question about wood placement

[dave pant]

I am currently working on building a nice dresser, Im in need of a new one.
I plan on using red oak and walnut. The top will be a spliced miter walnut edge with red oak plywood center. The sides will also be red oak plywood but with a walnut edge around it. Do you guys see any problem that might arise by wood movement doing this. I dont have the tools to do raised panel doors so I want to do this. However an amish guy that I talk to alot said I will have troubles. I dont see how because of the solid wood on top of plywood. Here is a picture of what I'm making, its just a jpg but its from my sketchup model. I like to build it my projects on sketchup first.



Thanks,
Dave

[David Keller NC]

You will have no trouble with this arrangement (solid wood edging on plywood). I built an aquarium cabinet out of this construction, and as you might imagine, it sees large extremes of humidity swings.

However, one thing to remember is to keep the solid wood edging narrow. As the width of the frame members expand, it changes the angle of the miter, and so if the edges are more than about an inch or so, it could open the joint. You can count-act this somewhat by sawing a kerf across the miter and inserting a long-grain key, then plane/sand that flush.

Regarding frame and panels - it's possible to do this with a relatively simple kit of hand tools. While not nearly as fast as a router/shaper, it's a lot cheaper than buying the dedicated machine, and also a lot safer.

Basically, you need 1) a marking knife, 2) a rabbet or shoulder plane and 3) a bench plane - preferably something short like a smoother. One simply marks in the rectangular shoulder on the raised panel with the knife, sinks the field rabbet with the rabbet/shoulder plane, and then planes away the bevels. It's actually quite easy, and relatively quick if you've only got a few to do.

[David Keller NC]

Dave - One other comment. You might want to buy your plywood from a specialty lumber dealer than from the big-box store. Your lumber dealer will have slip-matched veneered oak plywood, which is a lot more attractive than the rotary-cut veneer stuff they sell at the Borg. It'll be more expensive, but you're not going to need more than about 1/2 sheet anyway.