Eric DeSilva
09-14-2008, 1:54 PM
Among my other projects, I wanted to take a stab at getting used to a Leigh dovetail jig. I have some 4/4 bloodwood and 4/4 walnut, and was thinking about just putting together a small dovetail box with bloodwood front/back and walnut sides. Maybe something like 5"W x 6"L x 4"H. I'm also going to take a stab at resawing both the woods, so I'm hoping for 3/8" stock.
I can obviously rabbet a top and bottom in--probably bloodwood for the top, 1/4" ply for the bottom (was theoretically planning on felting the interior). Which brings me to my question... How do people address wood movement in small scale items like this? My natural inclination would be to do a 3/16" dado for the top and leave 1/16" gap on the front/back of the top. Maybe just glue the center of the top panel? How do other folks do this? I seem to recall seeing tops that looked solid wood just glued to the top and proud of the top all around; are people just counting on limited wood movement?
I can obviously rabbet a top and bottom in--probably bloodwood for the top, 1/4" ply for the bottom (was theoretically planning on felting the interior). Which brings me to my question... How do people address wood movement in small scale items like this? My natural inclination would be to do a 3/16" dado for the top and leave 1/16" gap on the front/back of the top. Maybe just glue the center of the top panel? How do other folks do this? I seem to recall seeing tops that looked solid wood just glued to the top and proud of the top all around; are people just counting on limited wood movement?