# Unsure how to glue this up



## adjhart17 (Sep 24, 2021)

Below I have 8 pieces dry fitted: (assembly is upside down)

it’s for a small end table, the top of which is pictured behind.

I tried and failed once to glue this up already and wasn’t able to get it square.

that was before I spent an hour looking at it trying to visualize how I’d go about it…but between the 45 degree angles and knocking over legs it feels like a seasoned vet would be taking a better approach.

what would you guys do to join these 8 pieces without fasteners?









super new here, thx for any advice 👍


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## Pretender (Jun 22, 2019)

Are you using any kind of joinery or are you trying to use but joints?
Your description suggests but joints. If so, you will need some sort of fastener.
Even then it wont be very stable.
You can cut some mortices and use loose tenons. That will add stability.
Then bar clamps will work fine.


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## Tony B (Jul 30, 2008)

Ditto


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## TwelveFoot (Dec 30, 2015)

Drill and put dowels in to ad strength and alignment?


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## adjhart17 (Sep 24, 2021)

Ok thanks - I was thinking that mortise and tenons would be ideal. Just haven’t done it enough to be confident especially on a beveled edge.

Think brad nails will suffice?


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## adjhart17 (Sep 24, 2021)

TwelveFoot said:


> Drill and put dowels in to ad strength and alignment?


thanks I actually like that idea a lot…may consider going for that


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## BigCountry79 (Jun 2, 2021)

adjhart17 said:


> Think brad nails will suffice?


Definitely not. I recommend dowels.


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## Dave McCann (Jun 21, 2020)

adjhart17 said:


> what would you guys do to join these 8 pieces without fasteners?


Are you working from a set of plans? What did the plans (yours or from someone else) call for?


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## B Coll (Nov 2, 2019)

adjhart17 said:


> Below I have 8 pieces dry fitted: (assembly is upside down)
> 
> it’s for a small end table, the top of which is pictured behind.
> 
> ...


Agree you will need some type of tenon for strength and alignment. The easiest would probably be splines or loose tenons. Once you have splines or tenons a strap clamp will pull it all together. You may need some additional clamps to keep it flush on the top surface and square. Check your diagonals throughout the process to maintain square.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

adjhart17 said:


> Below I have 8 pieces dry fitted: (assembly is upside down)
> 
> it’s for a small end table, the top of which is pictured behind.
> 
> ...


Your main problem is that when any clamping pressure is applied all the 45 degree bevels will act as slip joints and slide off their intended locations. Even with a "band clamp" it may still happen. The solution is to use glue stop blocks on the sides of all 4 corners so they can't slip. Make a small leg section the same as your finish ones, and use that as a locator for the stop blocks, OR you can measure and hope you get it right?
There are alternatives to mortise and tenon which are used by some of our members here:








Leg Brace Alternative Method Challenge


http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f2/best-way-connect-2x4s-like-32744/index2/ Inspired and also perplexed...."scratchin" my head how to make them" by Lola Ranch's brace, mdntrdr and I decided, to post a challenge as to how to make them,from this: This one, actually 2, was done entirely on...




www.woodworkingtalk.com


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## adjhart17 (Sep 24, 2021)

No plans, just kind of wingin’ it. It’s a ‘learning’ piece 😅. 
Thanks for the replies. I was considering some dowels but when messing with it again I figured I could try to make a kind of form on the inside to keep the pieces from moving, but that still wouldn’t give me strength.

I may be favoring a type of leg brace now. I saw some videos last night where someone did it and now with this link from Woodnthings I’m pretty confident I can have success with that.,

I’ll update 👍


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## Tony B (Jul 30, 2008)

Be ware of videos on Youtube. Quite often the 'woodworker' appears to be very knowledgeable but in reality, could not find his own butt with both hands. The shame of is that most of these hacks are really good artists. Once you learn woodworking, you will know what I am saying.


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## jdonhowe (Jul 25, 2014)

Do I dare suggest biscuits?


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## Tony B (Jul 30, 2008)

Beyond lining up boards for edge joining/gluing, I personally don't think that biscuits serve any other purpose.


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## Kerrys (May 2, 2016)

I am more concerned with the knots in the top of two of the legs. One looks as if it through out the entire leg and has a large check. On the other leg the knot isn’t as large but still dominated the top of the leg and is also checked.

