During a move I broke one of the wooden legs of a (circa 1940) wooden desk
right where the round turned leg was attached to the square top that forms
the corners of the case. Of course it's not a clean break, though it's not
that jagged either, and I can fit the two halves together by hand quite
closely.

I'm intending to repair the break by drilling for and inserting a metal
"dowel" of some sort as a strength member between the two pieces. I have an
older 3/8" drill mounted in a portable drillpress which I'm pretty sure can
be used to drill the hole into the case part along the axis of the leg quite
accurately. But I have no lathe and I don't see a good way to align the
hole in the tapered rounded leg axially. I have 1/2" (tabletop) drillpress
on which I could tilt the table. I haven't had the table tilted in the last
30 years so I don't know if it will rotate further than the marked 45
degrees but I see no stops that would prevent it from going (close to)
vertical. Since this is a tabletop drillpress, there's not enough room to
put the leg between the chuck and the base, though (it looks like) I can
swing both the head and the table out over the edge of the stand to get
space down to the floor.

I'd like comments, suggestions -- and even constructive flames -- concerning
the following scheme:

1. Swing the head and table around so that they're no longer over the base
but rather clear of it. Measure the taper angle of the leg and set the
table to 90 degrees - taper angle so that the axis of the leg would be
vertical when clamped into a v-block against the table. I think that this
should give me the ability to drill exactly parallel to the axis of the leg.

2. I don't know how to get the exact center of the broken end of the leg
and there's no part that's even close to the exact diameter of any (Fostner)
drill bit I have to use to create a jig, though I guess I could try to
(patiently) use an adjustable circle cutter and chisel out the center to get
a center finder. Any comments or suggestions?

3. I think I can locate the "exact" center of the square end of the broken
leg on the case by "drawing" the two diagonals.

My biggest fear is getting the holes in the leg parts off-center relative to
one another.

Now -- here's another thought on which I'd like comments. Epoxy glue is
significantly stronger than wood. If I can get even a sloppy hole in the
two parts into which I can insert a "spline", I should be able to use the
jagged break to align the leg with respect to the case and a level together
with a custom-cut tapered wedge the same angle as the leg taper clamped to
the leg with a level to get the leg vertical. When the glue sets, the whole
joint will be stronger than the original wood was. _Please comment_.

Thanks in advance.

Norm