Building a blanket chest from solid maple, the top is 22 by 40. I wanted to take a simpler approach to keeping the top flat so I was thinking of simply screwing battens to the underside naturally enlarging the holes for expansion. Would you consider a breadboard end a better approach to keeping it flat, given that I will have more work to make it? If you think a breadboard end is the way to go, am I correct the the panel should be a little narrower than the breadboard end so that any expansion does not extend beyond the end of the breadboard edge? Thanks
Discussion Forum
Get It All!
UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month.
Start Your Free TrialCategories
Discussion Forum
Digital Plans Library
Member exclusive! – Plans for everyone – from beginners to experts – right at your fingertips.
Highlights
-
Shape Your Skills
when you sign up for our emails
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. -
Shop Talk Live Podcast -
Our favorite articles and videos -
E-Learning Courses from Fine Woodworking
-
-
Replies
Unless you WANT a breadboard end, the internal battens will do a better job of keeping the top from cupping, and won't show. Not to mention simpler, unless you choose to do what I did on a cherry sugar chest: I used tapered dovetails to attach the battens, with only the last two inches glued in place. On the front end I cut off about 1/2" of the dovetail, and had the groove about 1/4" longer than the resulting dovetail (and 1/4" shorter than the batten) to make room for movement but not have it visible. On the back end the battens were cut a bit shorter than the thickness of the back of the chest, and I filled in the grooves flush with the bottom of the top, so they were barely visible as patches on the back edge. I angled the front ends of the battens so that their bottom edge didn't hit the front when opening or closing the chest.
The chest is in the FWW Gallery: https://www.finewoodworking.com/item/117575/cherry-sugar-chest
What jharvey said.
A 22 inch wide maple top can have a lot of power in it if it wants to warp. Battens will keep it flat much better than thin breadboard ends.
It will help if you can find quartersawn boards for the top.
There is another reason for breadboard ends, and that is to hide the less attractive end grain, which is more prone to checking and edge damage.
Breadboard ends can be complicated to cut, but I've been doing them with Dominos with great success and ease. It takes very little time and is very effective at preventing cupping and concealing the end grain of the panel.
I space the Dominos every five inches or so, cutting the slots in the breadboard on the wide setting to allow for expansion and contraction. The center two in the breadboard are on the normal setting.
All the Dominos in the panel are glued in place, but only the center two Dominos are glued in the breadboard--the rest float.
It takes only a few minutes to do all this, whereas the traditional means of cutting tenons for breadboards using a dado blade for the tenons and router for the mortises, is complicated, tricky, and time-consuming.