I’m building a maple blanket chest where the legs will serve as stiles. The panels are solid wood, 3/4″ thick. The side panels are 18 high. I was planning to use 3 5″ wide x 1 1/4″ long tenon sections to attach the panels to the legs. The tenons would be 3/8″ thick. There is a 1″ gap between the tenons.
There aren’t rails, so the panel’s tenons can’t entirely float in the leg’s mortises. To accomodate wood movement, I was thinking of gluing the top tenon so it remains flush with the top of the leg, but the the others would be pegged with slots in the tenons.
My question is, how many inches can I glue safely? I though 5 inches would be OK. If it were plywood, I could just glue the entire length, but I want to use soild wood. I live in New Hampshire and there is a large swing in humidity.
Thanks,
David Romano
Replies
David- I would consider making those tenons a little less- maybe 3 1/2". Gluing the top tenon in and pegging the others is reasonable.
Obviously I have not seen the design you are using but it is sounding similar to a project we do in the school- the blanket chest (hopefully I attached a picture) was designed by John Maclevey and has panels that float in the legs but it also has rails- top and bottom which gives it its strength and allows the panel to float in a groove all the way around.
best of luck
Bob Van Dyke
Bob,
Thanks for the advice. I'll shorten them up then. Ther must be a way to calculate the maximum glued length based on wood species. My blanket chest is pretty simple, not as stylized as the beautiful one you sent me. I'm making it to match a queen sleigh bed I did last fall. see attached
David
the bed looks great!- send a picture of the blanket chest when you are done.
Bob Van Dyke
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