The six-foot stretcher has a tenon at each end that fits into a mortise in the leg. At the bottom of the tenon is a half-dovetail that fits a matching recess in the mortise (push into the mortise, then push down). The stretcher then “locks” in with a half-dovetail pin at the top – making the whole assembly reversible. Time to make that pin.
I grabbed an off-cut of the walnut used for the base. Since it was small, I screwed it to a piece of plywood to chop it at 15 degrees on my chop saw (screwing through a part to later be removed).
Cutting the pin at 15 degrees on the chop saw. Small piece screwed to plywood.
Then time to cleanup the saw marks with my Lie-Nielsen #4.
Cleaning up saw marks with my Lie-Nielsen #4
It gets really complicated to explain in a blog post, but there’s actually another small angled pin that sits on top of this one! This part holds a support piece coming from the end of the leaf to add further support to the leaf which will sag over time. So, I first mark out the small pin’s location and then make two saw cuts to define it.
Sawing down my dovetail pin to clearly define two sides of an angled dado
Now some chisel work to make a slot to accept the support piece coming from the end of the leaf! Doesn’t have to be too pretty, being all the way up under the table – I mean, it’s handmade.
Chisel out some waste in the top of the pin to accept a support piece