Three legged table base question

[jorgoz]

I'm working on the first piece of furniture for myself, it's daft how little you get to do for yourself. It will be a circular table with a three-leged base. The base will consist of 3 tapered round legs and 3 cross pieces.

I was thinking of connecting the stretcher with 6 half lap notches, but that would half the stretchers in width. Stretchers will be about 4 inches, originaly i wanted to go with 3 inches, but then the half lap nothces will become quite weak i think. How would i connect the 3 crosspieces for maximum strenght keeping it simple.

Small picture to clarify, i'm no big drawing expert but you'll get the drift,

 

[Mattty]

Half lap would be the way i think. You could have loose tenons going right through connecting both pieces, but this would be very fiddly- i dont think dominos would do it even if you had one.
I think it may look better each rail terminating rather than going through. I do like the idea though, there is a lot of scope for exploration.

 

[jorgoz]

Strenght wise i think going through would make it stronger, but having the rails not go through and use a couple of small wedged tenons might be an idea, loose tenon will not have much strenght as it's a long grain to end grain joint. I have no domino machine.

In my sketch i've got the rails running through the legs as well, the part that will poke through will be undercut so it angles towards the legs. The legs are in a 4° angle to the rails and will be pegged. The top is elevated on the rails to give it a floating feel, might not see the floating though. Legs go to about 3 inches from the edge of the top. Sketch was for a 4 legged table though, but i messed up one leg so far due to a router collet problem :roll:, and necessity brings new ideas or how does the saying go ? The tabletop's edge will be slanted slightly inward, giving the top a less bulky feel.

 

[Mattty]

Strenght wise i think going through would make it stronger, but having the rails not go through and use a couple of small wedged tenons might be an idea, loose tenon will not have much strenght as it's a long grain to end grain joint. I have no domino machine.

In my sketch i've got the rails running through the legs as well, the part that will poke through will be undercut so it angles towards the legs. The legs are in a 4° angle to the rails and will be pegged. The top is elevated on the rails to give it a floating feel, might not see the floating though. Legs go to about 3 inches from the edge of the top. Sketch was for a 4 legged table though, but i messed up one leg so far due to a router collet problem :roll:, and necessity brings new ideas or how does the saying go ? The tabletop's edge will be slanted slightly inward, giving the top a less bulky feel.

Loose tenons would be a strong joint, long grain to long grain.

The wedged tenons could be nice if you make a feature of them.

Dont mess up any more legs!

 

[jorgoz]

Matt, if i'm not mistaking it is a long grain - end grain joint. 1 is end grain at about 60° and 2 is long grain, and so forth or am i missing something. A loose tenon would have an long grain-long grain joint in 2, but it would be end-grain for the rail and long grain for the loose tenon in 1. Dimension of rails about 4" x 1". Or am i missing something completely.

I forgot to mention that i would prefer to be able to disassemble the base, but not absolutely necessary.

I did make an extra leg, but i like the 3 legs base more, maybe it was just supposed to happen :wink:

 

[Mattty]

I posted a reply but it seems to have disapeared.

Ok on your drawing.
Component would be 1 piece, until it strikes component 4. The end of no1 (no3) would be a seperate piece.
I was suggesting you could put 1 long loose tenon through no4 and into the ends of 1&3. This would be a good strong joint.
Do the other 2 esactly the same. It would be very time consuming though and not easily made to be taken apart.

I would almost certainly make this with half lap joints, with the current design, or M&T construction if you lose the little end pieces.

 

[jorgoz]

As i'm already pegging, drawboring the legs, i could go for a pegged housed dado joint if i loose the end pieces. That would be kiss, no taking apart though.