I am making an office chair with pedestal style legs (central post, legs going out at 90 degrees at the bottom). Sam Maloof’s video shows the type in connection with his table leg construction. (or the office swivel chairs in the Thos. Moser catalogues.) He uses splines to connect the legs to the central post, but he never goes into the miter at the leg itself.
Does anyone know if these mitered joints are tenoned? dovetailed? bolted? other?
Obviously strength is the biggest concern, all the weight is going down to them and simple end grain to end grain miters is not going to cut it.
Thanks
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All of the ones I've seen used sliding dovetails.
Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.
For tables, yes, dovetails are the norm. (Norm!)But are they strong enough for a person's weight? Plus, I don't think that's what Maloof uses. I could be wrong, but I didn't think dovetails were big in his arsenal.I may end up using DTs in the end, but I wanted to see if there was a better way.
A well-fit sliding dovetail is incredibly strong, in all directions. And in the case of the type of leg joinery you describe, it it the best choice.
As for Sam Maloof's tables....... He has done a type of 'pedestal base' in which he uses four flat pieces, all butt-joined at the vertical center -- an overhead-view drawing would look somewhat like a cross.
But in that design, there is no center "leg" to which the flat pieces are joined - they are simply joined to each other.
Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.
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