Square furniture legs with Domino?

[mcooley]

Hi All,

I am preparing to do four square legs for a cabinet style display case. Because of the wood I am using and where I am getting it I will not be able to buy stock thick enough for legs 2.5 inches square. So, I am thinking of mitering each side similar to doing a "lock miter" which will leave a hollow core to each leg. I am curious if anyone has done something similar with their Domino and what type of jig they may have made. The legs are approximately 30 inches long. And except for the "feet" two sides of the legs will be attached directly to the 3/4" plywood carcass of the display case.

My initial thoughts are to build a simple jig for running the track saw at 45 degrees on 2.5" wide stock at about 7/8 thickness, then, simply Domino the miters together leaving the "glue seams" at the corners which should be relatively invisible etc.

Thanks!

 

[roblg3]

I have done that exact process.  It's not as easy as it should be.  This is where i use a table saw now because i had to recut the legs several times because when the track saw is layed over on a 45 it's difficult to keep constant even pressure so the saw doesn't tip off the track enough to mess up the miter.  another choice is to rough the legs close to size including the miter if you want, and then run a chamfer or lock miter on the actual dimension with a router table.  I hope someone knows better ways than I just described.  I'd love to learn a new technique for this.

 

[SMJoinery]

I haven't tried it, but if you over cut the mitres with the track saw to get a clean straight edge and then mitre the corners with the domino backed up with 90 degree fillets internally then any minor variation in the face won't show. The outside edge of the boards will be tight and the dominos and fillets will support the inside face and give the strength.
Lock mitre would be the best way to go but as you know needs careful set up and precisely dimensioned stock.

 

[mcooley]

Thanks for the advice and thoughts everyone. I think I will still try and use the Domino with the track saw. Probably make a jig so the balance issue on the track saw isn't as much an issue. I do wish the track saw performed better in that area though. In my head I sometimes imagine a weight being placed on the open bed of the track saw for aiding in such cuts. In practice though one would want to make sure there was no movement there. Anyhow, I will post more if what I end up doing warrants sharing it here.

m

 

[jacko9]

Thats one way to approach the problem.  Another is to get some straight grain stock and if it's not truly quartered sawn then rip a few good faces and use those on the plain sawn sides of a glued up leg stock.  With rift or quartered sawn on all four sides the glue joints will be pretty much concealed.

Jack