Reply by bruc101

I’ve done several of these before and I do them on a bandsaw. I have a friend that does them with a skill saw.
I’ve enclosed a photo of how I do all the arms on a mailbox or sign post. I dovetail the arm into the post with a support dovetailed in the bottom of the arm. In your case with the scrolled arm support you can dovetail the bottom of the support into the post and the front dovetailed into the arm. This makes a post very pretty and much stronger than holding everything together with lag bolts. I cut the dovetails with a bandsaw also.

On the back of the arm i drill a 3/4” hole and drive a lag bolt into the arm. I glue a 3/4” dowel into the hole and leave about 1/2’ above the post. This makes it look like it’s pegged together. I also do this on the front arm support.

I always put a scroll on the bottom of the arm support and not leave it just a square 4×4 end.

When you dovetail a post together like this you don’t need a long support arm under the arm.

-- Bruce http://plans.testsitem3.info http://www.sawmillgirls.com