Joinery

[misterstockwell]

I am making some end tables for my wife out of this 2" thick walnut. She wants it to be in a C-shaped... Two horizontal slabs and one vertical piece connecting them at one edge, if that makes sense. My plan was to use my dowelmax and dowel up the adjoining surfaces and just glue it up. I worry a bit about it holding-should I? Any alternatives you might suggest for joining the pieces? (pic to follow in next post)

Thanks

[misterstockwell]

Here are the slabs on the trusty ping pong table and my incredibly artistic representation of the C-shape.

[jteneyck]

I'd use big finger joints, but I would think a 1/2" x 1-1/2" L dowel every inch or so would be fine.  If I wanted the grain to flow around the corner with no exposed end grain, I'd mill mortises in the ends of the mating parts, miter the ends at 45°, and then glue them up using L-shaped Baltic birch plywood tenons.  

John

[Hank Knight]

I've seen modern chairs made in the same configuration using box joints (large finger joints). I've wondered about the strength of the joinery; but it must be strong enough to work on chairs, so it would probably work for your tables.

[Phil Thien]

The Dowel-Max can do it, it will be plenty strong.

[Rob Young]

I'd use big finger joints, but I would think a 1/2" x 1-1/2" L dowel every inch or so would be fine.  If I wanted the grain to flow around the corner with no exposed end grain, I'd mill mortises in the ends of the mating parts, miter the ends at 45°, and then glue them up using L-shaped Baltic birch plywood tenons.  

John

This (but I'm not sure the DM can do 1/2" dowels, but it can certainly space a lot of them evenly).

The design as scribbled above has a lot of exposed endgrain and personally, I don't think that will look good.  Especially walnut as it will be much, much darker once you apply a finish.  Even the usual tricks of sanding endgrain a few grits higher and sealing with shellac, it always looks much darker.  To me, the face grain of walnut is where the visual impact lies.

So mitering the ends makes sense.  And hidden spline joinery is pretty strong.

Just don't let anybody sit on this like a chair...

[jteneyck]

I have to agree; grain flowing continuously around the corner would look a lot more refined.  But I didn't mean to imply using a spline joints.  That wouldn't be nearly strong enough for someone sitting on it, as you said, and you just know, sooner or later, someone will.  What I was trying to say was to mill mortises in the ends of the mating surfaces, something like 2-1/2" deep by 1/2" W x 1-1/4" high for 1-3/4" thick stock, then miter the ends.  Now you make L-shaped (right angle) loose tenons from 1/2" Baltic birch plywood or aluminum.  I'd probably put a tenon every 3" or so.  Glue it up with epoxy and you can dance on it. 

There was an excellent article in FWW on this a year or two ago. 

John

[Rob Young]

I have to agree; grain flowing continuously around the corner would look a lot more refined.  But I didn't mean to imply using a spline joints.  That wouldn't be nearly strong enough for someone sitting on it, as you said, and you just know, sooner or later, someone will.  What I was trying to say was to mill mortises in the ends of the mating surfaces, something like 2-1/2" deep by 1/2" W x 1-1/4" high for 1-3/4" thick stock, then miter the ends.  Now you make L-shaped (right angle) loose tenons from 1/2" Baltic birch plywood or aluminum.  I'd probably put a tenon every 3" or so.  Glue it up with epoxy and you can dance on it. 

There was an excellent article in FWW on this a year or two ago. 

John

Yep.

I believe I've seen the right-angle gizmos called splines in older articles.  Really more of a loose tenon approach. 

A proper epoxy, not that 5-minute junk.

[misterstockwell]

In the end, I went with a single row of dowels and it is plenty strong. It's not the most refined piece, but it works! Thanks for all your suggestions.

[Gary G™]

Turned out fine.
Nice.