Frederick Skelly
05-20-2017, 7:52 PM
Hi guys,
The top has been built about a month. It's maple, 3 1/2" thick x 20" wide x 30" long.
Today I finished roughing out the legs - they are poplar, 3 1/4" square.
I'm going to mortise the top and cut tenons on the legs. The mortises will be either 1 1/2" or a full 2" deep. I'm leaning toward 2". They will be 1 1/4" wide and 3 1/4" long. That gives me plenty of shoulder. Here's where I need advice.
1. The top of the table will be 36" above the floor. The tenons are stout 1 1/4" wide x 3 1/4" long x 2" "deep"/high). But those legs are long - 32 1/2" from the tenon shoulder to the floor. But to help rigidize it, I'll connect the legs with an apron all the way around - 3 1/4" wide and 1" thick. Do you think this design will be rigid enough to prevent racking when someone uses the butcher block to chop up veggies, etc?
2. I can't decide on the best approach for building the base. Please give me your advice. I have two options: Option A - cut the mortises in the top, then build the base "downward" toward the floor from there. Option B- build the base (incl cutting the tenons), then mark/cut the mortises to match how things actually fit up. I'm leaning toward Option B, because it will allow me to align the mortises to match how the base actually comes out (slightly out of square, or whatever small errors might creep into the glue-up/assemble process).
Thanks for giving me a hand guys.
Fred
The top has been built about a month. It's maple, 3 1/2" thick x 20" wide x 30" long.
Today I finished roughing out the legs - they are poplar, 3 1/4" square.
I'm going to mortise the top and cut tenons on the legs. The mortises will be either 1 1/2" or a full 2" deep. I'm leaning toward 2". They will be 1 1/4" wide and 3 1/4" long. That gives me plenty of shoulder. Here's where I need advice.
1. The top of the table will be 36" above the floor. The tenons are stout 1 1/4" wide x 3 1/4" long x 2" "deep"/high). But those legs are long - 32 1/2" from the tenon shoulder to the floor. But to help rigidize it, I'll connect the legs with an apron all the way around - 3 1/4" wide and 1" thick. Do you think this design will be rigid enough to prevent racking when someone uses the butcher block to chop up veggies, etc?
2. I can't decide on the best approach for building the base. Please give me your advice. I have two options: Option A - cut the mortises in the top, then build the base "downward" toward the floor from there. Option B- build the base (incl cutting the tenons), then mark/cut the mortises to match how things actually fit up. I'm leaning toward Option B, because it will allow me to align the mortises to match how the base actually comes out (slightly out of square, or whatever small errors might creep into the glue-up/assemble process).
Thanks for giving me a hand guys.
Fred