Method or tooling to do a cove cut on the inside of a desk leg.

Jim O'Dell

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Between Aledo and Fort Worth, TX
Well, I'm redesigning the computer desk idea..changing from a corner desk with a 45 cut on the business side, to an L shape. And I'm going to wait for the wood. I don't have enough money saved for the all of the wood I need, plus there are a couple accessories I need to get to do this right. Which brings me to this post.
I will need to cut a cove in the inside corner of the leg in the L. The wood will be 2 pieces of QSWO planed down to about 1 1/2"and glued together to make to make a roughly 3X3 post. I'd like it to be a 2 1/2" radius to closely approximate the outside curves in the furniture I'm trying to blend into, but that is going to be pretty tough to do. Is my best bet going to be a crown molding bit, like this: Infinity crown molding bit.jpg and make several passes to get the complete inside curve? Is there a better/cheaper way? I considered using the saw blade, but don't think I could get a tight enough radii. I also thought about using the nose of my belt sander, but man, that would take a while!! :rofl: Any ideas would be appreciated! Jim.
 
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jim do you have a picture of what your after? or can you draw sketch of the leg cross section you want, and post it.. i think you can get there with multiple cuts of a core box bit from what your telling me.. is this a convex curve or concave?

is this what your after?View attachment leg section.pdf
 
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Yes Larry, that is correct. A convex cut. I posted this at SMC also, and one suggestion is to nibble away at most of the cut with straight rips on the TS, then clean out the rest with a convex scraper and/or sandpaper on a curved rod. Sounds like the cheapest way to do this so far. Any ideas you have though, I'm still listening!!! :thumb::thumb: Jim.
 
jim if you can get the radius you want with the method steve shows, that is the best way you can go. and they actually come out pretty smooth.. now if you need a shape opposite of a cove then you need to shave off close and use your hand planes and a scraper..
 
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