Holding Up the Tabletops

When last we spoke, I had just recognized the rookie mistake of forgetting that my lathe could not accommodate 28” long stock. Which left me with the problem of reimagining what type of legs to use on the two compass tables. (This seems to be a recurring theme with me, see previous posts about the bubinga table.)

I still liked the concept and look of legs that would be mounted at an angle (14-degrees in this case) and I had already prepared 1-1/4” squared-up leg blanks for the turned legs … so I moved back to my sketch pad and got busy.

The characteristics of the table tops featured angled inlay pieces and mitered cherry moldings with a prominent chamfer. The legs I came up with included angled mounting, a matching chamfer and “feet” implied with an angled terminal end.

One version of the full-size leg mockup. Eventually the chamfer would be slightly less pronounced.

It was time for a full-sized mockup which allowed me to see the concept fully and in situ on a table top. I was pleased enough with the mockup to make all eight legs and figure out how to mount them on the tabletops.

Mounting the legs required some blocks and table reinforcement, modified from the original mounting concept for the turned legs.

Once mounted on the tabletop I was less than pleased with the result. The legs looked too spindly and made the whole table look awkward. A fancy way to say this is the negative space of the table was overwhelming the positive space. This likely would have been true with the turned legs I originally had envisioned, so I dodged a bullet there. But fear not, a solution was in the offing.

With the legs mounted to the tabletop they looked spindly and the whole table looked wonky. (That’s a fancy designer term.)

Again, at the sketch pad I drew up some additional parts that would look like braces (while actually providing no additional leg strength) and give the legs more visual weight (eat up some of that negative space). They presented angles that furthered the existing look.

The additional leg “braces” were just the ticket to adding visual weight to the table.

As I clamped the parts in place I was very pleased with how they looked. Almost as if I had planned them! If you compare the images of the tables without the braces and with them in place, I think you can see exactly what I am talking about.

With the leg conundrum solved, the next steps were sanding and finishing.

With the base of the tables taken care of, it was time to sand and apply a finish. All in all, I am very happy with the tables and enjoyed the process of building them, despite my significant goof up. Sometimes when you can’t get what you want, you have to settle for something better.