Now that the box carcass was glued up, it was time to build some legs to hold it up. I took some 3/4" oak and cut 4 pieces to length. I used a stop block on the Sliding Miter Table to ensure that all four were the exact same size.
The original plans called for the legs to be butt-jointed into 90 degree corners. While I liked the corner leg idea, I didn't like the butt joint idea because I wasn't going to paint the finished piece and a butt joint would make the two sides of the leg look assymetrical. Also, butt joints notoriously weak and the legs would be supporting the weight of the box. Instead, I decided to miter the 90 degree corner legs, so that no end grain would show in the joint. I also wanted to give the illusion that the corner piece was one large 2" square piece of wood, so I wanted the grain on each side of the miter to line up. To accomplish this, I had to cut the pieces carefully. First, I cut one side of the corner piece to width, beveling one edge to 45 degrees.
Next, taking care to keep the pieces in order, I cut the other side of the corner piece to width with a 45 degree bevel in the opposite direction, so that the grain would match up on each side of the mitered corner. Doing it this way took a lot more time than just ripping wood to the correct width, but the outcome gives a nice subtle attention to detail.
Knowing that a plain miter joint isn't extremely strong, and that these legs would be suporting the weight of the toybox, contents and the weight of anyone sitting on it, I wanted to reinforce the joint with biscuits. Cutting the biscuit slots on beveled edges takes a little extra time and measuring, but it's not impossible.
After the biscuit slots were cut, I glued up the legs, making sure I had matching pieces on the left and right sides. Clamping pieces like this can be difficult, so once they were glued I shot some brads in the joint to hold it until the glue dries. I then set the legs aside to dry (I have limited shop space, so I set them on top of my planer for the time being.)
Now it's time to attach the legs and outer trim.
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This page last updated on 06/28/2018