Joining X trestle legs

[julian abram]

A lady has asked me to build her a table like the one in the photo. I'm wondering what would be the best way to join these X trestle table legs. At first I thought they were joined by a half lap joint but on a side view it appears one solid leg with a upper and lower support joined to it. Any thoughts? Also notice there is a through stretcher tenon in the solid leg. The tenon is wider than the stretcher. How did they do that?
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[mark mcfarlane]

...Also notice there is a through stretcher tenon in the solid leg. The tenon is wider than the stretcher. How did they do that?
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Perhaps some serious milling of a much larger board, or a decorative tenon that isn't really attached to the stretcher...

[Wayne Lomman]

Julian, I would use a half lap joint with a through tenon to pin it together despite what the picture may appear to show. As for the tenon, I think it is an illusion that it is larger than the stretcher. That stretcher is a substantial piece of timber. Cheers

[Hoang N Nguyen]

I built the exact same table for a friend of mine. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?239060-Toscana-Dining-Table

I used half lap joints on the legs and the through tenon was flipped 90* to make it work. No one ever knew the difference and both she and her family loved it. I built mine out of solid maple.

[glenn bradley]

+1 on half lap. The picture may just be an issue of leg assembly orientation. The photo team are not always the best at assembling things for the photo shoot.

[julian abram]

Fellows, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree on the half lap joint as the way to go. Hoang, I love the way your table looks, just beautiful! I was wondering about the length and width of your table. Looks like about 8' in length. I notice you moved the legs in towards the center instead of being closer to the ends. I assume this designed to seat 2 persons in the middle and one person outside each leg, correct? Also do you remember the size of the legs, 4"x4" or 4"x6"?

[Jamie Buxton]

Small grumpiness with the OP photo... The chairs to the left are sleek and modern. The table is deliberately beat up; the designers call it distressed. I call it obnoxious. I'd build the table without the distressing. I'd also build it without the stain. Real wood is beautiful. Diluted paint -- not so much.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Fellows, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree on the half lap joint as the way to go. Hoang, I love the way your table looks, just beautiful! I was wondering about the length and width of your table. Looks like about 8' in length. I notice you moved the legs in towards the center instead of being closer to the ends. I assume this designed to seat 2 persons in the middle and one person outside each leg, correct? Also do you remember the size of the legs, 4"x4" or 4"x6"?

Thanks, it was a fun project. The legs are 3x4 with the 4" side showing. I milled and glued together 2 pieces that were 1.5x4 to get the dimension I wanted. The center stretcher is I believe 3x5 with the 5" side being vertical. I moved the legs closer together so the 2 people sitting at the ends of the table doesn't get the knee's knocked at every time they sit. If it were further out, the person sitting at the ends wouldn't be able to slide their chairs in close enough. You can sit the table top on some sawhorses and slide a chair under it, sit down and get a feel to how far back you want to go.

The table is 92" long, 42" wide and about 31.5" to the top of table. I have a bunch of pictures I took during the build process, if you'd like to see them to get ideas feel free to PM me with your number/e-mail and I can send you more pictures if it'll help you out.

[Lee Schierer]

Another alternative to half lap joints would be to build up the legs from three layers each and have two layers on one leg go the full length and one layer on the other leg go the full length.

[Mike Cutler]

I agree with the half lap. There is a way to do it with blind tenons, but it would very complicated and I doubt a production company would use them.
I personally like the presence and execution of the table built by Hoang N Nguyen a lot more. His joints are tighter, and better executed, ( Less crude looking) and his size proportions seem much more correct to me.