I recently picked up a nice 4’x18″ walnut slab 1.5″ thick with live edges and plan to cut legs for a coffee table off the end of the slab, so they will be a max of 1.5″ in one direction. I would like to preserve as much of the slab as possible for the top, so 1.5″x1.5″ legs would probably be ideal. It will be more of a decorative piece, so it can be a bit shorter than standard and shouldn’t see too much shear stress. 4 legs on the corners, angled so that the live edges face each corner would look nice.
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Joinery Advice
I am a beginner and would appreciate some advice on joining the legs. The only useful tools I have are a table saw and a few chisels. I was thinking of cutting round mortise and tenon joints with a hole saw (ID of tenon=OD of mortise=1" or 1.125") but am worried that the 1/4" pilot bit of the hole saw will make the tenon too weak, even if I plug it with a dowel. A router would be a much more useful investment than a tenon cutter. Can round tenons be cut with a router? Would 1/2" rectangular tenons be strong enough? Any other ideas? Maybe newell post bolts?
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Apron
Hi,
Unless the legs are extremely short, you will want some kind of apron to join the legs to and then the top. The apron is needed to resist racking and to allow a more secure joint to the top that still allows for a little movement. The legs can be joined to the apron with dowels. Some woodworkers poo-poo dowel joints (probably from cheap furniture that asks too much of the joint), but they shoud work just fine in this application. The top can be joined to the apron with figure eights or blocks of wood screwed to the top that fit into a dado in the apron.
If an apron is abosolutely out of the question, then some kind of stretcher should be used to resist rack on the legs. The leg to top joint is more critical then, and should have some sort of pin (dowel or nail) to help secure it.
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