Nailing web frames into dadoed panels?

[opalko]

I am constructing a sideboard made of solid wood (red oak). The end panels are glue ups of smaller boards. In between the two ends will be a set of drawers, with webbed frames separating the rows of drawers. I came across an old article in a best of Fine Woodworking by Christian Becksvoort about building chests of drawers where he simply slides the frames into dadoes cut in the side panels, and then nails 6D finishing nails in at an angle through the frame into the side panel; simple and does not have to worry about wood movement.

I've never heard of this technique before but it seems simple and straightforward enough. Otherwise I'm looking at doing sliding dovetails which I have not had good success with in the past. Anyone?

Cheers, Dukester

[Leon]

Some what easier and with out the need of putting in a nail is simply use a small amount of glue in the spot where the nail was going to be set. The joint can still slip if needed and the glue generally will not work loose as a nail might do. Alternatively you can use pan head/washer head screws screw the frames through slightly oversized holes in the web frame.

[Chris Friesen]

The idea here is that the nail will bend/loosen to accomodate wood movement. I'd be tempted to use a screw in an oversized/elongated hole instead.

In other pieces, the same author has used unglued tenons joining the rear of the drawer runners (the side members of the web frame) to the rear dividers (the rear members of the web frame). The rear dividers are then dovetailed and glued to the carcase sides the same way the front ones are (but recessed a bit to accomodate the back).

The idea is that the fixed front and rear dividers will hold the sides of the carcase together, while any size change in the carcase sides is handled by the tenon sliding in and out of the rear divider.

Chris

[Swingman]

" [e-mail]" wrote

In this situation, and depending upon the wood used, I normally just glue no more than about the front third of the web frame in the dado, leaving the back two thirds, or more unglued, so the side panels can move. It's also a good idea to make sure the web frame is a bit short of the back panel.

When choosing wood for side panels in casework like this, you can mitigate the cross grain movement by using quarter sawn stock. In almost every stack of red oak I can find one or two quarter sawn boards and save them for just this type of situation.

Every little bit helps ...

I've never had a single problem with the above method. That said, there is nothing wrong whatsoever with nailing/bradding them in as described ... it's been done that way for a few hundred years at least.