# How did they do this??



## Mcrumd (11 mo ago)

Hi all. First time poster. 

My wife sent me this picture of a nice open shelf vanity she’d like me to build. I’m trying to determine how they attached the legs as they are flush with the front of the cabinet. How did they attach underneath the skirt? I’m new to woodworking and would love to lean on this community for any thoughts or direction you may have.

Much appreciate!
Mike


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## Dave McCann (Jun 21, 2020)

Most accurate information would be obtained by looking at the underside/reverse face of what is shown in the photo.


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## BigCountry79 (Jun 2, 2021)

It is only speculation if we guessed at how they were attached. Given it's a photo of a vanity on the internet, you can't know how sturdy it is.
The most secure joint to get the apron going to the outside of the legs is a bridle joint. 

If I were to do it, I would make the legs extend to the top of the apron, and mortise the apron into the legs.


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## Tony B (Jul 30, 2008)

Difficult to tell from that photo even when I blow it up. Anyway, my best guess looking at the photo, it looks like the top rail is flush with the legs, not overlapping. basically, you would have to remove the thickness of the top rail from the top of the leg to lay the rail in flush. This can be done by hand with a handsaw, chisels, dado blade on table saw or a router mounted on a router table. For a more modern look, I would go with @BigCountry79 and use mortise and tenon joinery.
These are just a few options, there are many more.


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## Jim Frye (Aug 24, 2016)

Best guess is that the legs have a wide rabbit cut in them to allow the face of the apron to sit flush with the faces of the legs. I am currently building a table where the aprons sit flush with the corner posts. After the glue had cured, I pinned the joins with bamboo pins inserted diagonally from the back to lock the joints, but screws would work also. There may be diagonal corner blocks that are screwed to the aprons and the legs to strengthen the structure also, but there is no way of knowing that from the picture. This is how I did my table and the table saw setup to cut the wide rabbits.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

Jim, why are there 1/4" ...? gaps above the stretchers and below the aprons on the legs? The benefit you get from recessing those horizontal pieces is from the tight shoulders form by the legs which prevent racking. It's almost as good as a morise and tenon, but that won't work for a flush condition.
What am I missing?

As to the original question, that open bottom vanity screams "messy" with drain pipes showing and a trash can. Great for a small table where your legs need to go under, but for a vanity ???


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## Jim Frye (Aug 24, 2016)

Those grooves will receive cock bead style trim later on to terminate the veining on the corner posts. Here's the current state of the project. I will do the drawer next and then the corner post trim. The top will be last.

added thoughts. All of the joins in this piece are pinned with multiple angled pins and the top and bottom ends of the corner posts are surrounded on at least three sides by pinned structure to strengthen against racking. In addition, the grooves for the trim are only 1/2" deep while the rabbits for the aprons and stretchers are milled 3/4" deep so they are resting on 1/4" deep lands as shown in the earlier pictures. Just trying to make things as strong as possible.


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## Rebelwork (Jan 15, 2012)

It's not an unusual technique. I used it in my work bench..


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Basic way would be like this, with either a butt joint or miter joint on aprons:


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## ereams65 (Dec 16, 2021)

I'm also on the side of "its a rabbit".


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## DrRobert (Apr 27, 2015)

Hey Jim, is that an old Raleigh the backround?


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## Jim Frye (Aug 24, 2016)

DrRobert said:


> Hey Jim, is that an old Raleigh the backround?


Yes it is! 1972 Raleigh Super Course. I bought it in 1975 for $75 from a kid who had trashed it. I bought it to use as a commute bike. It has a hand built Reynolds 531 double butted frame (all 9 tubes). In 1985, I stripped it (literally), had a local frame builder add some braze ons, painted in Imron, and I redid the drive train as a custom 15 speed. I wrote to Raleigh with the serial number and they sent me a big envelope of decals for the repainted frame. The frame was originally a metallic coffee color, but I went for a metallic green to go with the gold pin striping.


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