Corner Joint

Last week I cut off all my dovetail from a frame I have recently built. Here comes why.

I wrote about it a while ago. One of the projects I have on my list is a mid-century phone bench.

It is kind of a honey do project. But I found it is an interesting project and so I simply started to build.

One of the major problems I had to solve was which joint can I use to join legs to a frame at 45°.

I already posted about that.

Now I will solve the riddle.

To cut off the dovetails is the first part of this joint. The second one is to cut a recess like shown below. I won't like to describe it in details here. You can read it easily in the mentioned Hayward article.

Cutting out some details

Above is shown the most awkward part. One can only do very short strokes.

After sawing and paring

Here is how it came out after sawing and paring. Not beautiful, but functional....

Dry fit

And now the exciting moment. Does it fit? The joint has to sit tight but not too tight.

It is seated

I cut away from my lines and then pared carefully to the right dimension.

A perfect 45° jointed leg

I have to trim the legs a little bit more on the front edge. They have been left a bit fat by purpose.

That was already the second one. The first one was not so perfect and I guess I have to shim it a little bit.

Two more legs and joints to go. Prepping is next.....

Wooden jointer in use

By the way. The wooden jointer I had restored is meanwhile heavily in use. And doin' a good job.

A couple of hours later I was done with the last two legs. And the whole construction is looking like shown in the picture below.

All legs jointed

In detail

Jobs a good'un I would say.

What I'm actually thinking about is, if there is any need to enforce the strength of the joint somehow.

I've thought about screws from the inside. Or Hayward is proposing to glue in some blocks left and right from the leg.

In the next phase I will taper the legs and then round over the outside edge.

The top is already made. Last bigger step in the project is to build a drawer box which will be mounted onto the top.

That's all folks.

Let my know your thoughts or questions.

Stay tuned!

Stefan