Thread: How would you make this joint?

Indeed, even if the steel rod was able to be tensioned to pull the two bits together. For looking at only!

A few 1/2" dowels through the bubinga so it can't break along the short grain, then a long 3/4" dowel to join the bubinga to the wenge. Half-checking both the bubinga and the wenge will also add quite a bit of strength

wengebubinga.jpg

Something like that Elan? I'm sure that would strengthen the joint considerably. Not sure I am willing to bet my hard earned that it will strengthen the joint 'enough' though

Yep, but I'd extend the 1/2" into the legs as well. Probably go for 3 dowels off centre (outside 2 5mm in from one face, middle one 5mm in from the other face), so that the vertical one doesn't go straight through and defeat the purpose of having them in the first place.

Yeah, I knew I needed to not pass the 3/4" dowel through the 1/2" dowels, but for proof of concept drawing I tend to just bang out a drawing in a minute. Looks like the legs will need to be 40-45mm thick...gonna make these side tables a pair of chunkey monkeys.

You could do it in 35mm, dowels 4mm from the face. The 3/4" would bite in to them a little bit, but should still be strong enough

Interesting note in the description "The legs are slightly angled in to match the subtle angle of the top."
Not sure about the strength of the structure with legs at an angle?

I reckon I'd ditch the horizontal dowels. The vertical joints are long grain to long grain so they should provide plenty of strength if glued up without the dowels - at least plenty of strength in the context of this project which, as someone else mentioned, is principally for looking at only.

My main problem with the solution proposed above is that you are putting a lot of holes into a pretty small piece of wood - so there isn't much structural integrity left. I think there are many strength test reviews on the web which show that the main failure point with dowel joints is not the dowel itself but the compromised timber around it.

The other thing which I would consider is instead of setting the Wenge into the bubinga, set the bubinga into the Wenge. This should provide much better support against racking. With the set-in providing racking resistance, the stress on the vertical dowel is reduced.

Instead of the vertical dowel, would it be better to use a knock-down fitting ? The advantage this would offer is that as time goes on, and a few mishaps loosen the joint up, you can tighten it up. The hole for the head of the fitting would be on the underside, not seen - or perhaps covered by a temporary plug.

Still, no real way to put strength in that design.

Its such a weak joint a careless delivery could be the end of it .
I think no matter what you do it wont strengthen it much . Id just check out the Bubinga and put a well fitted bugle screw up from the under side and cap it with a plug, provided the space is big enough for a cordless drill to drive it. At the top of the Bubinga legs Id either just but join it or biscuit it as well .

Rob

I reckon floating tenons(dominoes, biscuits) in the sides and a dowel vertically is what we're likely seeing there. There might even be a sneakily hidden bolt running into a sneaky, captive nut in the wenge somewhere.

The picture of the bubinga/wenge console table isn't what I will making. That is simply an image supplied by the client to illustrate to me there idea's of having the legs connect to the top via that beam arrangement.

I will be building two side tables of dimensions 520mm wide x 300mm deep x 460mm high. The sizing is supplied by client, and seems like good proportions to me. My concern is the 460mm height. It's right around seat height, so I believe it will only be a matter of time before some big fat butt uses the side tables as a seat. Sitting on this, unless very carefully, will rack the hell out of the side table putting considerable pressure on the joinery. So to build the side tables using that kind of beam/leg arrangement, I need to come up with a extremely good answer.

This will probably all be a wasted effort, as I reckon the clients will go for a different design I supplied to them last night. Which just quietly I think is "totes amazeballs", and if they don't go for it, I'll build anyways and sell for a million bux (give or take a million)

"Give or take a million " lol

Build a table at seat height like that and you may have an impaled person walking in backwards asking you to pull a leg out from that butt !
I had a guy mistake a wine table for a small stool in front of me once . It exploded from under him when he sat on it and he went down.
A strange bloke , I think he may have meant to do it ?
Because if your not expecting it your likely going to land hard and not break your fall like he did.

You may have to add steel or timber x braces through the middle to get that design to hold someone .
Or make some steel bracket that fits in with the leg to rail

Rob

Hope they don't have kids ! [emoji15]. A carelessly discarded school bag, wayward football and it's all over ..

That said .. It looks quite nice

Well this is the concept drawing I have just supplied to the client. I did make the lap joint much deeper than the wenge/bubinga console table. It will add much more long grain to face grain glue surface in the lap joint. I will also put a single vertical dowel through the beam and into the legs.

The side table design wants to be a "Kai Kristiansen" compass chair inspired as the clients have some of these chairs. So that's where the shape of legs come from.
Dimensions: 520mm long x 300mm deep x 460mm high. A blonde timber with a red timber. Currently thinking Myrtle sapwood as the blonde, and Jarrah for the red.
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