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How to attach top?

3K views 16 replies 14 participants last post by  wormil 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I'm making a nesting table set (3 tables), and the customer wants the style shown in the pic - which is a close copy of an actual selling set.

My question is, how to attach the table to the legs? Since there are no stretchers on either the top or bottom, joining the two sides, the force of the legs racking are much greater. I've turned the table upside down here in Sketchup for clarity. Help!

Rectangle Wood Wood stain Pet supply Hardwood
 

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#4 ·
Nesting tables only need to be open on the front. Maybe consider an apron and even a stretcher across the back.
Or, perhaps a 6" to 8" tall vertical slatted apron patterned after the sides. With each subsequent nested table, reduce height of the back apron so all three have parallel bottom-of-the-aprons on the same plane.

Just another suggestion/opinion is your pattern's top doesn't appear to be in scale to heft of the legs. Just my 2 cents.

Looks like a fun project!
 
#8 ·
I would use two dowels to connect the apron to the top. Place these towards the center of the apron. If they are placed within 6-8" of center, expansion will be negligable. For added strength use figure 8 fasteners to connect the legs to the top.
I don't think wooden buttons would offer enough strength in this application.

Good luck
 
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
Bore and counter bore holes up through the aprons just outside the spindles. Drive lag bolts with machine threads on the other end into the bottem of the top lined up with the holes in the aprons. Attach the legs with nuts and washers down in the counter bore. Dont make the holes too tight so that you can have some movement. You could also drive thread nuts into the table top and use machine boles rarher than lag bolts.
 
#12 · (Edited by Moderator)
WARNING - PEDANTRY AHEAD

Honestly? Tell the customer it won't work. There may be a factory-made set for sale somewhere, but it doesn't get a free pass from the laws of physics any more than yours would, and it won't be very long before it falls apart.

What you've got there is structurally unstable, IN THEORY. The only thing that makes it stable (and marginally at that) in the real world is the width of the leg perpendicular to the leg/spindle assembly. The ends of the legs bear on the underside of the top out at their edges when resisting racking. One way to improve this strength, therefore, is to make the legs as big as practicable in that dimension.

The real solution is to find a more reliable way to transmit bending force through the legs into the top directly, since you don't have aprons to take these forces. I just had this thought; take it for what it's worth. Call it, I don't know, "T tenons". Cut 2 mortises into the end of each leg, perpendicular to the leg/spindle assembly. Cut mating mortises into the top, but instead of making them the same length, make them long - well beyond the faces of the legs (you'll be able to see them). Make loose tenons out of plywood (for its strength in all directions) shaped like wide, stubby Ts. This ought to give you better "grip" between table and legs. Don't use solid wood; whichever way you orient the grain, it will have a weak direction. Making the top thicker will help, too, since you can go deeper with the mortise. Here's a sketch.
Rectangle Handwriting Font Parallel Plan
 

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#15 ·
Oluf, I'm thinking your solution might be the most appropriate. The critical thing is to attach that table top to those legs, or should I say skirting. A slightly slotted hole through the skirt, counterbored, using a very thick wood screw. My table top is 1", and I'm hoping that will be enough "meat" for the screw to grab onto. I think I will also glue the skirt to the top, in the middle, and then put two, perhaps four, slotted screw assemblies on either side of that glue joint. Other than that, not sure what else to do! The tables are just for snacks, and occasional, use, not like people are going to be laying on them…..
 
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