trestle legs joints

[Talorien]

I've been asked to build a small trestle table to go up against a wall and the legs are only 40x19 pine bits. I realise it seems a bit of a waste to try anything fancy in terms of joints but I'm bored and would like some suggestions.

As per the attached sketchup image here are the three joins that i'll be making and would like your suggestions on.

1. I'm thinking a half lap dovetail for this. Will the pine work that small, will it be too soft to get a decent joint?

2. the cross beam between them can go any which way. Ideas I've been tossing up are a angled sliding dovetail, a angled mortise with a 4 way shoulder pinned on the other side. Is it better to have the pine vertical or horizontal, am I right in thinking that the only real stress is outward to stop the legs spreading?

3. legs join onto a piece of 70x19 pine at the top, do I just cut them at the angle and butt join, do a notched join, something else?

Will glue be enough to hold it all together with these joins or am I better off forgetting the whole thing as too fiddly with this kind of wood and glue and screw it.

Hope this makes sense.

Craig

[kraits]

you could get a few hinges rather then fixing the legs and just a bit of rope or chain to keep them at the desired angle, you can pack them flat that way.

[Sam]

Half lap dovetail works ok with pine in my experience. It's a nice joint although you dont hear much about it.