cabinet wood movement

[dustyone]

Hello,

I've built a cabinet where the two sides are solid wood and the top, bottom and back are plywood. After I glued up the cabinet, I went to a friend's house and saw a cabinet which I had made for him last summer. The wood had moved around quite a bit, and I'd like to avoid the same situation with the new one. One idea I had was to make a vertical cut through each of the glued up panels, to allow for expansion. This is how the maker of an antique highboy that we own handled the problem. Seems as though the width of the kerf would be sufficient to allow for seasonal movement. What do you think of inserting a piece of softwood (pine) into the cutout? If I do use some insert, should I glue it, or not? Next time, it's all ply for me.

Regards,

Curt Blood

[dingbat]

Presumably the side grain runs vertically. So the only significant movement you'll see is front-to-back of the sides. This will be a problem for the top, but not really anything else.

Let the bottom be loosely fitted and allow it to move relative to the sides. Sit it in a dado or groove in the sides and hold it there with either the front and back panels, or a single nail/screw in the middle.

Allow the top to move upon the frame. Read a good cabinetry book for details, or do something similar to the base. You might also groove the tops of the sides and screw L-shaped buttons to the underside of the top, as for a tabletop.

Don't worry about the back or front.