To whom has made a waterfall table leg...have questions

[Craig D Peltier]

Hi I need to make a waterfall leg on a walnut slab. Live edge on front. I have a beam saw to cut the 45 so that's easy. I don't want to do exposed rabbeted splines at this point. Want invisible joinery. This actually is a desk top so it will wrap down the side of a cabinet so doesn't need a lot of support.
i think I can set my ryobi biscuit jointer to biscuit at a 45 but that's kinda weak. I also don't think it will biscuit very far from the edge on a 2 inch thick piece plus the beveled actual width.
I could possibly do hardwood dowels? Or some sort of metal bracket embedded? I need to pull the joint tight though and even though glued and metal bracket on underside I still think the top of joint will be weak?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks
Craig

[Phil Thien]

Know anyone with a Domino?

[Craig D Peltier]

Nope. ....

[Sam Murdoch]

Perhaps use the biscuiter to make a nearly full length spline slot - plunge close together to make one long slot. You can deepen with chisels if need be. Otherwise it's a hand tool job or jig up with a router to make a stopped dado into both pieces. Pulling the joint together tightly will be the real challenge - well fitted spline will be easy to work with, I think, rather than dowels.

[Peter Quinn]

Plunge router, loose tenons, you can clamp it with table top down, legs up in the air, clamps pulling in both directions, cauls to distribute the force, celaphane tape on the cauls, one caul can hang just a bit over the joint to keep the two intersecting sides from crossing over each other if clamping pressure isn't perfect relative to the two opposing sides. If the slab is thick you could double biscuit, two parallel rows, but loose tenons is my preference. Or stopped splines made of plywood like one large loose tenon.

did one at my last job, IIR I made some large squaring blocks from plywood, pocket screwed them right in to the underside of the table and left them until glue was set to keep things square, nipped of the inside corner so it didn't get glued in or interfere.

[Prashun Patel]

Plunge router with loose tenons.

[Kevin Jenness]

At 2" thick you can run a series of biscuits perpendicular to the length of the joint- clamp the pieces back to back and use a v-shaped fence to index the biscuit joiner. In that orientation, the joinery will be stronger than a spline or biscuits parallel to the seam. If the pieces are flat you can fold them up with tape and no or minimal clamping. Use squaring blocks as Peter suggested.

[Craig D Peltier]

Thanks Peter

[John C Bush]

Hi Craig,
I used embedded angle iron to attach legs for a console table and they worked really well. Indexing with loose tenons or lots of biscuits and the embedded angle would be a good way to go.

I couldn't get pics of the maple table uploaded here--I'll give it another try. John.

[Bill McNiel]

Craig,
You do now, I'm in Issaquah with a DF 500 EQ.

[jack duren]

Hi I need to make a waterfall leg on a walnut slab. Live edge on front. I have a beam saw to cut the 45 so that's easy. I don't want to do exposed rabbeted splines at this point. Want invisible joinery. This actually is a desk top so it will wrap down the side of a cabinet so doesn't need a lot of support.
i think I can set my ryobi biscuit jointer to biscuit at a 45 but that's kinda weak. I also don't think it will biscuit very far from the edge on a 2 inch thick piece plus the beveled actual width.
I could possibly do hardwood dowels? Or some sort of metal bracket embedded? I need to pull the joint tight though and even though glued and metal bracket on underside I still think the top of joint will be weak?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks
Craig

We used Domino's for this but only because I'm asked too. You can use dowels, biscuit, Domino,etc for alignment and will help with strength. But if the leg is hanging versus sitting directly on the floor you could still kick it apart at the joint if it is its only means of support.

[Kevin Jenness]

Jack, I have to disagree with your last comment. A well glued miter joint in 2" material reinforced with splines should withstand any normal abuse short of a sledgehammer or a kick boxer. Plus, it sounds like in this application the end is supported by a cabinet.

Craig, for clamping miters I much prefer to direct the clamping force at a right angle to the joint surface This can be accomplished by screwing 45 degree blocks to plywood pieces that are clamped to your workpieces so that the clamping pressure on the blocks is centered on the joint.

[jack duren]

Jack, I have to disagree with your last comment. A well glued miter joint in 2" material reinforced with splines should withstand any normal abuse short of a sledgehammer or a kick boxer. Plus, it sounds like in this application the end is supported by a cabinet.

Craig, for clamping miters I much prefer to direct the clamping force at a right angle to the joint surface This can be accomplished by screwing 45 degree blocks to plywood pieces that are clamped to your workpieces so that the clamping pressure on the blocks is centered on the joint.

I noticed you used the word "SHOULD". This is not a guarantee;)

[Kevin Jenness]

Well, we do guarantee our workmanship and try to choose the most appropriate joinery for the given situation. I daresay a splined miter made as I suggested would hold up just fine in the job outlined in the original query. How would you make the joint given a choice?