Question: Mixing plywood and solid construction

[Tom Jones III]

Work and 3 small kids has slowed down my shop time so I thought I would get a NYW plan to make my next project go as fast as possible. SWMBO wants a large kitchen hutch so I selected this one from NYW (http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct.php?111). The design is exactly what I wanted and it looked like it would be very quick to build.

Here is my problem, Norm built the sides and top out of solid wood then glued and nailed everything together including the plywood interior shelves. There is absolutely no allowance made for wood movement. Should I worry about this? I've never had a project fail, but I've always been very careful to leave room for wood movement and I have not mixed plywood and solid construction before.

[Mike Henderson]

You can certainly mix plywood and solid wood in the same project but you should make allowances for the movement of the solid wood, especially if it's a wide panel. I always figure plywood will not move very much, so I don't do a lot to make allowances for movement in the ply.

Standard things, such a only gluing the center part of a solid wood panel and using screws in slotted holes, or putting the solid wood in a frame (frame and panel construction), can be used. Same things you'd do for an all solid wood project.

Mike