leg to apron joint question

[Matt Day]

What do you all recommend for this leg to apron joint? I think I'd prefer to use a dado blade in my RAS and cut off the corner so there's two flat surfaces for the dowels, rather than the bird's mouth approach. Any suggestions?

I can install a brace at the back like I show if necessary.

[Jamie Buxton]

The third pic (the birdsmouth approach) will be tough to build. If the dowels are a little bit off in the horizontal direction, the birdmouth planes won't seat firmly against the leg. They're actually the shoulders of the mortise-and-tenon, and do add to the stiffness of the joint. If they don't seat correctly, the joint is wobbly. I'd stick with the version that has a flat face on the leg for the apron to hit.

(Actually, I'd build the joint as a real mortise-and-tenon, not a dowel joint. There would be a lot more facegrain-to-facegrain glue area.)

[HANK METZ]

Dub off the corners and use the brace, that's as good as it gets.

- Beachside Hank

[Bruce Seidner]

Ok, at risk of being excommunicated. Keep the brace, loose the dowels, and use Kreg pocket screws and Tightbond III. The brace will hide the screws and you can have all your re-rehabilitated Stanley planes and Japanese chisels on fine maple and green felt lined mounts on the wall behind this mechanically sound and easy to construct joinery.

Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa

[Rod Sheridan]

Mortice and tennon..............Rod.

[Mike Henderson]

Mortice and tennon..............Rod.

+1 You'll get a lot stronger joint, and that's especially important on a table. The corner block will help, also.

I'd never do dowels for that joint. The stresses between the apron and a leg are quite high, especially when someone drags the table from one place to another.

Mike

[Peter Quinn]

I'd use the middle pic, creating the mitered flats on the TS or BS. Not so keen on doing multiple passes with a RAS and dado though, I'd rather establish the shoulder with one stop as a cross cut then advance as far as possible with the TS, stop, back out and finish up with a hand saw, or just use the BS with a fence and a quick 45 jig made of blocks cut on the chop saw. Probably takes longer to type than to set up.

[George Brown]

Take a look at this

dowelmax.com

little pricy, but looks nice. Has a video comparing the various joint possibilities.