turret corners

[hschappell]

What is the best way to construct the turret corners for the top of a work table? The legs are turned and I plan to veneer the top. Should the top core be constructed in one piece or the rounded corners added to each corner of the top core and then veneer the whole top?

 

[frangallo]

Damned good question! How do you intend to  finish the adjacent edge? Is it necessary to have the grain of the top consistent with the turret or is there an opportunity here to cap the turret with a novel treatment? So many choices. So little time.
Fran

 

[rococojo]

Good question? The top is in one piece of timber (turret corners included) the table is built in normal tradition, Mortise & Tenon joints, side rails into legs, then the top is secured with pocket screws,from sides rail, into top, or screw blocks, can be used if you so desire.

                                                          Joseph Hemingway

 

[hschappell]

Thanks for the info.Ihave the legs attached as per joseph's reply. I am inquiring about the top core of the work table. The turrets covering the top of the legs.Should the core be of one piece or should the turrets be added added to each corner of the core.Veneer will be covering the entire core regardless.

 

[rococojo]

hi, Has I said in my first answer, all the top is out of one piece, this could be several solid pieces of timber joined together, or one solid piece of what ever you like as a veneering core, baring in mind all edges are lipped before any veneering of applied to any face.

                                                              Joseph Hemingway

 

[Rick Yochim]

To echo Joseph's approach, forming the top shape out of one piece seems a sensible solution. The more edge joinery you employ, say to attach seperate turret pieces, the more potential you have for veneer splits as the wood moves over time and the joints seperate a bit. Four turrets, four chances for this to happen. I would try to get by with as little complexity, material-wise, underneath the veneer as possible. You want a nice, stable, flat core. KISS principle I guess. 

And, just curious. What material are you using for the top's substrate? Joined wood, one solid piece (lucky devil) commercial sheet goods - intending no offense to all you traditionalists - or built up cross laminations?

Rick Yochim
 

 

[dkeller_nc]

I would suspect that you will not gain any particular advantage relative to the stability of the veneer covering the turret's sides whether the turrets are formed as a solid piece with the aprons, or as a solid extension of the legs that's then joined to the aprons. 

There was, by the way, an article in year before last's American Period Furniture journal about a method to do this joint called a "wedged fox tail".  I'm not sure how often this type of joint was used historically, and I've never executed one, but the construction seems pretty bullet-proof.

 

[rococojo]

Dennis, Bob Stevenson's article, in 2007 SAPFM journal: Foxtail Wedging. Only discusses jointing the turret legs to the table searchers, with a sliding (Wedged) dovetail joint? Instead of the Mortise & Tenon joint?  The questioner has now already inform used he is using, it dose not cover the construction of the top, or turret corners.
So I still think my advise on making the top from one solid piece of material? Is his best (most fool proof) way? Because whichever other method he employed, he would be over relying on ; glue and veneer only, and that is unsound advice? Because, of the movement that will occur? 

                                                    Joseph   

 

[dkeller_nc]

Joe - There is little doubt that veneer is not as stable over solid wood as it is over a composite product such as plywood or MDF.  Those are modern, of course, and weren't available to period craftsmen.  The only construction method that I'm aware of that was an attempt at a more stable substrate is "bricklaid" drawer fronts, columns, etc...

However, many of us choose simply to veneer over solid wood substrates regardless of the stability issues simply because that's the way it was done in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

If you mean that you think that the veneer would be more stable over the wood in a one-piece top because both the veneer and the substrate would have the long grain running the same way, you may well have a point.  However, there are a number of American colonial examples where the veneer was applied in a cross-grain fashion over the M&T block of a leg - Some of John Goddard's tea tables were constructed this way to make it appear that the grain of the apron "wraps around" the tops of the legs.

It is, by the way, "David" instead of "Dennis", but no problem - I didn't exactly make my user ID obvious.

 

[rococojo]

David, My apologies for renaming you? Thank you for your reply; my reply was based on period method, only?
So solid timber rules. (Solid pine substrate).
To add more strength, today though? Without bending any period rule?
I would first veneer cross grain, on both sides?
Then with my final veneer, mimic solid timber, by veneering length ways.
This would give the stability and strength of plywood, but on solid timber. Keeping correct to our ancestors ways, which started Period furniture.
constructing this way would add strengh to the turret corners also.
one other note, The correct matching of the timber rays is so important, to keep the board flat and straight, I attach a diagram to illustrate this method, the boards could be just a rub joint? or dowel? or lose fillet.
                                                     Jo Hemingway
                                                        sharing the tricks of the trade
                                                            1968-2009