Cabriole Leg Coffee Table: 4 vs 6 Legs

[Brett Woodall]

Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. Loving the community! I'll get right to it though.

So my problem is as follows. I've committed to making a coffee table out of a far-too-large pane of leaded glass that has lost its seal and is to be re-purposed. It's a beautiful piece, but it's massive, 67" x 22". I'm normally much more of a reclaimed-wood hack, but these folks have a more traditional style, so I've decided to attempt my first cabriole leg piece for the frame upon which the glass will rest. The initial mock-up legs are turning out well, I think I have a good design to match the proportions, but I'm debating several design decisions and would greatly appreciate any feedback the community can provide.

1) For a coffee table of this size, will four legs be sufficient? I'm currently leaning toward a six leg design, but my google-foo has yet to surface any sort of rules-of-thumb or best practices when it comes to this sort of thing.

2) Besides the main skirt/apron that will support the glass top and to which the legs will be affixed, does the size of this design dictate that secondary stretchers be included? It's only a 16" tall piece, which I would think would be more of a factor than the length and width of the piece, so I'm thinking this would be unnecessary. But again, my google-foo is failing me in ascertaining this kind of best practice principal.

3) Leg stock. I've struggled with this from the start. I just have NOT been able to find solid, 4x4 (darker) hardwood stock within reason, so I've landed on some sapele that I found at my local lumber yard that I'm going to have to glue up. From what I can tell, sapele should darken up pretty well with some danish oil, and these are close to 8/4 stock, so should utlimately get me where I want to be after lamination. I'm pretty sure I've determined that the cabriole design rules out a quadrilinear glue-up as the legs will not be symmetrical front-to-back, so the seams on the back side of the cabriole design would show up in all the wrong places anyway. Is a simple, face-to-face glue-up w/ sapele going to be sufficient for a cabriole leg? Or do I need to go back to the drawing board? The grain patterns on the stock I'm working with are fairly consistent.

Apologies for the novel, but these design decisions have proven difficult to figure out on my own, so any advice is greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Woody

Current Leg Mockup
IMG_5811.JPG

Six Leg Example
IMG_5806.JPG

[johnny means]

I see no reason why four legs wouldn't suffice, it's not that large of a table. Personally, I think six legs would look busy.

[Brian Tymchak]

Brett, here are my thoughts on your questions.

So my problem is as follows. I've committed to making a coffee table out of a far-too-large pane of leaded glass that has lost its seal and is to be re-purposed. It's a beautiful piece, but it's massive, 67" x 22".

The primary factor in the design will be the weight of this glass panel. All the design decisions need to take this into account. If the panel is supported at the edges, will the panel support itself in the center without sagging?

1) For a coffee table of this size, will four legs be sufficient? I'm currently leaning toward a six leg design, but my google-foo has yet to surface any sort of rules-of-thumb or best practices when it comes to this sort of thing.

4 legs are sufficient if the aprons are wide and thick enough to support the weight without sagging. For esthetics, really wide and thick aprons with a 4 leg design might not look as refined as a 6 leg design with thinner aprons. There is an online tool called Sagulator that helps to calculate sag in wood. I don't have the link immediately available but should be easy to Google up.

2) Besides the main skirt/apron that will support the glass top and to which the legs will be affixed, does the size of this design dictate that secondary stretchers be included? It's only a 16" tall piece, which I would think would be more of a factor than the length and width of the piece, so I'm thinking this would be unnecessary. But again, my google-foo is failing me in ascertaining this kind of best practice principal.

I think this will depend on the size and quality of the joinery of the aprons to the legs, to counteract sag. And maybe to some degree the thickness of the legs at their narrowest point. Not sure how to make a decision like this other than to try a mock up of some sort to see how it might behave with the weight of the top.

3) Leg stock. I've struggled with this from the start. I just have NOT been able to find solid, 4x4 (darker) hardwood stock within reason, so I've landed on some sapele that I found at my local lumber yard that I'm going to have to glue up. From what I can tell, sapele should darken up pretty well with some danish oil, and these are close to 8/4 stock, so should utlimately get me where I want to be after lamination. I'm pretty sure I've determined that the cabriole design rules out a quadrilinear glue-up as the legs will not be symmetrical front-to-back, so the seams on the back side of the cabriole design would show up in all the wrong places anyway. Is a simple, face-to-face glue-up w/ sapele going to be sufficient for a cabriole leg? Or do I need to go back to the drawing board? The grain patterns on the stock I'm working with are fairly consistent.

Pretty sure I can find 16/4 walnut here around Columbus. I would bet you can find it at a sawmill around Cinci.