Small, lightweight cabinet design

[Jason Zahn]

Well, I should've thought this out about more...newbie mistake. Here it goes anyhow...I'm building a lightweight cherry cabinet to either hang on the wall via French cleat, or just rest on a counter or table. It's made of 1/2" cherry...sides 5 1/2" x 30 long, top and bottom approx 6 1/2 by 12.The top and bottom overhang the sides by 1/2" on each side.Being lightweight, with small dimensions, and being that its not going to see much if any stress on it, I was planning on using dowels to attach the top/bottom to the sides. I'm concerned that I might need to reinforce this joint, and was thinking about countersinking one screw into the center of each joint from the top and bottom into both sides and then filling with walnut plugs for contrast.Do I need to be concerned with wood movement in this instance or should it be OK given the relative width of the pieces? I know it's not ideal, and even as a been I cringe at the idea of screws, but I thought it might be my best option.Thanks!

[Dave Richards]

Assuming the grain runs vertically on the sides and left to right on the top and bottom any movement will be the same between the two pieces. It won't matter if there are screws in there or not. And, if the grain is oriented crossways like you'd have between a table top and the end aprons, it wouldn't be the screw causing problems. It would be the dowels.

Have you already made the dowel joints? If not, why not consider sliding dovetails. They'll be more secure and you won't need to add the screws.

If you stick with the dowels, I don't expect you'll have any need of the screws anyway. The glue joints will be plenty strong.

[Sam Murdoch]

Unless you are turning the top and bottom so that their grain direction is perpendicular to that of the sides, wood movement won't be an issue. The entire cabinet will move together. I don't see any reason to add screws if the dowels will be glued in place. Not a big fan of dowels so if I were doing this I would pin through the dowels from the inside to add a lock. Others might tell you that I'm nuts. They could be right .

[glenn bradley]

A rule of thumb I have read many times is that width under 10" provides inconsequential movement. If we subscribe to that, I see no problem. For future pieces, when I use thin stock I use sliding dovetails to solve this.

k-NWC DT rounding-04.jpg

[Jason Zahn]

Dave, Sam, Glen:

Thanks for the fast information for a very inexperienced newbie

The grain runs the same way so I won't have to worry about it, thankfully.

Unfortunately I've drilled for dowels; next time I'll use sliding dovetails!

Again, thanks so much.

Jason

[Andy Pratt]

I would dowel this as you did if I were building it myself. On this narrow a piece sliding dovetails don't seem necessary unless you want the satisfaction of doing them or seeing them visible on the finished piece.