Seeking suggestions for removable table legs

[Stephen Edwards]

A customer has asked me about building a Harvest Table for them. I'd like to offer them the option of having removable legs on the table and am seeking suggestions for different ways to do this.

I'm most interested in using sliding dovetails but welcome other options as well. Some "other options" I already know how to do.

If anyone could direct me to links, or has pics showing the details on a finished project or drawings of the details of sliding dovetails suitable for this application that they could post here, I'd sure appreciate it.

If I get this job and if I use the sliding dovetail option for removable legs, the tools at my disposal for making this joint are: a good router table, plunge and fixed base routers that I could use with shop made jigs, several sizes of dovetail bits and a table saw with good blades. I don't have nor can I buy a commercial "dovetail jig" for this project.

Thus far I haven't been able to find any specific details showing how to do this by searching google or youtube. Again, suggestions, advice, tips, information, etc. would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Stephen Edwards]

Mods, If I've posted this tread in the wrong forum, please move it to the correct one. After receiving no replies I'm beginning to think that I should have posted it either in the design forum or the projects forum.

Thanks for your help.

[doug faist]

Stephen - I'm curious as to why your customer wants removable legs; mobility? storage?

Let us know; it will help with the suggestions.

Doug

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, since I presume that the table has aprons that will be tenoned into the legs, if the legs are turned, I'd make them in two pieces.

The square part could stay attached to the aprons, and the turned part could go into the square part with a round tenon.

A friction fit should be OK if the tenon is large.

Regards, Rod

[Paul Atkins]

I have made a few tables with removable legs and the diagonal brace is the way I do it. This is a table I made over 25 years ago and has been moved, loaned and stored many times. It's still solid as a rock. The skirts are just square ended and the leg is chamfered to fit as they are tapered and splayed a bit plus turned 45 degrees from 'normal'. The hanger bolt goes almost all the way through the top part of the leg and is 3/8" in this case. Being redwood, I needed that, and used a maple block to keep it from compressing or cracking. I can take the legs off in about 5 minutes, and the aprons stay with the table. Hope this helps.

[Stephen Edwards]

Rod: The legs won't be turned, they'll be tapered. The customer wants a very simple design something similar to this:

http://wood.alterra-wv.com/gallery/harvest.htm

However, it's not imperative that the apron be tenoned into the legs. It could be that the apron/band be on the outside of the legs so that legs fit into the inside corners of the apron. I once built a round table like that. The legs were attached to the apron's inside corners with lag bolts so that they could be removed. That worked out well and the table is nearby so I've seen how it has held up over 3 years with no problems. Perhaps that's the way to do this table, too.

Though I can make tenons and know how to do that, I don't have a tool to make a round tenon and don't want to buy that tool. I want to use the tools that I have on hand.

Doug: It really isn't a requirement that the legs be removable. It's just that I'd like to offer that as an option to the customer. He did mention that it might be sometimes used in a different location than where it would normally sit: family reunions, parties, etc. where it may be used outside for large gatherings.

If I get the job, the customer will provide the material. The planks for the top and apron are wide floor boards that were used in a 100+ year old barn loft. He's already cleaned the boards of nails. In fact, he said the boards that he'd be providing had nails only on the ends. They didn't even nail the boards to each rafter, except on the ends. That seems odd but I've seen barns that still exist with floor boards like that, just laying on the joists except for the nails on each end and sometimes a nail on the center of the boards.

The legs would be made of joists or rafters from the same barn. Again, the nails have been removed. I will, of course, check this with a metal detector before proceeding. I've built quite a few pieces with old barnwood already so I'm familiar with working with this material.

So, I'm looking for suggestions and ideas on different ways to approach this project. It may not be practical to use the sliding dovetail option for the removable legs. But, the idea appeals to me enough to consider it.

Thanks for your suggestions and help. I appreciate it.

[Jamie Buxton]

Have you considered a trestle style of table? It is another old style that fits completely into the "harvest table" category. For instance, the tables that the Shakers used are often trestle tables.

One of the nice things about a trestle table is that they can be built to come apart quite easily. The two trestles stand upright, connected by a stretcher. The stretcher can go through through-mortises in the trestles, with a wedge securing it. The wedge can get knocked out to disassemble the table for transport. The trestle/stretcher/trestle base is quite stable, and the top just kinda sits on it. You can devise ways to attach it, but it really doesn't have to be a strong joint. A few screws work just fine. I've even just used cleats to make pockets on the underside of the table top to capture the tops of the trestle, and prevents the top from sliding sideways.

