To make the tapered sides I decided to use a wedge cut
with the desired ¾” over 12” taper. The
wedge gets laid out on a piece of plywood then clamped into the chop saw. To align, the layout line is adjusted until
the blade follows it as I run it in and out along its cutting path. The top photo shows where the blade will cut
along the line and the bottom photo shows the completed cut. Not shown in the bottom photo to stabilize
the plywood is a small wedge out of sight between the plywood and the chop saw’s
fence.
Since I don’t need the first set of box joint tests those
pieces will get tapered and used for the next test. To make the taper the wedge is clamped to the
chop saw’s table and the old test blank is set in place to cut. I did make a layout line to assure that I
ended up with a tapered piece rather than a parallelogram.
Because I do not want all the box joints to be the same
size one setting of the jig’s Spacers won’t work. There has to be one setup for the sides and
a different one for the ends. After
resetting the Spacers for the first cut while I was tightening the Locking
Handle the whole Spacer stack shifted a bit.
Some experimentation led me to believe the single Locking Handle did not
apply equal pressure. Adding a second
one corrected the problem. While I was
at it, I changed the Locking Handle to thumb screws. The photos below the revisions. 
Each of the photos below show a finished piece and the Spacers
setup required to make the cuts. The
left photo shows the setup for the ends.
Note how the first spacer is up, the next is down then a repeating
pattern of two up and one down. The
right photo shows the setup for the sides.
Here this first spacer is down, the next one up then a repeating pattern
of two down and one up. The good news is
that I can cut both ends or both sides at once.
Here is what the assembled test piece looks like dry
fitted. All the joints came out just
right and I am happy with the way it looks.
Now it’s time to start on a full-size prototype using the
cedar blank I had glued up some weeks ago.
After squaring the edges and trimming it to its final width I can start
cutting out blanks for the sides and ends.
The tapered wedge from earlier is put against the base of the cutoff
sled shown here at the right. The panel
is set tight up to it then another tapered wedge cut at the same angle is
butted up against the panel to provide a parallel surface to clamp to. All three pieces are clamped together so
nothing moves during the cutting process.
The black line is my reference to make sure I cut the panel as intended.
Next is to reset the blank and the wedges to cut the
first side along with the second taper.
The piece is cut about an eighth of an inch long for trimming
later. Once both sides are cut, they
will both be cut to final length at the same time so they are a perfect match.
Cutting the first end is next. So, the grain and color of the boards that
make up the panel run around the finished wastebasket the just cut tapered edge
needs to be cut off and a new one cut facing the right direction made. 
Cutting the end to length and tapering follows. Just like the side it’s cut a little long to
be recut later.
The process is repeated to cut one more side and one more
end. When that’s done the matching
pieces are put back in the sled then both cut at once so they are the same
exact size. Here are all four pieces
tapered and sized ready to start cutting the box joints. Here you can see how the grain flows from one
piece to the next.
With the side and end pieces tapered cutting the box
joints is next. I am going to start with
the ends first. Here is a photo of how
the Spacers are set for them. To help me
make sure that I get the spacer pattern correct the test side is used as a
guide to get started. That piece is
shown in front of the actual side. Once
I am satisfied that the pattern is correct the dado stack set to the correct
cut depth of just a tiny bit deeper than the end’s thickness. With that done both ends get clamped into the
jig and the cutting begins following the same procedure as the test. If you are wondering what the blue tape is
for on the jig it acts as a reference as to how far I need to make the cuts.
Here is the jig set up to cut the sides where the
vertical Spacers have been laid down and the horizontal spacers have been
rotated upright. From here the sides are
clamped in place and cut just like the ends above.
Once the sides are cut the four pieces can be dry fitted
together and this is what that looks like.
At this point the only thing holding the pieces together is the friction
fit of the box joints. Earlier on I
described the process when cutting the side and end blanks to their tapered
shape so the color and grain would flow around the assembled piece. Now you can see the end results of that work.
Before I start to glue the pieces together there is one
last bit of work to do. The drawing
below shows the wastebasket with the end removed to show the how the sides
taper outward. This tapering causes the
top and bottom edges to not be parallel to the floor which is what I want. That means the blue areas in the drawings on
the right at the top and bottom need to be trimmed off.
This is done at the table saw but first I need to set the
blade to the correct angle using a sliding T-bevel set against the side to get
the angle. The blade is then tilted to match that angle.
The photo on the left is the bottom before trimming. The red arrow shows the bit that needs to be
cut off. When making this cut, I trimmed
off a little more than needed to get rid of the little sliver. The finished cuts are shown at the
right. Now the wastebasket will sit flat
on the floor.
Next Up – Glueup, Bottom, Finishing & Starting on
Actual Wastebasket
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