tapered legs with a shelf

[justin sherriff]

I am making a end table similar to this.
end table 2.jpg
I am not sure if I should or have the tools to mortise the shelf into the legs.
Or I could notch the shelf to the legs and just use pocket holes.

[Frederick Skelly]

I'd mortise it, but I have the tools. I wouldn't like pocket holes in this application, though they'd certainly work. Have you considered dowells? Or to let the shelf float, rather than be structural? You could float it pretty easily by installing a short dowel in each corner, leaving about a half inch protruding so the shelf could sit on top. You could pretty-up the dowell's protruding end by whittling it round.

Just a couple ideas to kick around. Hope it helps!
Fred

[Lee Schierer]

Morticing the shelf into the legs isn't going to be very strong. Typically, the shelf would be held by dowels. This is a perfect application for pocket hole screws from the under side of the shelf. If you don't want to see the pockets, they can be filled with matching wood dowels glued in place and then flush cut.

[Bradley Gray]

How will you be joining the framing above and below the drawer to the legs? I would want to do something similar for the shelf so it could all be done in one step.

I would also layout and cut the notch, mortise, or dowel hole before tapering the legs.

[Wayne Lomman]

Use the same joint as for the upper rails as Bradley says. He is also correct in saying do the joint before tapering. Makes the set up heaps easier. Cheers

[Shawn Pixley]

Morticing the shelf into the legs isn't going to be very strong. Typically, the shelf would be held by dowels. This is a perfect application for pocket hole screws from the under side of the shelf. If you don't want to see the pockets, they can be filled with matching wood dowels glued in place and then flush cut.

Hold on. Mortise and tenon wouldn't be strong but dowels would? I don't buy it. I can certainly make a M&T joint for a shelf to tapered that would have more long grain to long grain surface area than a circular dowel. Admittedly, I'll cute them with hand tools (as is my prediliction). I can see how to do it easily with a mortiser as well. The trick to me is fitting the taper to the shoulder of the tenon on the shelf. Pinning the M&T or wedging it would be stronger still. They certainly had M&T joints in tapered legs long before dowels.

That said dowels or pocket screws are faster and easier. Stronger, no. But it probably doesn't matter in a practical sense.

[justin sherriff]

How will you be joining the framing above and below the drawer to the legs? I would want to do something similar for the shelf so it could all be done in one step.

I would also layout and cut the notch, mortise, or dowel hole before tapering the legs.

I was going to M&T the side and back aprons but I cut them short so I used biscuits. The front will be the drawer with no bottom rail. Looking to maximize the drawer size.

Cutting be for I taper the legs does sound a lot more doable.

[Jamie Buxton]

Is the shelf solid lumber? If so, you should fasten it to the table with some room to expand and contract across the grain. I'm guessing the table sides have grain direction running back-to-front, so there's no expansion in that direction, and the leg to leg spacing will not change. Because of that, I would run rails front to rear below the shelf. The rails' length does not change, like the table sides above them. The rails M&T into the legs, on a nice flat face, so that isn't a challenging joint to cut. The shelf just fastens down to the rails. You could use figure-8 plates, or table buttons, or even oval through-holes in the rails.