Trestle/sawhorse table base

[Evan Ryan]

image.jpegimage.jpeg

How do these legs attach to the crossbar?

[Dave Richards]

Screws?

The picture of the legs is too small to see well enough. Do you have a link to the source for them?

I did a model based on a table from the medieval period awhile back. It has wooden trestles instead. The top isn't supposed to be attached to the trestles on that one. The top has battens attached with sliding dovetails. The top just sits on the trestles.

[Evan Ryan]

Dave,
so the angled legs come together and the batten rests on them, or is screwed onto them from the top?
i understand the batten attached to the top with a sliding dovetail, I've seen plans and I've cut a small sliding dovetail for practice.
i do not have the links, these photos are old, medieval(?) tables i found on the web.

[Dave Richards]

Think of the trestles as three-legged sawhorses. The vertical leg is joined to the top rail with a mortise and tenon and the angled legs could be attached with mortises and tenons or could be set into notches in the sides of the rail. If you want, I'll dig up the model when I get home and make an exploded view of it.

The cast iron legs you picture would be newer. It looks to me as if they have a wooden rail screwed to the top. Those screws probably come up from underneath although I can imagine flat head machine screws in countersunk holes with square nuts underneath.