Glued Up Leg with Through Tenon

[Dan Stuewe]

I would like to make globe stand that I found plans for (they may have been in an issue of Popular Woodworking, but I found them on-line - http://shop.woodcraft.com/Woodcraft/assets/html/globe_stand.asp??mscssid=0033C0795EA94A4605938854C 3EDC850). It is in the mission style, and one of the features that I like is how the legs are attached to the top with through tenons. The legs aren't very big so making them out of solid stock is reasonable, but I've got an itch to glue up the legs. I've seen two methods of doing this recently. The first method I saw in the previous Woodsmith. They face glued two boards and then mitered the leg out of them so that the glue line is diagonal. The other method is using a lock miter router bit to glue four pieces together (Jim Shaver was asking about this recently).

I'm not sure I'd like the diagonal glue line, but I'm thinking the lock miter glue line might be interesting enough to actually be a design feature. What do you think? Would the glue line look bad?

BTW, the design also has the top of the through tenon proud of the table top, and beveled to a pyrimid shape.

Thanks,

[Jim Becker]

If you choose your thicker stock carefully, you can avoid the glue up. What you want is the edges of a wider, thick board that have the growth rings in such a way that they will be diagonal corner to corner when you cut out the leg blank. You will have vertical grain on all four sides that way. The center of the board can be resawn to use for bookmatched panels. See Fine Woodworking October 1999 page 42 for this technique used in casework quite brilliantly!