Furniture history: attaching legs with wedges

[TimR]

I have two tables where the legs are held on by tapping steel wedges into a sort of clamp on the bottom. It is very secure, and also quick to attach or detach. We had to move a table this week that didn't fit through the door otherwise and it was easy.

When I wasn't home my family attempted the table move, and ended up googling these for instructions but couldn't find anything. I also remember having to improvise some when the wedges disappeared, and trying every local hardware and furniture store without success, even bringing one of the wedges in to show.

When did these go out of fashion, and is there a source anywhere? Maybe the problem is there is a different name for them.

[hubops]

Leg braces ?

John T.

[Dean Hoffman]

Furniture shim? Leg shim?

[Marilyn Manson]

Picture?

[TimR]

The table leg has a slot on top. The table itself has a channel that extends down into that slot. Then the wedge gets tapped into the open end until it is firmly in that channel. You can see the wedge has a lip for removal. I remember a lot of tables being assembled this way, but I haven't seen it recently, and I can't find a source for the wedges other than grinding one out of some scrap metal.

[Marilyn Manson]

I've seen a lot of attachment methods, both old and new. I find that type of stuff very interesting. That method is a first for me.

Looks like a particle board table, so probably not high end furniture. Formica top and ribbed chrome edging? Speckled yellow top? ;-)

[TimR]

That's exactly the style. Speckled pink, and we also have a speckled green.

[Marilyn Manson]

Seems like homemade wedges might be your only option.

Another option is something like this. Nothing to lose, except maybe a screw or two. Add a bolt through the bottom of the clamp into the pipe.

[gfretwell]

That would be how Roy Underhill would do it. ;-) This sounds like an old time mortise and tenon construction. Have you looked at one of the furniture hardware sites for guys who make/restore these kinds of things? How thick is the metal they are cut out of? If you can take one to a metal fab shop I am sure they can make you some. Otherwise just get some metal that size and make them yourself. You could do it with a hack saw but I would use a side grinder with a metal cutting wheel then clean them up on the bench grinder.

[hubops]

That's a first for me too. Now I'll have to look under the table at my brothers house - ... it's grey. John T.

[Snag]

I'd use one of my bandsaws ... clean up with a belt sander .

[TimR]

These are about .12 inches thick, per my calipers, so not all that hard to cut.

When we moved from Germany the wedges from one table were lost. I bought a six pack of screwdrivers at the dollar store and they fit, the handle supplying the wedging action against the table top. I asked around at furniture stores and the old timers were familiar with these but had no idea where to find them.

[gfretwell]

1/8" aluminum should work for that and you can buy sticks of it at the hardware/BORG store. Get a stick as wide as the widest dimension of the wedge. That is a lot easier to work than steel but if you have a side grinder you can get strap iron strips. OTOH Email me a good diagram and I will make you 4.

[TimR]

Thanks. I have an angle grinder and a bench grinder, this doesn't seem too hard.

I'm still curious why these are so unavailable and don't even seem to have a name. I guess that attachment method was shortlived.

[gfretwell]

I haven't seen them before on a metal leg table but the technique goes back to early woodworking where they extended a tenon through the mortise and drove a wedge in there to hold it together.

[Marilyn Manson]

Are all 3 of your tables from the same manufacturer?

It could be a proprietary connection system and unless you've seen one of

*their* tables, you would not have been exposed to that type of connection.

That may be why none of us have ever seen it before.

Do you have the table manufacturer's name? Maybe there is a patent that you could search for to get a name. I doubt that it would help with availability, but it might satisfy your curiosity.

Many of those old "formica and chrome" tables had a paper label on the underside. However, being decades old *and* particle board, the stickability of those labels may have failed a long time ago.

Good luck.

[hubops]

Another post mentioned formica table so I used that in my google image search and found a couple old links - one mentioned " LockFast " brand name :

John T.