The table, or if I wanted to make it very epic...the entire blog, has come down to this last bit of joinery: the lap joint for the front leg. I'm excited to say that this joint is a doozy...fun to make / hard to do / the signature of this table. The brass is exciting and different; it's a nice and surprising touch, but ultimately, it's intended to be subtle, to not overwhelm the table. The lap joint on the other hand, with connected through tenon, makes or breaks the piece to me. Because it is such a simple design, what is there really needs to be just right...so I'm crossing my fingers with this, I hope it comes off.
Picking up from the teaser of the previous blog...my template for the lap joint, again using a hand router with bushing:
To make sense of the picture, this is the side of the frame held by my bench vise. The pencil lines correspond to the width of the mortise on the underside. I've centered the cut-out on those two lines, so the lap will be spaced evenly between the mortise.
All routed out...it's a really can't go wrong operation. Dropping the leg into the mortise, you can see that it's both too wide and not flush with the routed face of the lap joint.
First duty is to hand plane the front face of the leg so it is in exactly the same plane as the routed lap joint. This needs to be spot on because of the next step...where I put the legs back together.
About a month ago, before I made the tenon in the legs, I cut off the front half inch of each leg. This was necessary because the front of the leg needed to extend above the tenon for the lap joint. I couldn't make the latter on the table saw with the former in the way, so I bandsawed the leg in half and have finally glued it back together. After the very simple glue up:
See what I mean? I just couldn't have cut that tenon easily without doing it this way. With a little hand planing, I brought it down to the same thickness as the rest of the leg and was ready to start fitting it.
Getting close...
Now rounding the edges a little with a file...a very delicate job, there's no taking back or fixing an over-file.
Closer...
The leg outside of the joint for context...not really closer with this shot, more of a tangential picture.
Close! Fully seated!
Many reveals in this picture...the rounded outside corner, the pillowed leg and the through mortise popping up through the frame. So far so good I think!
Because there aren't any stretchers with this piece (hence the need for a lap joint and a through mortise for extra strength), it's a very simple matter of gluing the legs down individually. I chose to go at it two at a time.
After the glue up, I planed and filed the mortise flush with the rest of the frame. The fit was good without wedges, so I didn't add them.
Seemingly lots of steps in this blog! I've only got one more to share...regarding the glass. Needing to make a template for the glass shop, I cut a piece of masonite to just the right size and with rounded corners. I delivered it last week and should have it by this Tuesday (tomorrow) or Wednesday. 120 dollars later, I'll exchange this out for 1/4" thick glass and I'll be done!
Minus sanding and finishing...but that's easy!