Regular dominos or connectors for this?

[bwehman]

I'm kind of stumped and need some advice on attaching the legs. I was originally thinking two rows of dominos per leg, with the center two being connectors, and the outer 4 being regular dominos with the table-side being drilled on the wide setting to accommodate movement.

But then I was thinking two things -

1. Do I even need to accommodate for movement with the grain orientation of the table top and legs being the same?

2. It would be nice not having a connector access hole showing on the outward facing sides of the legs, can I get away with one single connector per leg?

3. Are connectors even necessary here? Should I just glue up using regular dominos? I figured connectors would let me easily disconnect the legs in the event I need to do maintenance, like re-flatten, over the years.

Help lol.

 

[ChuckM]

You're right that there's no need for the use of connectors here, unless you want the top to be disassembled from the legs at some point for some reason. The domino joinery will not be restricting the movement of the top along its edges.

 

[cpw]

If you were to use connectors, I would use them only on the inside face.  They draw the two pieces together, but you a number of need substantial regular wood dominos will prevent the legs from racking in this piece.

 

[ChuckM]

[member=63643]cpw[/member] got a good point.

Perhaps add a stretcher if the legs have no room for more dominoes, or use bigger legs to avoid racking:

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[bwehman]

[member=63643]cpw[/member] got a good point.

Perhaps add a stretcher if the legs have no room for more dominoes, or use bigger legs to avoid racking:

[attachimg=1]

Yeeees yes that’s the plan. Appreciate the reminder though!

 

[ear3]

[member=60792]bwehman[/member] Another option that I've used on similar designs where the legs are mainly secured via domino is to notch the top of the leg with a dado stack and then add small cross pieces (attached to the leg through the top) that can then be screwed into the base from the underside once it's clamped in place.  It helped to ensure the legs stayed square to the top.  You should not have an issue with movement given that the grain of the legs follows that of the top.
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