Working on my first custom design for a dresser and would like any constructive feedback on both the aesthetics and the construction. I call out some things below, but also any other mistakes or bad choices.
General info:
Dimensions: 66″w x 44″h x 21″d
Materials: quarter sawn oak, 1/2″ plywood panels on sides and back set in 1/4″ groove, 1/4″ plywood dust panels, 3/4″ plywood for cabinet “box” in center. I decided on 1/2″ ply for the exterior panels rather than 1/4″ so they would have a more solid feel and sound.
Not shown in exploded picture: 2 vertical rails in back with dados for web frames, back panels, and dust panels.
Specific details I’ve struggled over:
– I’ve got double tenons connecting the rails to the legs. I originally considered sliding dovetails. I decided against them since I’m not using solid wood sides and the drawer guides won’t be attached to the panels.
– How long to make the tenons for the drawer guides in the web frame? Right now there just 1/4″ x 1/4″ stub tenons. Should they be longer? My biggest concern with going longer is the 3 center guides. I planned stopped dados for the drawer dividers and those and the mortise for the center guide will all mean removing material from the middle of a long rail.
– How deep should the stopped dados be? I was planning somewhere between 1/8″ and 1/4″.
– The drawer guides and the side rails will have the grain running the same way and the side panels won’t be attached to either or those. Is there any issue with fully gluing the frames up rather than leaving the back tenons floating as I’ve read is common?
– Overall, I think I’m good with movement. I’ll attach the top in a way that will allow for movement and the side and back panels will float in the grooves. My main concern is the center box area. This 2 door space was an ask from my wife and she loves both the utility and the look of it. I’m worried about how to construct it. What I’ve designed has a 1/4″ x 1/4″ tongue set in the back edge of the front rail and the vertical dividers the plywood will sit in. I’ve also got dados in the bottom that the plywood dividers will sit in. I feel like I’m just asking for trouble if I glue all that up. Leaving the box floating doesn’t help with they way I have it now. The bottom plywood would be okay since it would be floating and the front rail could expand or contract. The hardwood dividers would move with it since they’re set in the stopped dados. The side plywood, though, would be trapped in a horizontal dado in the plywood that’s not moving and also set in a groove in the divider that IS moving with the rail. Is there a better way to do this? I could leave the dado out of the bottom piece and only glue a few inches of the tongue in the front center rail. The vertical plywood could then move left/right with the vertical dividers, basically sliding left and right over the bottom. I could also glue just the first couple of inches of the vertical plywood at the bottom so the dividers could move vertically. Am I over thinking this whole issue for a 11″ x 21″ x 20″ box?
I can post more pictures as necessary. Thanks.
