Thread: Help with Table Legs

It's looking good so far! How do you feel about thoughts from the idiot box?

If I was building this, there's two things I would like to try... although they would change the final appearance to a small degree. (For an indeterminate value of "small." )

Firstly, I'd rebate the mating faces of the cross-beam slightly where it'd sit on the crosses. Somewhere around 15-25mm. A good, snug fit would go a long way to eliminating movement.

Secondly, with the cross-beam in place I'd look at running a mortise in through one side of a leg, through the cross-beam and out on the other side of the legs, parallel to the tabletop. Almost as though I'd be putting a long bolt through except using a long tenon with shaker style wedges on each end. For easy knock-down and tightening "as required."

Thanks Skew

I dont mind your suggestion at all however they are probably beyond my capability.

Any suggestions on how to attach the legs to the top?

I was thinking of using some threaded bolts through some oversized holes (to allow for movement) in the cross beams of the legs into the table.

How thick is the tabletop going to be? As thick as the original pic? Made in the same way, built up from boards?

If the top is thick enough you could recess the top beam of the legs into the underside of the top and then either use fasteners of one type or another, or make timber 'saddles' that hold the legs in place.

There are a few ways such a recess could be made, one of them is cutting the notches in the centre boards before gluing the top together. This approach leaves no room for errors, though. I'd prefer to rout it in after the top was built up.

Another approach is fasten blocks under the table top; a pair on each side of each end of set of legs. Then fasten the legs to them instead of the top. Think of them as wooden 'L' brackets if you like, although they needn't be that shape. By using blocks rather than parallel boards (like a trestle table) you eliminate any problems with movement between them and the top, all you need to do is slightly elongate the holes in the connections between them and the legs for bolts/screws.

Or you could simply run a groove along each side of the legs' top beams and use buttons fixed to the table. I don't think these would have enough strength in this case, though.

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

How thick is the tabletop going to be? As thick as the original pic? Made in the same way, built up from boards?

Another approach is fasten blocks under the table top; a pair on each side of each end of set of legs. Then fasten the legs to them instead of the top. Think of them as wooden 'L' brackets if you like, although they needn't be that shape. By using blocks rather than parallel boards (like a trestle table) you eliminate any problems with movement between them and the top, all you need to do is slightly elongate the holes in the connections between them and the legs for bolts/screws.

Thanks Skew,

The tabletop is about 45mm thick made up from recycled hardwood sticks.

I was thinking of the above method but rather then use a pair of blocks each side I was going to use a single block per end that spanned between the cross. I was then looking to use pocket hole screws to connect the legs to the block.

Tue table top and legs are quite heavy so I am a little concerned about overall strength of the connections.

I got there is the end so thought I should post a few pics - not very good picss, but pics none the less.

It was quite a learning experience. All the different angles made the final glue up difficult as things would just move when tryinging to glue and fastern.

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