Part 4. Assembling the end panels. The end panels are essentially straightforward, gluing legs and rails together. However, there are some idiosyncrasies that come with this table’s design. Legs are 60mmx60mm Red Gum squares and are cut at a 5 degree angle top and bottom to splay outward when the table is finished. The top rail was cut to length and then dominoed at the center of the rail depth with two dominoes at each end. I used 6x40mm. I like to give the rail a slightly recessed look against the leg, so I cut the leg mortise a further 3-5mm over and above the center cut for the rail. This way, the rail sits back from the leg face by 3-5mm and adds a feeling of depth and solidity to the piece.

The bottom rail was initially going to be in the form of a through tenon. Ultimately. I decided against this as it seemed superfluous to the design. However it is worth showing the options I had for constructing this joint, or facsimile thereof. a). Creating a through mortise with the Domino. The Domino, while having a cut depth of 28mm maximum can still easily make a mortise to any width and to a certain degree, height. To make a through mortise, mark the lowest point for the mortise up from the bottom of the leg. Then mark up 16mm from that point. As you will be using the Domino at the maximum cut width, which is 32mm, this will be the center for the first cut. Mark up 32mm again from this point and so on until you reach the desired width of the mortise. Remember that the final mark should be 16mm down from where you want to finish the cut. Here the pencil lines used for the Domino through mortise.

By cutting according to the marks, a mortise to the depth of 28mm can be made. As the marks drawn in plotting out are made right across the face of the leg, the leg end only be reversed and the cutting procedure repeated. If the desired mortise is to be more than 56mm deep, some clean up will be necessary at the center of the joint. Overlapping cuts will remove any “peaks” resulting from the pendular motion of the cutter. Fig. 16 shows two through mortises, one using the Domino (right) and one using the Leigh FMT (left).

b). Making a faux through mortise with the Domino, Leigh FMT or manually. Rather than cutting a complete through mortise, a faux joint can be made using either a shallow M&T joint to a shallow depth, or simply using Dominoes to hold two pieces of timber to the leg. The result is the same as a through tenon joint cosmetically, but does not function as a real through tenon joint. These photos show the mortise and tenon cut on the FMT.

Made on the FMT.

Whichever is used, the rail is centered on the leg. From here it is a simple matter to glue each piece in place and allowing them to dry. This pic shows the end panel complete.

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