Hello Gary,
I need some help with potential wood movement in a console I am building. Here are the basics of the project. The console is approximately 12” deep, 36” wide by 36’ high. With the exception of back panels and shelves, the wood is quarter sawn white oak. The panels and shelves are to be flat sawn white oak. The ends of the cabinet consist of the legs which act as stiles with bottom, mid and top rails, a floating panel at the bottom and vertical slats on the top. The two ends are joined at the top with front and back rails dove tailed into the top of the legs. Near the bottom, a tenoned rail will be pinned into mortises cut into the legs. The back consists of panels floating in a rail and stile frame.
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So here is the question. If I attach the 3 shelves (which are flat sawn) using wedged through tenons going through the legs, am I asking for trouble with seasonal dimension changes? I woke in the middle of the night with the thought that when these shelves start expanding, they will pull the ends apart. If that is likely with flat sawn wood, would the same design work if I substituted quarter sawn wood? Alternatively, should I just start thinking about another design detail for attaching the shelves?
Thanks for your thoughts.
Lee
Seattle
Replies
Hi Lee,
I was reading your description thinking, well this guy sounds good, sounds like he's got it all figured out. Good methods of construction, [except for that top rear rail, skip the slot dovetail [[which isn't bad, just not as strong]] and go with a mortise and tenon joint, as it's the back that gives the piece most of its rigidity] and a well thought out plan.
And then we wake up in the middle of the night with the piece exploding on us and holy moly flat sawn shelves!? I'm smiling because I've done much the same myself worrying over a piece when I should be dreaming of tools.
Years ago I worked in a shop called Dovetail Woodworking. It was a co-op and one of the members, [Mark if you're out there, howdy old friend] built a nice case piece out of white oak. Then he dovetailed on the solid oak back. [In the interests of our defense, we were young and very untrained back in 1973 out in Oregon.] Well sure enough, as it's wet out on the coast, the piece blew apart when the back expanded.
Skip the attachment of the shelves unless you plan on dragging this console back and forth across the floor with it loaded with equipment. Your joinery should be sufficient to hold it together. Either notch the shelves into the posts, glued at one edge only and with room to expand and contract, or put breadboard ends on the shelves and set the shelves on decorative shelf pins, or add some kind of ledger from leg to leg inside and set the shelf on that with room for expansion, or use plywood with nice quartersawn edge banding visible from the front and fix it in using any of the above methods.
There's no real need for attaching the shelves permanently and it would be a killer glue-up. It sounds like a great piece. Cut yourself some slack and make the inside easy. Good luck. Gary
Gary,
Thanks for the helpful and sympathetic reply. I will use several of your suggestions and sleep well until my next nocturnal cabinetry epiphany. Happy new year.
Regards,
Lee
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