Hello everybody,
I have a couple quick questions regarding construction techniques for an Armoire that I am designing/constructing. Sorry to start off my membership with such a difficult/long question.
First a little background on the project. The Armoire will be built out of solid Oak, I elected not to use plywood as I want this to be sort of a heirloom piece for my son. The main casework will be 73″ tall and 19 1/2″ deep with one center divider going from top to bottom. The front will be face frame construction and the doors are raised panel design as you can see in my drawing attached.
The first, in this design, is a solid panel or frame and panel construction going to be better for the sides? My concern with the sides is that it is a 73″ span, the width really doesn’t bother me because if I go with solid panels throughout, the grain will all run the same direction and expansion of the wood will be a non-issue.
The second pertains to the frame and panel construction route. I am going to split the sides up into 4 panels unless you think otherwise. I am figuring the following: top and middle rail would be 4″, bottom rail would be 6″ and the stiles would be 3″. I determined that the bottom rail should be bigger than the top based on all the reading that I have done. Is there any hard and fast rule that says the panels on the side should line up with the panels in the doors? Actually, I think tomorrow I am going to sit down and draw the side panels out full size and see how it looks.
Thanks for any info. I cannot seem to find any answers, suggested construction techniques, etc. on this.
Curtis
Replies
The rails should be the same highth on the sides & fronts. Also the two largest on the front & sides should be lower & also the large panels should conform to the golden rectangel rule.
Good luck
Personally I like the raised panel look on the side. I would line the side panels up with the doors as your drawing appears to have it.
I like the raised panels since if you make the sides a solid piece of wood, you will likely have to join a couple boards together to get the 19" width. Maybe you're better than I am but with a board this long I have trouble getting the glued edges perfect and sanding them out is timely and never seems to look right. Unless you have a super wide planer that can handle this. The raised panels are narrow enough you either don't have to join the lumber or it is still narrow enough to fit through a small planer after edge glueing.
I have also found the rail and stile construction to be pretty straight forward and sophisticated looking. That's just my opinion.
Looks like a nice cabinet, have fun with it.
Steve
Good morning Curtis, this is Curtis.
you design is quite nice. The only recommendations that I would make ,according to what I have seen in most older Armoire is that breakdown for easy disassembling for moving purposes.
What I would recommend is, to make the doors so that thay come off the hinges by lifting up. And to make the top and bottom into TWO separate pieces, that can be connected with a wedge (a metal Ubracket, on two wood wedges, to hold the top and bottom together tightly) you design will not have to change you can still use panel construction.
Try to think about long-term.( YEARS down the line) Your Armoire is going to be big and heavy, making the Armoire so that it can be breakdown for easy transportation as well as geting around those tight corners in the house ,would make things much easer.I belive this would be a nice added feature to your Armoire.
But that is just my suggestion.
Good luck.
Sincerely C.A.G.
Edited 1/5/2003 1:28:48 PM ET by curtis
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