Plans for chest call for 3/4" wood. The wood I want to use is less than 3/4". Ideas?

[Don Morris]

I want to build a small bedside chest and use some highly figured Cherry for the top, sides and or front. The Plan I want to follow calls for 3/4" wood, especially for the dovetailing. But a good amount of it is 11/16" or 5/8" thick (close to 10" Wide). The most highly figured piece is 8" Wide, but is 3/4" thick. My bandsaw is a Delta 14" so I can only re-saw up to 6" boards. I was thinking I could do some re-sawing (not my strong suit) and glue pieces to some Baltic Birch, to make 3/4", or some other preferred wood for dovetails. Is that a good plan, or are there other options that I should consider? Thanks for any suggestions!

Don M

[lowell holmes]

I would thickness plane the wood to uniform thickness what ever that would be. If you do not have access to a planer,
look for a cabinet shop that can plane it for you. I did that before I bought a planer.

[Derek Cohen]

What is so special about 3/4"? Don, I would make the panels to the thickness you can - no one can tell from the exterior anyway. OK, the dovetails would look a little slimmer than thicker boards, but I would just lower their ratio to compensate. I would not laminate boards to create a thicker panel. When opened, a smaller chest will probably look better with thinner boards anyway.

If you need to use narrower boards to fit the resaw capacity of your bandsaw, then so be it - if you work carefully, you can match the boards when glueing them up so that no one can tell.

Do you have a picture of your plan?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[mark mcfarlane]

Don, as long as the wood is thick enough to be structurally sound over the length of the chest, you should be OK. Is this something someone will sit on?

[glenn bradley]

I would just use the plans as a general guide and modify the build to suit your material if you want to go solid. As stated, you will be less error prone if the material is a consistent thickness. The alternative is to use a substrate and veneer the "show" material to it. I have found the Creekers in my area to be a great bunch. Maybe someone close to you will resaw the material for you. I would if you were in my area.

[Don Morris]

I thought that dovetails needed 3/4" wood to come out properly. If that's not absolutely necessary, I'll thickness plane the pieces on my 8" jointer to a consistent thickness. That sounds easiest and I have the equipment to do it. From what I can tell, that would be close to 5/8" and use that. Actually, the chest will be a hybrid of 3 designs that I liked. Neither one was exactly what I wanted/needed. Most of the frame and construction will be from one, but not all. i.e. The top and base from one, a pull out drawer from another. But all three cut lists called for 3/4" wood for whatever was dovetailed. Thanks for the input, that's a relief not to have to re-saw a lot of HF Cherry. I know I would have made a mistake at some point during that process and regretted having to do that.

[Al Launier]

I thought that dovetails needed 3/4" wood to come out properly. If that's not absolutely necessary, I'll thickness plane the pieces on my 8" jointer to a consistent thickness. That sounds easiest and I have the equipment to do it. From what I can tell, that would be close to 5/8" and use that. Actually, the chest will be a hybrid of 3 designs that I liked. Neither one was exactly what I wanted/needed. Most of the frame and construction will be from one, but not all. i.e. The top and base from one, a pull out drawer from another. But all three cut lists called for 3/4" wood for whatever was dovetailed. Thanks for the input, that's a relief not to have to re-saw a lot of HF Cherry. I know I would have made a mistake at some point during that process and regretted having to do that.

I'm afraid you are heading for disappointment if you plan on using your jointer to provide a uniform board thickness. You really need a planer to do that. The jointer only establishes a flat surface, not a surface parallel to the opposite side.

Best of luck with your project, it sounds like a lot of enjoyment is ahead of you.

[Jim Becker]

Thickness is "relative" and you can use the design you have. Just compensate for the thickness differences. It's just a math problem. :) There are no rules when it comes to material thickness outside of making sure things look proportionally appropriate. The only reason so many plans call for ' 3/4" 'material is because it's readily available "off the shelf" and that helps folks who don't have all the kewel tools to make projects with simpler cutting.

Laminating solid stock to plywood can be a challenging process because of wood movement if you can't shave it thin enough with your bandsaw and thickness planer. You really need to get it relatively thin to be successful. It can be done, for sure, but make sure you take into consideration that wood movement aspect.

[Pat Barry]

I'm afraid you are heading for disappointment if you plan on using your jointer to provide a uniform board thickness. You really need a planer to do that. The jointer only establishes a flat surface, not a surface parallel to the opposite side.

Best of luck with your project, it sounds like a lot of enjoyment is ahead of you.
I agree with this comment. note that you don't even HAVE to have all the same thickness boards although having a consitent thickness for any given side of the box would look best. The left and right sides don't even need to match each other or the front or top for example.
A

[Don Morris]

The uniform thickness is not a problem, I should have said "after I've assured I have a flat side, then on to my 13" planer". And after all the other comments, like from Jim Becker...I'm for sure going to stay away from laminating to another board. Saw that done once, looked like a solution to a problem, but for me it would have probably just created another. Again, Thanks all for the input.

Don M

[Jim Becker]

Don, one thing that I have done relative to lamination is to shop-cut a "thick veneer" of something with outstanding figure and the laminate it with "plain" stock of the same species with the same grain direction. That works wonderfully and can allow you to stretch some really outstanding boards a long way, especially in a project like this where there's a lot of hidden surfaces that will never see the light of day. I honestly save a lot of scrap/less-worthy stock to use for utility in projects like that. You can also do this with an alternative species that has similar wood movement characteristics to save money. The problem I mentioned was specifically about laminating solid material to plywood and for that the solid stock truly has to be thin to avoid issues. It's hard to create 1/16" thick material without having a drum sander for thicknessing the re-sawn material.. Most planers start getting angry at the wood when it get below a certain thin thickness.

[Curt Harms]

One solution for making veneer thickness stock I've seen (never tried) is to secure the intended pieces to a carrier board with double sided tape or something like that, Maybe fine grit sandpaper stuck to the carrier board?. Then the planer should be happy. Shop sawn veneer doesn't have to be as thin as the commercial stuff.

[David Eisenhauer]

IMO, lots of times 3/4" thick material looks "clunky" on smaller pieces of furniture. 5/8" will be plenty strong. Draw/practice some dovetails on scrap wood ahead of time to see what ratio looks best for your dovetails.

[Don Morris]

Hadn't thought about glueing the material to similar wood. That makes sense (grain similarities, similar wood, minimal movement differences, etc.) and eliminates potential variables. Small wonder why I've used a couple of Jim Beckers ideas on previous projects. If the need arises for such a solution, that's probably what I'll do. Thanks again for the input!

Don M

[Don Morris]

But I'm still going to try dovtails on 5/8" pieces and if that all looks OK, I'll probably just end up thickness planning everything to that and away we go.

Don M

[Jim Becker]

If you're going to hand-cut them, there should be no issue. If you'll be using a jig, then you have to be careful to use the correct cutters to support that thickness and setup the jig carefully for the same reason.