Michael Drew
11-23-2010, 11:25 AM
I'm building an open backed cabinet with shelves that will hang on a wall (spice rack). It's all hickory with the top, bottom, sides and middle verticals being 3/4". The shelves are all 1/2". The cabinet is 5 1/4" deep. To help visualize, this thing is going to be 39" high X 33" wide. It will have three bays with shelves. The middle bay shelves are about 6" center / center and the right and left are 9" center / center, about.
I wanted to use dovetails to give it a more 'handcrafted' look, but visions of me throwing broken boards across the shop has made me reconsider. Assembling this thing with all these components requiring different pull and squeeze points will inevitably mean that it will end up being a twisted mess before I get done.
So now I've gone to using a box tail joint for the top and bottom to the right and left sides. I'm thinking about using a tapered sliding dovetail for the joint where the middle two verticals join the top / bottom as I have a PC omni jig (first version) to cut those. But now I'm not sure what to do for all the shelves. I can't cut tapered sliding dovetails with the jig because it will only cut them in 3/4 stock and the shelves are 1/2". I don't dare try non-tapered dovetails as I'm sure I'll just screw up the assembly. I hate using biscuits for shelves as I always manage to mess up the face cuts. I suppose I could cut some dado's for the shelves, but they don't really look all that wonderful from a craftsmanship perspective.
I'd like to just use a sliding dovetail for the shelves but not sure how to do that without screwing them up during assembly if I can't taper them.
I'm not sure if I'm just venting or asking for help or moral support now that I've read what I wrote.....
What would you do?
I wanted to use dovetails to give it a more 'handcrafted' look, but visions of me throwing broken boards across the shop has made me reconsider. Assembling this thing with all these components requiring different pull and squeeze points will inevitably mean that it will end up being a twisted mess before I get done.
So now I've gone to using a box tail joint for the top and bottom to the right and left sides. I'm thinking about using a tapered sliding dovetail for the joint where the middle two verticals join the top / bottom as I have a PC omni jig (first version) to cut those. But now I'm not sure what to do for all the shelves. I can't cut tapered sliding dovetails with the jig because it will only cut them in 3/4 stock and the shelves are 1/2". I don't dare try non-tapered dovetails as I'm sure I'll just screw up the assembly. I hate using biscuits for shelves as I always manage to mess up the face cuts. I suppose I could cut some dado's for the shelves, but they don't really look all that wonderful from a craftsmanship perspective.
I'd like to just use a sliding dovetail for the shelves but not sure how to do that without screwing them up during assembly if I can't taper them.
I'm not sure if I'm just venting or asking for help or moral support now that I've read what I wrote.....
What would you do?