Originally Posted by
Curt Putnam
Stan, thanks for that excellent analysis although I don't buy it entirely. For example, how often does one load in material that clearly off-center so as to weaken the joint? Not arguing, just raising an eyebrow. Ok. not wanting to beat an irrelevant baby, what is your opinion of: a split top bench (don't argue about the split top) with leg vise on left (I'm a righty) with one housed tenon (square, round, or rectangular) and an exposed rectangular chunk of leg. Since it is a split top the housed tenon would have to be part of the transverse bearer upon which the top sits.
I like the exposed tenon idea because less than perfectly executed mortises and/or their tenons would probably result in a weaker bench than my "proposal" (I'm quite sure that no one has done a formal study of the various loadings and likelihoods of resisting damage.) Twin tenons at the other corners make sense although a 1" square spline across the transverse bearer would totally stop movement in the long dimension and a couple wedges would stop it the other way. I might even have to spring for the Benchcrafted plans to see how they do it.