Rabbeting Dovetailed Wall Cabinet for Back
Building a Shaker style wall cabinet for a customer, to be 36″ tall, 18″ wide, and 8″ deep, using 3/4″ thick stock. Sides, top and bottom are dovetailed. The challenge was to make a 3/8″ wide by 3/4″ deep rabbet for a 1/4″ thick back and 1/2″ thick french cleat, to hang the cabinet on the wall. Dovetails in the sides, pins in the top and bottom, with half pin at front and back.
If I make through rabbets, before assembly, they will show in the rear half pins. If I make stopped rabbets in the top and bottom, they need to stop only 3/8″ from ends, and the remainder likely to chip out of split during fabrication. If I try to use rabbeting bit, it will have to be long as an additional subbase would have to be attached to the router base so it can register on the opposite side.
The solution I stumbled on was to use a router table, but I made a total of 9 passes gradually increasing the width for each of three depths, to minimize chipout. All those passes made more opportunity for “oh darns” due to chipping, starting or stopping the top and bottom incorrectly, et cetera. Even there, I stopped a full 3/4″ from the ends and will drill and chop these corners after gluing the cabinet up.
Anyone have better ideas for this application? Thanks.
Replies
The fast and dirty way is to make thru rabbets and fill the gap by glueing in a piece of the same material. The match is usually not obvious since it's next to the dramatic lines of the dovetails.
Don,
The most elegant solution to this problem is to use half-blind dovetails for your joinery. The rabbet is hidden , but the edge of the rabbet defines the location of the rearmost half pin, not the edge of the board.
The top board of a slant lid desk is the most commonly seen use of this joint.
Ray
ray,
this self-same issue comes up for me on a regular basis. hence, i am most curious about what others have to say...
i cannot glean so much as the slightest meaning from the image you posted. any chance of something a bit clearer?
eef
eef,
I knocked apart the drawing above, and this is what I got :-) Not sure it is any clearer, I'm not much of an artist.
Ray
ray,
that's what i kind of thought but couldn't see.
thanks again and that is an elegant solution but one i've not seen in shaker style stuff, as far as case construction is involved. i suppose those pesky shaker dudes wanted us to marvel at the fully exposed pin end grain. can't say i've ever talked to, or even met, a shaker cabinet maker.
eef
Half blind dovetails will cover the rabbet, good point. I also like the first idea, through rabbet and then fill with a plug.
Another strategy I thought of was to end against the wall with a half tail, and add a separate base and top than extends out to front and sides. They would cover the "hole" in the half tail, but I'm not sure a half tail would be considered good design. Seems like a half pin will hold the last bit of the joint together and a half tail will not.
Anyone have any other ways to make the rabbet without making a "hole?"
eef,
Well, I'm no Shaker cabinet maker myself (I am getting shakier all the time), and not knowledgeable when it comes to the style. However, Kerry Pierce's book on Pleasant Hill Shaker Furniture, does show multiple instances where half-blind dovetailing was used on their pieces, from drawer construction to blanket chests. I'd find it hard to think they would not use it in an instance like this wall cabinet, unless it was simply rabbetted and nailed at the corners.
Ray
I am building a similar cabinet but will not be dovetailing. My cabinet will be 32" w by 48" h - 3/4 clear pine. I was going to go with 3/4" thick french cleat though. is 1/2" really all I need?
I will be dowelling the sides to the top and bottom so I will only be rabbeting the sides to hold a mirrored back and the cleats.
Thanks.
Rundle
Instead of rabbeting for the back and the cleat, you could rout 1/4" stopped grooves for the back before assembly. Recess the back panel 1/2" from the back edge of the cabinet. Then either rabbet the sides and top to accept the cleat or just mortise and tenon the cleat to each side using 1/2" long tenons.
Instead of running a deep rabbet, how about a stopped dado falling within the rear-most tail to hold the rear panel at a depth that would allow the French cleat to fall inside the cavity?
The question then would be whether to attach the French cleat only to the back panel with a butt joint to the side panels, partially inset the ends into the side panels (hidden on the sides), or do a full through dovetail of the ends of the cleat into the side panels.
Mitered Half Pin?
I thought the idea to glue in a plug elegantly simple as it allows ending with half pin.
As another option, wondered this afternoon if a mitered half pin at the back corners would hide the deep rabbet? I'm trying to avoid a back trapped in a dado.
Thanks all.
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