Will the joint be as strong ?

[radhak]

I have this table (top removed) from old, think bought at Kmart.



The only joints now are what is visible : the pocket-screws on that small 'cross brace',which joins to the leg with the bolt-n-nuts. And I gotta say, it has been very strong all these 5 years :




I am pondering if I can remove the brace(marked in red) and replace with pocket-hole-screws on the aprons (green arrows). And seeing that currently the top is just screwed to the aprons (blue arrow), I might add a handful of small L-brackets from apron to top.

Will these changes give the table the same strength as before, or am I weakening it?

The only reason I want to do this, is to add two drawers at the front, and unless I remove these two brackets on either side, I have space for just one drawer.

[cabinetman]

Pictures didn't come up.

[JSUPreston]

To add to your concerns, I would think removing the brace would allow the possibilty of the frame getting out of square. Then again, some flat L brackets attached to the top of the frame that also went over the legs may help.

Playing devil's advocate here: Why not just make the drawers a little smaller? Any particular reason why a certain size or have to have two?

[radhak]

Good point Preston! The table is now gonna be a study table for my 7-yr old, and she WANTS two drawers (because her sister's has two) !

She doesn't care about the size, but I am hoping to keep the size such that a regular 8.5x11 paper (or notebook) could fit in each drawer.

[cabinetman]

Pictures came up. You could remove two of them. I would suggest that you make the top an integral structure to keep the two side aprons square. IOW, side rails for the drawer slides (need 3, maybe 4 depending on drawer spacing), could be attached to the top and the rear apron. If you have some of the apron in the front, that too would help tie the sides together to the top.

To answer your question about the gussets, IMO, the way the gussets are set up would be stronger of an assembly than removing them and installing pocket screws. The fastening angle works out better structurally the way it's done.
.

[LCHIEN]

the two hanger bolts (actually a wood screw/machine screw combination) give it the strength of the joint - the wood screw end goes into the leg at a 45 degree angle and the nuts pull the legs to the apron. This is very strong and you will be compromising the table if you remove these.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=373

[LarryG]

Loring is correct: as-is, this makes for a strong connection, and tightening the leg bolts helps make the leg and apron substructure self-squaring. A lot of inexpensive (and even not-so-inexpensive) furniture is manufactured this way so the legs can be removed for shipment.

There are other ways, though. The front two legs could be joined to the aprons with loose tenons, which would be much stronger than pocket screws. The drawer openings would need to be far enough away from the legs to not cut into the mortises, but you'd probably want that much of a margin anyway, for a pleasing appearance.

[cgallery]

she WANTS two drawers (because her sister's has two) !

Just take one drawer out of sister's table, problem solved.

Alternative: Make one drawer and install a hidden compartment or some other neat feature.

[radhak]

Reading all your inputs, and seeing that I'm only re-working that table, I think I'll not tamper with the joints.

The distance between the braces is 20.5", so - I could create two - one a regular drawer, and the other a rather narrow one, just for pencils and stuff. She might like that.

When I overheard her this morning telling her mom and sister - "My Dad can do anything - he can make two drawers because I want so!", I decided she's getting two drawers, come what may !

[BobSch]

How about two drawers hinged at the gussets that would swing out from the center instead of slide? Not as much room but it sure would be different.

[JR]

I have a table with similar construction. The corner braces are a metal part rather than the wood ones shown in your pic. I'm guessing the metal ones save an inch of usable space on each end of the apron. The aprons are pocket-screwed to the top.

Following up on cgallery's idea: my table is used by LOML as her desk. I removed most of the front apron and put in a keyboard tray. The KB tray rides on a drawer glide type of assembly which screws to the table top - kind of floating in space there in the center of the desk. Maybe you could do something similar, stacking two wide but shallow drawers?

JR

[AlanWS]

If you cut into the apron for drawers, you also need to worry about residual strength of the apron. But if you make the drawers very shallow, that could fix both problems. It would allow continuous wood above and below the drawers for apron strength, and you could then put in corner braces aligned with them, above and below the drawers.

[crokett]

The distance between the braces is 20.5",

So if you removed the braces on the front, that would give about another 2" or so? That is what it looks like in the pics anyway. So I second larry's suyggestion - do loose tenons on the front. Make two drawers that have a slide in the bottom and no center piece in the front apron. That gives you room for two drawers with an 11" dimension How deep is the table? You could make the drawers that are 9" or 10" wiide and say 12" deep. That gives you room for a center vertical piece on the apron. You could also add a stretcher below the existing apron for the drawers. That is more structurally sound but I don't know if that gives your daughter room to slide a chair under it.