How to join these legs

[Fidel Fernandez]

I want to make a side table like this one for my living room, but I have a question about the legs.

I know how to join the legs to the top. It could be using some dowels, tenon, dado, etc. One thing that I cannot figure out is how to join the legs. I don't think is as simple as a butt joint and glue.

It should be a mechanical joint and glue, to put the 3 legs together before they are connected to the top.

Any ideas?

http://castedesign.com/product/detail/powell-occasional-table-1-2

[Sean Hughto]

I might try some version of finger joints with small angled shoulders and enough fingers that I could stagger the interlocks among the three legs. It's a tiny incidental table, not a stool, so it doesn't have to hold 200 lbs or anything.

[Sean Hughto]

Crap someone's already patented it!
http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US4383780-1.png

[Fidel Fernandez]

It makes sense.

I didn't know you can patent a wood joint. That means I cannot use it unless I pay royalties... :D

[Pat Barry]

TERM.—Subject to the payment of fees under this title, such grant shall be for a term beginning on the date on which the patent issues and ending 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, if the application contains a specific reference to an earlier filed application or applications under section 120 (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-0010-title-page.html#d0e303023), 121 (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html#d0e303040), or 365(c) (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html#d0e307034) from the date on which the earliest such application was filed.

That patent is > 20 years old so it is now public domain. Don't let it stop you Fidel.

[Judson Green]

Well the description says it's entirely hand carved. So no joinery needed :D

Sure is an awful lot of whittling though.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I'd have to look, but I swear this was covered in either Tage Frid's book, or the other joint book I have…. I'll check when I get home…

[Prashun Patel]

If i had to do it, I'd cut a 3-way miter and then use slip tenons.

[Brian Holcombe]

Three way sliding dovetail spline.

[Brett Luna]

Well, if biscuits are good for joining two pieces of wood, then triscuits should work in this application.

(C'mon...somebody​ had to say it!)

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Never mind, everything I thought I remembered from my books where three legs joined to a solid center…

[Mike Null]

+1 on triscuits:D

[Tony Shea]

Well, if biscuits are good for joining two pieces of wood, then triscuits should work in this application.

(C'mon...somebody​ had to say it!)

Lol...laughed out loud on that one.:D

[Jim Matthews]

You'll need splines, of some sort to get long grain to long grain glue joints.

Three 3/4" plywood triangles to go laterally.
Three 1/4" plywood splines to go vertically.

Notches in the legs to accept the lateral triangles.
Grooves in the leg "faces" to accept the vertical splines.

Have three layout triangles at the ready, for glue up.

I suggest clamping two legs together, first to make it less fraught.
Add the third after the first glue up is dry.

[Prashun Patel]

You could also do a modified Maloof joint on this:

Cut dado's in each of the legs that fit around a central, triangular block, and then screw or dowel each leg into that block from the outside. Plug and fill the holes.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

From the website, you link, Fidel, it looks like they have a showroom dealer in Houston:

http://castedesign.com/info/showrooms

You ought to see if they have you and let you look underneath. Be interesting to see what the production piece uses.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Also, finally being able to see the piece on the large computer screen and not my tiny phone, I didn't realize that it looks like the top is dished rather attractively - but if you look rather closely at the second picture, it appears the legs are all attached to the top - there's three either dowels or plugs for screws in a triangle on the top in that second picture.