Need Suggestions For Attaching A Shelf

[Ken Krawford]

350154


I'm doing a rough copy of the table shown above. I've used Dominoes for all the joinery so far. The two shelves are a 3 board glue up with the center piece equal to the width of the side apron and the other 2 pieces equal to the widths of the legs. Unfortunately I did the shelf glue up before cutting the Domino mortises in the front and back ends of the shelves . Since the legs are 2 1/2 " diam. , there isn't enough room to get the machine in to cut the mortises.
Any suggestions on how to attach these shelves?

[Jamie Buxton]

The pictured table has front-to-back rails under the shelves. Screw the shelves to the rails from below. Don't bother fastening the shelf to the legs.

[Ken Krawford]

I can't see for looking :) If I noticed those rails, I must have mentally decided to not include them in my adaptation. Looks like that will be a good solution.

[Andy Giddings]

Depending on how much weight the shelves will carry, rails as suggested by Jamie. If it needs to be really strong you could also add rails/apron along the front/back as well as the side rails. If weight is not an issue you could even use shelf pins instead of rails which would allow you height adjustment as per a bookcase. You would almost certainly need side rails at the bottom though to give you some rigidity

[Ken Krawford]

The idea of shelf pins has been nixed by the recipient. The shelves will not carry much of a load and are 5/4 stock so I don't thing sagging will be much of an issue.

[Lee Schierer]

You could also attach the shelf to the legs with pocket screws from the bottom side of the shelf. No one would see the holes unless they are crawling on the floor looking up. They should be plenty strong to hold the shelf.