Re: how can wood movement be compensated for in this piece?

yes when doing mitered bands around a table top like that, you need a stable substrate.

i don't know the real expansion rates for plywood, but it's very minimal for even an entire sheet, (once completely dry) and you could do better with MDF,

a practical cabinetmaker would use what would work best, ply or MDF is not really an issue with me, provided the under surface was attended to. provided your not going for a museum quality reproduction ply is fine.

traditional chinese furniture can and will have blown out corners, sometimes with the gaps filled in entirly with finish that someone has applied later.

Dover has a book on Chinese furniture that is pretty good, measured drawings and details on construction. the Chinese aesthetic cannot be denied but the Japanese show the most sensitivity to the material and being that way avoid all that flush work

it still is, isn't it ?

I am not sure ,I have not seen any [lumbercore ] around here foe some time now .

Again I suspect the outer frame is not solid wood but veneer arranged to look like a separate frame on the same base as the panel it encloses..

If it is a true solid frame with mitered corners there is no way the corners will not show evidence of wood movement . I say this having played around with antiques for many years . It is my personal belief that wood over time not only expands and contracts due primarily due to humidity changes and to a lesser degree heat but overall has a tendancy to shrink over the years . For instance take the back of an antique chest of drawers in particular a back that consists of a series of thin boards arranged vertically ,I am pretty certain when originally done the boards fitted perfectly . Now replacing the boards and butting them to each other there will be a remaining space of at least 3/8"

Getting back to the frame, antique frames always open at the inside corners for the same reason as explained earlier ,the shrinkage being across the frame grain and not in the direction of the miter. thats why I think the frame is actually a veneered arrangement on the piece in question.

One question, at least in my mind , is the discovery of laquered items still in perfect condition which were cargo of sunken Spanish gallions. If this is true the laquer must have been a perfect "sealer" and and a very durable finish to boot. I still do not think the laquer prevented wood movement in this case obviously there was no change in humidity and probably there was not much change in temperature ....mjh

in

crossveneer

home depot's got it, meranti core: more holes than madonnas' chastity belt.

answer: nematodes, tiny worms who excrete lemon oil and paste wax. :-)

Considering the known diversity of the nematodes, and also the level our remaining ignorant I would not discount the possibility. I would only suspect two different species, one for the lemon oil and one for the paste wax. Throw in a sea squirt and you have cellulose sanding sealer ;-)

Peter

throw in an over exuberant sponge applicator named bob, with parallelogram pants and you have a hypothesis,