Breadboard question

[Tom Garry]

I am making a slant-front desk similar to one I saw a video on New Yankee workshop, but mine is walnut. I have two pieces of wormy walnut that are very attractive and slightly lighter in tone than the bulk of the project and want to incorporate them into the front/fold-down section and the the drawer front. The fold-down front will have breadboard ends on it. (Unlike the video, I will NOT be glueing the entire length of the breadboards onto this front--I know what can happen) I have a problem, however, with the length of the piece for the fold-down front, in that I can not incorporate a long tenon on it--it is only long enough to have a short tenon.

My idea is to use this "short" piece as the center of a 3-piece glue-up and then glue the middle inch or so of this short tenon into the breadboard ends. I'll have "fake" drawbore pins visible for consistent looks. The edge pieces of the glue-up will have tenons long enough for traditional drawbore construction.

2 Questions for the group:

1. Does anyone see anything wrong with this idea? (specifically--glueing a small area of the short tenon--or should I just let it float?)
2. With the fixed shelf of the desk, it is slotted into full-length dados cut into the vertical side pieces. The grain is all running in the same direction. Are there any potential issues with glueing this shelf into the dado?

I've attached a sketch for the breadboard idea for clarity.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Tom

[Steve Schoene]

The traditional way to deal with breadboard ends for the fold down shelf is to make the front a mitered board so that there is no end grain showing when the desk is down. The movement should then be directed to the rear, and with hinges mounted on the breadboard ends.

[Michael Peet]

You can always do floating tenons.

Mike

[Lee Schierer]

Why not make it like a floating panel so that the side that will be used for writing is flush when opened and recessed when closed?