The brass brackets made last week now find there way into the Accent Table. After marking the bracket locations, I traced each bracket with a knife onto the wood. Above, the bracket "F" mortise is ready to be cut into the right upper rail.

Below, the bracket "A" mortise in the left, front leg is rough cut first with a handheld router.

After routing, each mortise is cleaned out by hand with a chisel and adjusted for fit with its assigned bracket.

Screw holes are bored and the brackets are fastened in place. Just in case the question pops into your head about the screw being driven into end grain on the legs, have no fear, it's true holding strength comes from engagement with the perpendicular grain of the upper end rail tenon.

I planned to maximize the available width of the rough top plank, so I spent some time to make sure it was carefully aligned with the stand. Then, I fastened the top to the stand with two screws into the two center brackets.

And, the obligatory close-up shot.

Here, the rough top is positioned on the upright stand and ready for layout.

I built a small layout jig to transfer the shape of the front and back stretchers to both the lower surface...

and upper surface of the top.

Next is a trip to the band saw to remove the edges. I had about 1/16" to spare on each edge, pretty much hitting my goal of maximizing the width. I love it when a plan comes together!