Beginner-ish question about table legs

[Pat]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the site here and based on needed to use pocket holes.  I am not the best with lingo so bear with me. 

I started a project yesterday to make a new office desk for myself. I picked up a slab of Oak hardwood plywood and cut it down to a 5'x3' desk top.  It's been routed on the edge and sanded down. 

The part where I want to make sure I cross my 't' and dot my 'i' is making the legs/base.

I choose to go with 4x4 for the legs, I have already cut them to the height I want for my desk (26") shorter than standard but that's the height I like.  I plan on making a skirt/apron to connect the top of all the legs but with the height where it is at, ideally I don'y want a skirt longer than a 1x2 as then it will cramp my legs getting under the desk. I should have probably left them a little longer to get a bigger skirt piece but you live and learn.

So my plan is to use 1x2's for the top where it connects to the top of the desk and then use maybe a 1x4? or 1x6? more towards the bottoms of the legs.  Being my first decent size project when all is said and done will that be enough support to keep it all together? I'm open to beefing up the bottom more a 2x4 or 2x6 if you think that will make up for the smaller size apron. 

Also any tips for using the pocket hole trace would be great and if you think a particular model of Kreg would work best for me I'll take that info as well..

Much appreciate on any info give, and if you need more info from me just let me know.

[Don Foley]

Pat,

One option to give your desk some strength but not impair your sitting at it is to use wider pieces for the skirt on the front and sides, then use the 1" piece for the back side,  where you sit.  I would use a stretcher (the lower supports you mention) on three sides.  Are you adding drawers to the side where you sit?

Don

[Glen S]

Make the apron board twice as thick as it is wide. That should beef it up enough. Another option is to make the one you will see out of the chosen material then move back about 16"-18 & use a wider one out of a secondary wood like Poplar.

edit to add >> IF you wanted to make the legs long you can add a 1 1/4" piece of 4x4 back to the top of each leg. Your apron is 1 1/2" tall so it will hide the seam.

[R. E. Woods]

I came across a beautiful piece of spalted maple at an urban sawmill. In my mind I pictured it as table legs. I decided to build a small table as the computer desk in our family was crowded by an all-in-one printer. I wanted to match the height of the desk and let the printer straddle the desk and table.

The 2 inch thick slab was a tad short of the length I needed. My solution was to add a short piece to the legs to gain the height I desired. The banding of padauk on the legs is to hide the joint. I did it on the top of the legs as the bottom is tapered.

The banding of paduak on the top is to hide the joint between the oak plywood center and the solid oak edging (beveled to mimic the thickness of the desk). The paduak corners were added because the miter joints on the edging were really bad.

I own a K4 but I think the front handle on the K5 is better. My jig is mounted to a platform that sits on sawhorses.     http://kregjig.ning.com/photo/albums/jig-mount-with-storage