Bridle Joints for beefy table legs

[andrew whicker]

Hi,

I'm building a slab dining table and I'm thinking about making some curved legs for the piece. I am starting to picture making a 3 layer sandwich of 3/4" walnut for each leg. I could 'fairly easily' make a bridle joint at the elbow of the curve.

My question is:

At what size does a glued bridle joint start running into issues with wood growth issues? Can the faces be 6" x 6" with no trouble? 8" x 8"?

Thanks and cheers,

[Wayne Lomman]

There are too many variables to be certain. It depends on species, your workshop environment, moisture content, end use environment etc. The best way to deal with so many unknowns is to finish the joint in such a way as to make movement invisible. There are a few ways to do this.

Vee groove or otherwise mould the face edges of the joints.

Design the joint to avoid flush fitting faces by varying thicknesses and bridle overhangs.

Go minimal and low sheen with polishing to limit reflection of light which hides all manner of defects.
Cheers

[Prashun Patel]

I suppose you are right to consider this. I completed a dining table with a 3.25" post for a trestle table bridled into the foot. I also made a workbench with a 6" leg bridled around 3" stretchers. I never had issues with with that joint.

Rather, the bigger risk IMHO is seams showing up on the lamination.

[andrew whicker]

So it sounds like it will change in size enough to be noticeable. If the wood changes enough to notice, then won't the movement break the glue bond?

Should I be using pins and glue?

Prashun,

Could you send me photos of your designs?

[andrew whicker]

I also can fab metal, so maybe I can think of a solution where I cover up a metal joint with wood. So everything will look like wood for the customer, but will actually have a metal joint.

[Prashun Patel]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...nd-bench/page4

Post #7 is about the best one I have.

You can just barely see the width of the bridle on the lower legs. I over-cut the mortises to allow for feet under the base.

I don't have any pix of the joint, but the bench with the bridle joints is in the back. The top rails of the leg assemblies are bridled into the legs.