Adding MS plates under the top is to join the legts to the top seamlessly. Since I knew that I would have to keep on disassembling the pieces for shipping or carrying everywhere, it was essential to come up with a joinery that made it easy. Adding a Mild Steel plate like this has a few benefits -
MS is light weight and can be powder coated to have a clean look
At first, I was making round plates but realised that would increase weight and also the surface area under the ottoman wasn't that much due to its curvy shape, so I brainstormed on different shapes and decided to choose a simple X as it makes sure that the weight is less but also covers 4 corners making it a strong shape.
To place these at the bottom of the bench and ottoman top, I recessed the X shapes on the bottom to flush the metal pieces with the surface to give a cleaner look
White Ash as a softer wood has a tendency to bend, since these plates are added to the top it creates a support at the joinery and prevents it from bending. More technical details - - 6mm x 25mm screws used for both legs and top. - 14 gauge C channel to avoid bending. - 3mm MS plate - all pieces are powder coated in black - no shipping restrictions on such smaller metal pieces. - the weight of all 5 metal plates is 2.4kg
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