Best laid plans.....
Anyhoo, busy weekend with car work so I couldn't get as far as intended (finish applied), but wait, there's more!

So I had planned on spraying all the parts before assembly since it is easiest to get good coverage on items that would otherwise have poor access for a spray gun.
I then realized that with through tenons, the tips, with finish, would need to be pushed through the mortises. Could end up with scratched up tenons 😱

Ok, also thought that through tenons need pins "just because".

So assemble the legs it is!

The idea is only glue applied to the tenons, below the tips. With glue in the mortise, pushing the tenon through would leave a schmere of the glue on the tip, not good.

Want enough to do something, but don't want it to scrape off and squeeze out the back. 
You can also see the hole for the peg. I dry assembled, clamped, and drilled the holes before.

In the clamps, squared up. Best part was I installed 7 out of 8 legs with the tenons going from inside to outside. Caught the single stray and was able to correct before the glue set up.

I also dry fit and clamped the top cross piece in place to avoid drama when it came time to put it all together.

Those pegs:

Decided on some square G&G ebony caps.
One issue with installing these is getting the depth consistent. The are only 3/16" thick and I wanted an insertion depth of 1/8"

The method? Cut the peg dowels (5/16" diameter) to be 1/4" short of the leg thickness. This will make a nice stop for cap insertion.

For squaring up the caps and making the square hole, I used a 3/8" LV square hole cutter. Basically a short hollow mortiser bit.

The "drill" hole through this cutter is about 5/16" so I just dropped a section of dowel into the leg hole and slid the chisel over. This works most excellent for keeping the chisel centered over the hole. A square is then used to rotate the chisel in alignment with the leg sides.
A few taps just to mark the corners.


This is where the steel nuts come in.

I need the dowel to be centered side to side so I found a pair of small diameter steel nuts, 1/8" thick.

Place in the hole and use some tape to hold it in place.

Flip the assembly over, apply glue in the hole, and push in the dowel. It bottoms out on the nut and therefore is centered.

Back to the hole chisel, align with the previous marks and finish pounding.

3/8" square hole, flat bottom at 1/8" depth.
16 of these suckers, spent about 2 hours at the drill press shaping.

Dab of glue and tap in.

I actually got the parts primed (Mohawk vinyl sealer) so I'll be ready for the top coat next weekend.