chest carcass question

Hi everyone,

Well, my ash panels for the chest of drawers/changing table are still just as cupped as ever, so I'm going to try to rip them down again and start over, using some of the suggestions and reading that I've found. I'm going to try narrower glue-ups in sections, before gluing up the entire large panels. Also, I'll try alternating the faces that are against the router fence, so I can ensure even joints when gluing. I'm still not sure how to keep the panels flat AFTER they are glued up. The humidity has been really bad lately, and that's the only thing that I can figure that has been making these problems so much worse than usual.

My question now is, if I have to rejoint the faces of the boards, will it be catastrophic to use 1/2" thick boards for the carcase box instead of 3/4"? I really can't afford to buy a whole new load of ash again, but I've already planed the boards down to 3/4" for the initial glue-ups.

I would obviously rather use the thicker wood, but I also don't want to build a case that will fall apart on me or something. I'm planning to use through dovetails for assembling the case, so hopefully that will make the structure pretty strong.

Mike

Mike,

Don't understand why you would have to resurface the panel faces but if you do, yes 1/2" panels would be okay. May panels are made from 1/4" stock (beaded panels for instance)

During your glue up this time, just coat one face and then slid it against the next panel section to spread the glue. It's been my experience that over-tightening the clamps will lead to the panel bowing during glue-up. Use some culls to keep the panels flat and only apply enough glue and clamp pressure so you have a small bead of glue on squeeze-out.

After you take your panels out of the clamps, stack them using scraps of wood between them so the air (moisture) can get to both sides keeping equilibrium.

Bob S.