[doug faist]

Jamie - you stole my thought; I'm just getting too slow on the keyboard.

I really like the idea of a trestle table with wedged tenons; the looks are very compatible with a Harvest table and it alleviates the problem of trying to cut a perfect sliding dovetail.

Second the motion.

Doug

[Jim Heffner]

Stephen, a couple of other posters gave you a couple of good ideas...
especially about the trestle table with a thru tenon that is secured with
a wedge block. I think the best idea to consider is this, go and visit some antique dealers in your area and check out their tables and see how they were put together a long time ago. This will give you a good idea of what works and what is best for you to build. Also, take some pictures
from different angles (top, sides, bottom, ) and make some notes this will
make it easier for reference later on.

Another idea, do what I have started doing. When at a restaurant, and waiting for my food order, I look at the furniture there...it not only helps to
pass the time but gives me ideas as to what I may want to build in the future! I like the tables that are old style and solidly built from solid wood
not particle board throw away junk!

[Barry Vabeach]

Steve, I don't have any pictures because the table was kind of ordinary, but I made the 4 legs foldable. I made a wooden u shaped bracket at each end of the table with the open end of the u facing the middle of the table and the closed end facing the end of the table and mounted each leg to the bracket with one bolt, then a glued a stop on the rear of the bracket, and a cut a tapered slot through the front of the U - going through both sides, and made a loose tenon ( like a tusk tenon) that went through the tapered slot and forced the leg straight against the rear stop. If you did this, you could intergrate the u into the apron. It works pretty well in that once you hit the tenons in place, the legs lock in, once you knock the tenons out, the legs fold in towards the center.

[Van Huskey]

I would use a corner brace like Paul showed and put a dovetail between the apron and the leg. The dovetail centers the leg properly with a good deal of mechanical strength and the corner brace holds it all nice and tight. Can't use a standard metal hardware corner brace with the dovetail but the friction block works perfectly here.

As for the dovetail make it as beefy as the stock allows. The blocky part of the leg will be easy to cut on the router table, the apron will be only slightly trickier due to the length of the upright apron particularly the long ones... its jig time!

[Tony Bilello]

They make inexpensive table hardware exactly as the one Paul has made except it is a steel plate, not a wooden block. The ends of the plate fit into saw kerfs made on the aprons.

[Mike Henderson]

They make inexpensive table hardware exactly as the one Paul has made except it is a steel plate, not a wooden block. The ends of the plate fit into saw kerfs made on the aprons.

I've seen a lot of commercial tables made with those metal plates that Tony described. It you want to avoid the metal corner block, I'd do what Paul suggested. Van's suggestion would probably add strength but it will probably be strong enough with just the corner block.

Mike

[Van Huskey]

Van's suggestion would probably add strength but it will probably be strong enough with just the corner block.

Mike

I agree, but I never met a dovetail I didn't like.

Two other things since it is a "commercial" client. The client may or may not appreciate the work that goes into the dovetail (if you get lucky they know just enough to think it is really cool and difficult) AND/OR they might see the metal hardware as a shortcut. Even if I chose to not use the dovetail I would use a purpose built corner block it would be cheaper and take less time to do all 4 than a trip to the hardware store. Speaking of hardware, I know where to get the wood screw/machine screw (they are pretty much everywhere) can't remember seeing one long enough to use through a wooden block, but I have not been looking.

[Stephen Edwards]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I had thought of the trestle solution, too, but the client doesn't want that. He wants 4 legs.

He knows enough about the work to appreciate the dovetail as a detail and "to think it is really cool and difficult". I know that he wouldn't want the metal plates.

Van: I think I understand what you're saying when you say:

"put a dovetail between the apron and the leg. The dovetail centers the leg properly with a good deal of mechanical strength and the corner brace holds it all nice and tight. Can't use a standard metal hardware corner brace with the dovetail but the friction block works perfectly here. "

Do you mean that the "socket" would be routed into the legs and the "pin", I don't what else to call it, would be routed at the ends of the aprons?

So, when it's assembled one wouldn't see the dovetail? Is this correct? Then the corner block kinda snugs every thing up? Man, a wooden screw through that block into the leg would be perfect!

Thanks again.