3-way miter with a half-lap

[Christopher Juncosa]

Trying to work out a 3-way miter and wanted to bounce the design off you guys. Its sort of unique in the sense that the joints Ive seen have all three components the same dimension, 2x2, or whatever. In this case the table leg is 2x2 but will mate with 2 separate aprons each at 1" (half the leg thickness.) The front apron is mitered, the 'rear-apron' is M&T into the leg. The reason for this is to replicate a table design from Create and Barrel, their parsons table . Also I think with this design I could get some added strength with the half-lap but not sure. Anyway, what do you guys think? Looks pretty straight forward as far as fab as well which is nice. How well do you think this would support ~3 adults as a standalone joint for the a bench seat, 64" long? Ill probably dry-fit the joint then see how strong it is, then maybe add some more bracing is racking is an issue. The boss isn't a fan of stretchers for this design so Im trying to avoid it.

Feedback would be appreciated!

3-way Miter collapsed.jpg3-way Miter.jpg3-way Miter detail1.jpg

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[Dave Richards]

I made a quick model of what I saw in your images to get a better look.

It would certainly be easier to cut the joints on the rails if you are going to laminate them from two pieces. I think the strength will be adequate. The hardest part will be excavating the leg between the square extended part and the mitered part. Some hand work will be required. What about laminating the legs, too? Maybe like this?

[Wayne Lomman]

The joint concept looks good and I like the way it will produce a minimalist look. The work involved is enough of a challenge to be interesting. However, I am concerned about the strength of the overall design. It is perfect for something to look at and use lightly, but not so good for a bench seating 3 adults. By comparison, a single dining chair has nominal 2 x 2 legs. The bench would take a passive load but if someone kicked a leg, what would happen?

As I said, it looks great but needs additional strength designed in. Hidden steel may be your friend. Cheers

[Christopher Juncosa]

I made a quick model of what I saw in your images to get a better look.

It would certainly be easier to cut the joints on the rails if you are going to laminate them from two pieces. I think the strength will be adequate. The hardest part will be excavating the leg between the square extended part and the mitered part. Some hand work will be required. What about laminating the legs, too? Maybe like this?

Yeah, that looks like a good way to come at it. The only issue I see is the practicality of the stock size. With 2" being the final dimension the leg core is then 1.5" with the 'face' lamination being 1/2 which now would really look great with a mitered corner up the leg to hide the seem. Lots of work. Plus Id have to start with 8/4 stock for the core of the leg, then get 4/4 for the face. Anyway, some practical considerations for that design. Actually (sort of thinking out loud), you have it mocked up as a 1/2, 3/2 laminate, but it could be done as (2) 1" laminates just like the rails and cutting the waste on the TS and the leg core is just a 1" post with the mortises. That would be very clean.

What did you use to do the sketch? I was having a hard time presenting the design in sketchup once it was done, yours looks quite nice! Thanks!

[Christopher Juncosa]

The joint concept looks good and I like the way it will produce a minimalist look. The work involved is enough of a challenge to be interesting. However, I am concerned about the strength of the overall design. It is perfect for something to look at and use lightly, but not so good for a bench seating 3 adults. By comparison, a single dining chair has nominal 2 x 2 legs. The bench would take a passive load but if someone kicked a leg, what would happen?

As I said, it looks great but needs additional strength designed in. Hidden steel may be your friend. Cheers

How would you suggest doing that? Just some angle brackets? I was probably going to reinforce the frame and leg with either some blocking or something else. Truthfully hadn't gotten that far as I wanted to see what I was dealing with first. Thanks for the input!

[Dave Richards]

Yes, the leg could be done with 1 in. thick pieces. I think you'd still have issues with cutting it as two pieces. Three 1-in. thick pieces would be easier.

What did you use to do the sketch? I was having a hard time presenting the design in sketchup once it was done, yours looks quite nice! Thanks!

Thank you! It's just SketchUp. I used a sketchy line style I created and a pair of image exports that were combined quickly in an image editor.

Edit to add: modified to show three 1 in. thick pieces.

[Wayne Lomman]

I see two ways to address structural integrity. Firstly, you could do a conventional mortise and tenon structure and use hand cut veneer to create the mitres. This will be strong and still have the appearance you ate looking for.

The other way is to weld up a frame out of RHS and skin it with 3/8" timber in the appropriate style with mitres etc.

Despite my advocacy for steel, I think the m&t method is the better way. Cheers