Edit: after looking closer at the photo all four legs have knots and checks at the joining area.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

Another way to make this easier to glue up without have it slide apart under clamping pressure is:
Eliminate the bevels on the aprons.
Make the ends square to the side and but them into "pockets" chiseled into the legs.
You'll still have a glue line just as now, but that's inevitable.
You will have considerable difficulty chiseling into those hard knots, however.
Anything you can do to have square joints mating to one another, not bevels, will help.
Dowels will be tricky because of the holes on a bevel, UNLESS you drill the holes first, then cut the bevels!


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

If it were me I would just butt joint it and glue and nail it together. Then put glue blocks on the back side with screws. More important than anything I would thoroughly sand all the parts before you assemble it. It will be really difficult to sand once assembled.


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## kwoodhands (May 1, 2020)

adjhart17 said:


> Below I have 8 pieces dry fitted: (assembly is upside down)
> 
> it’s for a small end table, the top of which is pictured behind.
> 
> ...


Fasten a scrap board to a base . Clamp the rail to it. Fasten another piece at a 45° angle at each end of the first board. Each leg sits tight to the 45° scraps. You can screw and glue or MT . In your case I would screw the legs to the rails. Bore pilot holes and countersink both ends of each hole. The second countersink leaves a small shallow for any dust from screwing the leg. Make sure the screws are the correct length, you are screwing the leg to the rail and if the screws are too long they will pop thru the rail. Dry fit and bore into the rail from the leg so the screw goes in easy. 
Brush glue on the parts and screw them together. The screws will not be seen when all is said and done.
Now you have two legs and one rail finished. Repeat for the other side. Make 4 glue blocks for the inside. 
Clamp each rail to a scrap, Make sure the scraps are square to each other and a couple of inches less in length to accomadate the glue blocks. 
Now you can glue the other two rails to the legs. Let it dry, then add the glue blocks.
I mentioned this method because it does not involve mortise & tenon or dowels.
mike


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## JohnGi (May 9, 2019)

Lots of good suggestions on construction. Woodnthings' corner block construction looked picture perfect. In terms of clamping up a table like this so everything ends up square, I've had success with this method.
The base frame is held together with 4 dowels at the corners, squared up, and clamped to a flat bench. The legs have dowels holes in the bottom ends that were previously used to index them in a machining operation.










With the bottom ends of the legs firmly held in place, clamping the top becomes manageable. The lower portions of these table aprons miter to the legs, but at the top the ends miter to each other. Two way clamping is needed to get that all tight both ways all around at the same time. The band clamp bears down on 4 L shaped plywood corner cauls with the outer corner radiused so the band doesn't bind going around them. The open bottom frame allows the vertical bar clamps to be located inside the leg corners. These corner cauls were made just to fit this table. The corners of adjhart17's table would need larger cauls to align the mitered ends of the aprons with the legs.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

OK, some of us like a challenge!
This will work, I promise ......?
Get a scrap piece of plywood at least 4" wider than your table top on all sides.
Mark your shape on the plywood by tracing it with a 1/4" block taped to your pencil in order to leave a 1/4" border.
Cut out your shape with a jig saw. Screw the cutout shape to your workbench which should be flat.
Now there will be a 1/4" gap all the way around your shape into which you will drive wedges after locating the entire assembly inside.
Brush on your glue and start setting your pieces inside the opening, leaving the wedges out until all the pieces are in place.
Insert the wedges so there is an equal gap all around.
This will force the pieces together and none of the bevels can slide off their locations.
After it has set up 24 hrs, you can add glue blocks inside the legs at the corners for added strength.
OK, I haven't done this myself, but I have many years of experience which I am bringing to the "table" here. LOL.


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## adjhart17 (Sep 24, 2021)

Thanks for everyone’s input. I feel like it’s helping a lot to see everyone thinking out loud with their suggestions.

In the end I went with these braces, and I used a middle stretcher to keep my opposite ends parallel.

It was still tricky getting even pressure but the alignment was so much easier.









I know it’s not ideal to have a plywood here like this or knots in my legs, but I only used scrap wood - this is 95% for practice purposes.


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