Hi Folks,
I am currently building a William and Mary style spice chest and have a question. The chest has a back which slides down in a 1/4″ dado to expose a hidden drawer concelled in the top crown molding which pulls out toward the back. There are 5 drawer dividers which provide the obvious function of seperating compartments for the drawers. How much shorter than the distance of the case to the 1/4″ back dado should I make the dividers to allow for expansion so that in the summer the dividers don’t expand and prevent the back from being slid down when need be. The case is 11 1/8″ in depth
Replies
3/16" should be plenty, an eight would probably be enough. It would be helpful to know the type of wood and the region of the country in which you live.
Lee
Sorry Lee, I should have included this information in my original post. All of the chest parts including the dividers are made of soft maple. I live in central New Jersey.
You have two kinds of dividers, horizontal ones and vertical ones. The horizontal dividers should have the grain oriented so it runs from side to side of the carcase. These dividers will expand together with the carcase so there will be no relative movement. The vertical dividers usually have the long grain runing front to back so it will not expand or contract as the case moves, so there the 3/16 inch clearance already mentioned is good. If you make the vertical dividers so the grain runs vertically you don't need to provide any room for expansion/contraction (assuming all the wood is the same species).
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled