Pie safe - or what about solid sides?

[Drew Bernat]

I'm designing a pie safe to use in our kitchen. My wife found one she likes the looks of that has solid sides. I'm trying to figure out how this will work in solid wood - I'm used to ply.

First, linkage: http://www.shakersprings.com/jelly_cabinet.html# or http://www.finish-it.com/furniture/d...LY_CABINET.jpg

First, picture details. In the first one, am I right in thinking it's a solid side piece, and the edge grain is effectively being hidden around trim (or next to the door)? Does that approach work well, or is it better to go with solid corner pieces (out of 8/4, say) and edge-glue the solid side panel inside the corners?

Second, expansion. A solid side will expand whereas a panel side will not. However, if the sides, top, and bottom are all glued together, won't they expand at the same rate and so everything will cancel out? Same with the shelves inside, actually. So will expansion just not be a problem with a solid-side design? The back will be, so I was going to make it out of ship-lapped boards.

Thanks!

[Dave Richards]

You are correct, expansion shouldn't be a problem as far as the relationship of top, bottom and sides are concerned. The place you need to be concerned would be where the crown molding is attached on the sides. Generally the side crown pieces would be attached only at the front while the back is allowed to slide. The sliding might be via slots for screws from the inside or a sliding dovetail arrangement along the top of the cabinet. This lets the side panels expand without pulling the crown molding loose and by attaching it only at the front, you won't have problems with the miter interface between the side and front crown pieces.

If you were to use battens or cleats to support shelves, you would also want to do a similar thing to prevent the side panels from splitting. A sliding dovetail could be used for the battens with only a bit of glue at the front and a small gap left between the end of the batten and the back of the cabinet.

By the way, there's nothing to hide on the edge since it is solid wood. That sounds like plywood talk.