In the series that Chris did on the Apothecary cabinet, he chose to make his dados for the interior partitions at 5/32″. Seems like it would have been simpler to make cut the dados at 1/8″ to result in a middle that would be 1/4″ thick (or half the thickness of the stock. Working in 32nd’s of an inch seems unnecessary on a project like this. What do you think? Otherwise, I picked up some good tips I can use on repeatable setups, planning and so on.
My workshop and latest projects – last updated March 10, 2007
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Dear Paulcomi,
Here's Chris Gochnour's response to your question about the tolerances he used in his apothecary cabinet project:
I appreciate your interest in the multi-drawer cabinet. In response to your inquiry about whether you need to use 5/32", you are correct that it could be done with 1/8" dados, leaving a 1/4" on the shelf. My concern was that I wanted to have as much glue surface as possible without making the shelf too thin. I came to the conclusion that 5/32" dados and 3/16" left on the shelf would be an ideal balance. A 1/32" extra over your proposed 1/8" may seem like splitting hairs and perhaps it is. On the other hand, it adds 20% more glue surface per joint. In that regard, it may be worth doing.
Thanks again for your interest,
Chris Gochnour
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