Table-style bathroom vanity

[joelpat]

I am designing and building this bathroom vanity for my new basement bath, and it is my first piece of furniture.

So first off, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the overall design. It’s going in a subway tile bath. The trim work throughout the house is very square, not a lot of ornamentation.

Most importantly, I’d like to hear your suggestions on how to manufacture the legs. They are a simple 3” square, no taper. My stock is 4/4 african mahogany. Most of the legs will be visible from two sides, and I’m a bit worried that the seams will be really visible if I simply laminate up the stock. On the other hand, I'm a bit concerned about trying to get perfect miters on all four sides. I have a decent table saw and pretty good skills, but it seems like there isn't much margin for error with that method.

Should I:

• Just laminate four pieces and trim it up.
• Miter two edges and laminate the hidden sides
• Miter all four sides.

The inspiration was a vanity that I saw in Fine Homebuilding.

[Jamie Buxton]

I'd miter all four corners. I don't like seeing those lamination seams. Mitering all four corners isn't as challenging as you might think. You set the fence to miter all four planks at the same time, so they automatically come out the same width. You can glue them up with the blue tape method, and it generally works okay.

[Kent Parker]

As per your #3 example, you could increase the size of the "core" of the legs and use thinner planks of your mahogany on the outside, say 1/4" or 3/8" which may be easier for you to fine tune a ruff cut miter.

Given the utilitarian design, A glue seam really would not be too noticable.

I like the design

Cheers,

KP

[Jamie Buxton]

Blue tape method....

Bevel the long edges. Lay out the four pieces with the inside faces down, and the bevel points touching. Run a strip of masking tape down each seam. It will be a hinge. Add a fourth piece of tape, hanging halfway off one of the edges. Flip the assembly over. Put glue on all the miter faces. Roll up, closing all the miter joints. The halfway-off piece of tape completes the roll. There's no clamps involved. Wait for the glue to dry, remove the tape, and you're done.

Finer points...

Real 45 degree bevels are good. Dry assemble a post, and you can see if your table saw really makes 45 degree bevels. If it doesn't, you might want to tweak the 45 degree stop.

When you put the tape on, be sure that the tips of the wood just touch. A gap will result in a wide glue line.

After you roll the post up, double check to see that the points of the bevels meet exactly. If one appears to be overhanging the corner, something isn't quite right. A little overhang may be tolerable, but a lot probably isn't.

You can also double check the rolled-up post with a square.

[Dewey Torres]

Let me try to offer what I consider to be a much easier solution of which there are tons of examples.

Choice "A"

but....

1/16 veneer on opposing sides over the exposed lamination and flush trim after glue up:

I just completed a near carbon copy of those legs for the Morris chair. It was easy and accurate:

Look through this thread for examples. Also in my album in my profile:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=85886

[joelpat]

You can glue them up with the blue tape method, and it generally works okay.

Which would be better: blue tape method or biscuits?