Drawboring with a lag bolt

Dave Black

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638
Location
Central PA
I am working on building a new workbench and drawbored the stretchers into the legs and it worked really well but I won't be able to take them apart. I am ready to do the mortices that attach the legs to the top and I was going to drawbore them and not use glue that way if I needed to take the top off I could by drilling out the drawbore pegs. Then I thought about drawboring them but instead of using wooden pegs I could use 1/4" or 3/8" diameter lags then if I needed to disassemble it I just screw the lags out and pull the legs out or the mortice. Any thoughts, I did a quick google and didn't see anything about this. It seems like it would work.
 
OK, I couldn't wait.
Went to the well font of all knowledge. :rolleyes: Google.
Found out "I knew that". Except, I didn't know the technique was used for small stuff.
This technique is/was common for building of barns and other large structures 'back when'. The holes were bored slightly offset and a large peg was pounded in pulling them together. That may be one reason why so many of those old buildings are still with us.
BTW, the now useless pastime of whittling really began when those buildings were built. In the evenings, when hands were not supposed to be idle, the men and boys would sit around whittling pegs for the next days work and visit at the same time. Today old men just sit around the court house square whittling and visiting but not making pegs.
 
Here Ya go Frank, check ou this link. Dave, I think it would work just fine. after all Sam Maloof said that a srew is just another kinda dowel so a lag bold in this case woulld be a large dowel..

My concern was that a wooden peg will flex so that it can snake through the offset holes and a lag won't flex. I suppose that if I use a very small offset, less than a 1/16" then it might work.
 
The lags would not provide the same drawing effect of the peg but would hold the tenons in a sufficiant fashion and allow disassembly. However, If you used a through peg, extending the peg to be exposed inside the carcus structure. You would get the same drawing effect yet you could drive the peg back out to release the joint. Similar to a tapered wedge joint in a trestle design with a through tenon. The only difference between the two joints is the wedge tightens the through tenon whilst the peg tightens the blind tenon.
 
If you used a through peg, extending the peg to be exposed inside the carcus structure. You would get the same drawing effect yet you could drive the peg back out to release the joint.

This wouldn't work for my situation because the legs are going to be mortised directly in to the 4" thick bench top so the through hole would have to go the whole way from front to back of the bench top which is 30". I don't have a bit that long, or a peg for that matter. I think I will use a lag and and just do a "pinned" mortise and tenon that way I can take the lag out if it need to take the top off.
 
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