Free Plan: Mission Tabouret
Four splayed legs and one honest bevel cut — the 1909 side table that teaches you to saw.
Free download. No signup required.
- Full 1909 cut list
- Compound-bevel leg setup explained
- Pocket-hole shortcut for the rails
✓ Your tabouret plan is downloading.
Download didn't start? Get the plan here.The tabouret is drawn up. One bevel, four legs, and a shop that has to hold the setup.
- A layout guide for a one- or two-car garage or a basement: which tools to buy in what order, and where each one stands so the work flows in one direction.
- What to read first: the layout chapter. Four legs cut in one setup need a saw you can walk around and a bench to park them on, which is a floor-plan question before it is a skill question.
- A digital guide sold through ClickBank, with a 60-day refund window stated on the vendor's page.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Most tables hide their skill. This one puts it on display. The 1909 Mission tabouret is a small square side table — 17 inches across, nightstand height — and its four legs splay outward at the bottom. That splay is the whole project: every leg gets the same compound bevel, and matching them is what makes the table stand flat.
The plan walks through the cut list, the bevel setup, and the stretcher-and-rail joinery. The habit worth stealing: dial the bevel on scrap first, then cut all four legs in that one setup without changing a thing.
If mortises are not your thing yet, pocket holes handle the rails while you focus on the one cut that matters.
Project at a Glance
- Difficulty
- Intermediate (one compound bevel, repeated four times)
- Main materials
- White oak — four 7/8 x 4-3/4 x 18-1/2 inch legs, two lower stretchers, two upper rails, one 17 x 17 inch top
- Build time
- 3-4 shop days, plus finish
- Tools needed
- Saws with a bevel setting, bevel gauge, mortising tools, drill, scraper, sander, clamps, square
- Source
- Popular Mechanics, 1909 (public domain)
Before you cut the good oak:
Set the bevel on a scrap piece from the same stock and check it against the drawing. Adjust on the scrap, never on your legs. Once it reads right, cut all four legs in that one setup — same angle, same fence — so they come out a matched set.
A tabouret like this is the first real joinery test, and passing it changes what you reach for next. The bevel that felt hard on this table is the same cut behind chairs, stools, and tapered legs.
Cutting it four times in one setup without touching the fence is easy in a shop laid out for it and a fight in one that isn't. That difference is the layout, not the saw.
What the guide actually covers
The eight-foot test
Take an eight-foot board from where the lumber is stored, run it through the saw, and set the offcut down. If you had to move something, open a door or turn the board sideways to get it in, the shop is filled, not laid out. That is the problem this guide is written for, and the tabouret is where a cramped shop shows first.
The guide covers layout for a one- or two-car garage or a basement, the order the tools go in, and the parts tool reviews skip: lighting, dust, noise and where the lumber lives. It won't tell you which brand to buy, only where the tool belongs.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Also worth a look: the technique layer
Woodworking Secrets is a printed book on layout, cutting, joinery and finishing, the part a plan leaves out. The publisher sends it at no charge and you cover the shipping. It ships to US addresses. On the order page there is a box for a trial membership that is already ticked — untick it if you only want the book.
See the book →