do any set up/test cuts on.
However on the latest project I was working on the need for an extra leg became glaringly clear right from the get-go.
Several years ago I was shown how to create tapered legs on the jointer & have never looked back. (See embedded video from Popular Woodworking with Glen Huey demonstrating this technique.)
There is a big difference you need to remember. Simply put when you taper two sides only you divide your taper by 2 & when you taper all four sides you have to divide that distance by 4.
Well I got "in the zone" & I completely forgot this when I started milling my four sided legs. (I divided by 2.)
So the result was a completely worthless leg & a good laugh!
The photo below shows (from left to right) the first step in milling the leg wrong, the middle is how is should look & the one on the right is a completed leg before sanding.
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