Reply To: Options for backs of Shaker style dressers etc
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Regarding making a back from frame and panel vs. various slats, it seems a practical issue. Rear panels are big, both in area and length. Making such a thing twist free would be challenging, more challenging than making a smaller panel (like a cabinet door) twist free. Also, you’d need to bang out and fit all those M&Ts and you’d need to glue up a big panel to go into the frame. You’ve basically added the task of making a table top and then fitting it into a frame.
Compare this to using T&G’d or lapped slats. All you must do is cut them to length and use an appropriate plane to run rabbets or T&Gs. You might even be able to use a lower grade wood than you’d need to glue up a big panel. For wood prep, you’ll be prepping a number of relatively narrow boards. This is far easier than flattening a big wide panel made by gluing them up.
If you throw thin ply into the equation, things get much simpler for a large panel and it’s possible that making the frame might be less work than T&G’ing all those slats; however, you still must deal with keeping it twist free. Also, sticking a panel on the back of a cabinet looks odd to me. For myself, if I were using ply for a rear panel, I’d most likely run a rabbet in the back of the carcase pieces and screw or nail the ply into the rabbets, no frame.
As a final comment regarding expansion: Notice that the carcase sides, top and bottom are long grain along the cabinet height and width, so they *are* a frame and these dimensions will be stable. The depth of the cabinet will change with conditions, though. (There are a few cabinets that run the grain the other way, but they are the exception rather than the norm.) Shrinkiage of a very large panel put into such a frame could be substantial, so you’d need to leave a lot of depth in the grooves for shrinkage. I’d think it might rattle and could make finishing problems. With slats, you have many joints and each one can take up a little bit of movement.
- This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Ed.