I’ve been wanting to build a 3 legged round table but ran into an interesting “optical illusion” on a mock-up that has me wondering if it’s do-able to my satisfaction. I had assumed I would put the legs at 60 degree points on the table at the same inset from the edge. When I did this on my mock-up a very disturbing “optical illusion” popped up. When you connect any two legs with a straight line and then sight down this line, the top looks like it’s way off center since the overhang of the table on the outside of the line your sighting is at maximum and the other leg overhang is at minimum. I’ts so far off it looks like someone didn’t center the top on the legs!!!
Any ideas on how to eliminate this by changing the angles – I have thought of making the table with a very clear front (with a drawer and moving the front legs closer together) and then curving the sides of the table like a tear drop but I still think the optical illusion will be distracting when viewed at certain angles.
Any comments would be greatly appreciated!!
Replies
How 'bout making "stretchers" that are each 120 degrees of a circle? That is, you kinda repeat the circle of the top in the stretchers.
Or use a pedestal form. It has the same overhang no matter which way you look at it. You can keep the three-legged concept by making three legs that go out almost horizontally from the bottom of the pedestal. Or you can make three L-shaped subassemblies. The bottom arm of the L is the near-horizontal near the floor. The upper arm of the L is vertical, and is joined to the upper arms of the other two L's. The three upper arms form the pedestal.
Edited 9/1/2003 10:49:31 PM ET by JAMIE_BUXTON
How about incorporating a circular apron? The apron would guide your eye away from the legs and the illusion you've noted. You could make three arcs, each 120 deg (plus tennon length) and use conventional M&T joinery at the legs. There was a round table in FWW 2 or 3 years ago where a bent lamination was used for the apron.
Place the legs as close to the edge as you can, to minimise the effect?
Or, to notice this an observer would have to be "under the table" and therefore unlikely to notice anything much at all :-)
Graeme
I tried to build a round table with 3 legs, but gave up when the mockup was unstable. If I put the legs far enough from the edge that it looked good, weight on the edge of the table top between 2 of the legs caused it to tip.
To everyone who provided thoughtful input - Thanks. I like the pedestal down to 3 leg idea, unfortunatley it doesn't work for this application. Also, the apron idea seems good, but my design does have a pretty good apron and it still looks funny!
Ultimately, I've decoded to go with 4 legs. Oh, well one just can't beat basic geometry!
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