feedback on my design(actually just a joint) please?

[dan moran]

hi all,

i am working on a design that i will be building for a friend..

the friend wants something that resembles this:



BUT....

she wants it to have a 48" x 26"-27" footprint with 14" between shelves to show off wine bottles and books and such, she also wants it to be roughly 7' high...

i came up with this rough idea with the outer frames in oak and the shelf planks to be solid and either made out of oak, clear pine, or aspen(depending on $$, and preference).



the (nearly) vertical parts of the framework are going to be 1x4 while the upper horizontal will be 2-1/4" x 3/4" and the lower horizontal member will be 1x6 with an arch cut in to help with leveling..

SO HERES THE QUESTION:

would i be alright in using a doweled half-lap joint instead of miters for the "corners" of the frames??

would this be strong enough to support a good amount of weight being glued and pinned like that with 1/2" oak dowels?



has anyone here done this? am i crazy for thinking that it would work??

i think it would look pretty cool, im just not sure of the mechanics of the situation

thanks for reading so far..and thanks for any feedback/critique of the design.

-dan

[Mike Cutler]

Dan.
That joint should be fine. I used the same one, minus the dowels, on a "Tanning" rack for stretching hides. It worked fine.

[Doug Shepard]

Looks good to me. I'd go ahead and advertise it too, rather than try to hide it with plugs of the same species. Walnut, paduak, etc. would look pretty good against oak,

[dan moran]

i was thinking it would be ok, i was just looking for a little corroboration..

about the pins-- i was thinking about using dowels so that the endgrain on them would sop up a bit more stain and be a little darker than the rest of the piece to "advertise" the joinery without being over the top..

thanks again for looking..

[Greg Funk]

The design looks stable in one direction but it's not clear how sturdy it would be if someone pushes on the long side. How are the shelves supported?

[dan moran]

The design looks stable in one direction but it's not clear how sturdy it would be if someone pushes on the long side. How are the shelves supported?

probably with red oak 1X4 crossmembers mortised(or pocket screwed, havent completely decided) into the "vertical" members of the frame something like this:




actually this is the next problem im mulling over-- wether to use 1x4 or something wider with a more drastic curve...

[Ben Grunow]

I would think that some 1" thick stock woudl be better in the long run. More strength for lap joints and dados for shelves (if you were planning dados)

What is going to keep those long shelves from sagging with wine bottles etc? Maybe a steel angle on the bottoms or a board with an arch that matches the bottom arch would help.

You could put a vertical board on top of the shelves as a divider and a stiffener and it might help to display things. Just thinking out loud.