What is the name and optimal screw placement for this common workbench leg setup?

[ziplock9000]

I see this quick and easy setup for legs on workbenches a lot with the two overlapping 2x4 and I'm wondering if it has a name and what the best placement of screws (assuming all of the wood is 2x4)?

 

[Yojevol]

Can't help with a name but if you use glue and clamps on all mating surfaces, you could do it with no screws. Or you could use a minimal number of screws temporarily in lieu of clamps.
Brian

 

[Jameshow]

I would joint the leg angle pieces together with 3 screws one at top and bottom, other in middle then put two through the leg tops into the rails each side. 7 screws and glue in total.

 

[Cabinetman]

In the pic shown the legs are twice the thickness of the rails, and it would have been much stronger had she screwed from the inside outwards.
Screw placement, they shouldn’t be in line along the same line of grain, and not too close to the end of a piece of wood, placed diagonally in this case helps too.
Ian

 

[TheUnicorn]

it would have been much stronger had she screwed from the inside outwards.

not quite sure why this would be the case?

it would all be stronger, albeit heavier, if there was additional wood put in underneath each joint so the weight was bearing on that piece and not just relying on the glue and screws, overkill perhaps

 

[Cabinetman]

not quite sure why this would be the case?

it would all be stronger, albeit heavier, if there was additional wood put in underneath each joint so the weight was bearing on that piece and not just relying on the glue and screws, overkill perhaps

I find it helpful sometimes to take things to daft levels to show what will happen, so, if the legs were the same 2” thick but the rails were only 1/2” screwing into the thin rails would be very weak, screwing the other way through the 1/2” into the 2” would be vastly stronger. This is why I suggested she would have been better screwing from the inside.
Ian

 

[TheUnicorn]

I find it helpful sometimes to take things to daft levels to show what will happen, so, if the legs were the same 2” thick but the rails were only 1/2” screwing into the thin rails would be very weak, screwing the other way through the 1/2” into the 2” would be vastly stronger. This is why I suggested she would have been better screwing from the inside.
Ian

I agree you always want to screw through thin into thick, however I think all the wood in the picture has the same dimensions, hard to see properly but that is how it looks to me

 

[Cabinetman]

I agree it looks that way on the nearest corner, but the others would appear to show the legs twice as thick.