Petrified Wood table stretcher joinery
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
note: something about the orientation of the picture makes the legs appear larger at top than bottom. This is not the case for these legs; they are significantly smaller at the top.
While the stretchers could have been difficult to execute and fit some inspired engineering up front made these operations trivial. I previously described how the M&T joints were made so that stretchers could be simply cut on the table saw at 90 degrees, with no odd angle fitting required. The lap joints are similarly simple, because I preserved a flat reference surface until the cuts for the joints were completed..
First cut rectangular stock to finished length as determined from full scale drawing. Then lay out the pattern in the case of the bottom stretcher.
By flipping the stock end for end and registration against the fence the half lap slot is ensured to be centered. It is just a matter of care to get the width right.
And if the slot is cut before the arc it is ensured to be perpendicular to the base of the table.
As you might imagine I sized the "frame" so the legs appear to have grown around and among the rock. It is plenty ridged just dry fit.
