I'm building a bookcase with four fixed shelves (plus the top). It will be a total of 50" high and 30" wide.
The shelves will be sliding "half-dovetails." I've _tried_ to illustrate below what I mean, but basically think of a dovetail with only one angle cut in. I got the idea out of a design plan I bought, but the plan was more of a Craftsman-style bookcase with slatted sides, and I want solid sides.
The bookcase is being built out of flatsawn cherry (YOU try finding rift/quarter-sawn!), and the sides will be a total of 12" wide.
So here are my two questions:
- Because the wood is flatsawn, the grain patterns are harder to match-up, so I would like to glue-up two 6" boards, rather than three
- The reason I'm doing the half-dovetails, instead of simply dadoes, is that I want the sides of the bookcase to be held together by the shelves themselves. I am NOT gluing the dovetails, but rather pinning them in the front to allow them to expand freely toward the back of the case. However, am I running the risk that, because I'm using flatsawn boards, that this whole thing is literally going to pull itself apart over time?
Thanks for any help you guys can give...illustration is below.
| | | | Shelf | _|_________ | | | |/|_________ | | | |