Double sided dado joint when making shelves
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Woodworking Methods and Techniques / Double sided dado joint when making shelves
Tagged: shelves dado
- This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 1 week, 3 days ago by
Birger Johansen.
-
AuthorPosts
-
15 March 2023 at 2:42 pm #794900
I am planning building a shelving system in my workshop, much like the one Paul Sellers has in his workshop.
One thing which I am uncertain of, is if a “double sided” dado joint will be strong enough. I plan on having 3 sides/supports, and then dado joint all shelves into the sides. But when two shelves meet at the same height in the middle support, there will be one dado on each side, and I am wondering if the remaining wood in the support will be strong enough to hold the thing up?I have attached a drawing that may clarify how it is supposed to look.
Thanks!
15 March 2023 at 7:43 pm #794920Hi,
Picture below shows ÂĽ” dovetail sockets and drawer web frames on opposing faces of vertical dividers in a sideboard. It’s a very stable carcass.
Sven-Olof Jansson
London, UK; Boston, MA15 March 2023 at 7:58 pm #794925Birger,I was faced with the same issue when I made a version of an old post office (US post office) for my wife’s wool materials she uses in her weaving.
I wanted to have some symmetry for the various cubby holes but wanted the divides to be relatively thin (main vertical dividers are 15mm and horizontal dividers are 9.5 mm). I worried about the strength of the joints (like you) when two horizontal dividers were attached to the same vertical dividers, at the same location. I wanted to dado the corresponding horizontal dividers into the vertical dividers. Just doing a dado would make the vertical divider too narrow at the point of the joint. Therefore, in addition to the two opposition dados, I made narrow mortise and tenon joints (about 6 1/2mm square) extending from one side to the other. Also, rather than have the tenons meet at the same location in the vertical, I staggered one pair with another. This offset preserved the integrity of the opposing dados on the vertical pieces.
I try to illustrate my discussion with several photographs.
Photo 1 shows the completed project.
Photo 2 shows it filled with the wife’s wool materials
Photo 3 shows a pair of tenons on a horizontal divider. I can not show how the tenons are staggered between the opposing horizontal dividers.
Photo 4 shows a pair of opposing dividers in the respective dados.
If my description is not clear, please contact me and I will sketch up a drawing.
Harold Blair16 March 2023 at 7:06 am #794960Hi Sven-Olof and Harold,
Thank you for good advice, I am confident now that my planned design will work.
Both of your designs securely fastens the horizontal dividers into the vertical dividers using a dovetailed dado, or through tenons.
I will plan on doing something similar so that the whole structure becomes more stable. After some thought I think I also will use stopped dadoes, leaving an inch of the vertical dividers with full thickness.Thanks,
Birger -
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.