glue up solid wood frame and panel

[BradD Strong]

I'm making my first dresser out of walnut, a frame and panel design (wood whisperer's guild project). The plans call for plywood panels on the sides, but I'd like to use solid walnut. The panel width will be 14", and looking at wood movement calculators looks like I can plan on at least 1/4" of wood movement (grain oriented vertically). Some suggest just gluing the front edge of the panel so the back edge floats in it's groove in the back leg. That forces all of the wood movement to the back leg, which would mean I'd need a pretty deep back leg groove depth. I'm concerned this might weaken some other joinery in the leg.

What if I placed a spot of glue midway across the top and bottom of the panel in their respective rail grooves. This would allow me to split the movement across the front and back legs, and not have to have such deep grooves. There will be drawer web frames dado'd into the panels, so again I would only glue the central couple of inches or so. Does this seem reasonable?

[glenn bradley]

Attaching in the middle is a common method most often done with a pin or small nail. Glue can work as well but, things like space-balls or foam strips holding the panel centered while allowing movement are modern methods. I generally glue things at the front an force movement to the rear on parts that I want to stay aligned visually. Side panels I float (with space balls or whatever method seems best for the piece) and use no glue at all.

[Lee Schierer]

Solid wood panels are really nice and I use them frequently as as hardwood plywood isn't readily available to me. I usually cmake groves 3/8" deep and allow about 3/16" per side. A spot of glue or a small brad in the center will work, but isn't necessary. I find that the finish I apply after assembly does a great job of holding the panel in place. Space balls or beads of cured silicone can be used to keep panels centered.