I am making a walnut chest-of-drawers. The top will overhang the carcass by about 1″, and I want to attach moulding underneath the top and attach it to the carcass sides. On the front, I plan to glue the moulding to the carcass front since the grain of the front and the grain of the moulding are in the same direction. I plan to miter the front moulding to the side moulding and glue the miter joint with glue about 1″ along the side moulding next to the miter.
What is the best way to attach the side moulding to the rest of the carcass side? This is a classic cross-grain situation. If I use brads, will the brads bend enough as the carcass side undergoes seasonal wood movement? Is there a better way?
I hate using brads on a nice piece because even if you carefully fill the nail holes, it is tough to hide them.
How would you do it?
Replies
You can either screw from inside the carcass using elongated holes, or use a 23 ga pin nailer. Pins are thin enough to bend with seasonal wood movement, and leave very small holes that can be filled with sanding sawdust and a little blonde shellac to become invisible.
I squirt a wee bit of shellac on the area, and sand it out with fine sandpaper, same grit as your final sanding on the mouldings, so it all matches. It will make the small pin holes disappear.
Jeff
I'm not sure that I would glue the miter.
You could use dovetail keys (male) glued along the side of the carcase with a sliding dovetail (female) cut into the side molding. You would position the molding into the keys and they would secure it to the side of the carcass. This would allow you to close the miter, but allow for seasonal wood movement, avoiding gaps or cracking. It's a bit more work, but not that hard and if your chest is walnut, probably worth the effort.
Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
If I did go with the dovetail keys, wouldn't I still have to glue the miter to force the wood movement to the back of the case to keep the miter from opening up?
If the carcass was real deep and you expected a lot of movement, you could glue and (from the inside) screw the moulding at the front miter end, then use some type of sliding fix along the middle and back that would hold it to the carcass but allow it to move. That could be as simple as an exposed screwhead slid into a slot made on the moulding. My concern is that the mitered area would open up, otherwise.
Edited 4/8/2008 1:07 pm ET by blewcrowe
I would glue the mitered corners and the front piece to the cabinet.
The sides are where the molding needs to "float" over the panel. A pin nailer makes really hard to find spots, so I dont worry about them. If I was making a major piece and wanted the best construction, I would cut a dovetail slot in the back of the side moldings and put short dovetailed keys screwed to the side to hold the molding in place.
A simpler option is a T slot and screw heads in the T.
Period correct is to glue and let the panel break - but I cant do that much work and let a flaw that is only damaging, not seen, and the better way is also unseen go.
But a client may request "period correct" and then, it is his piece - so be it.
Mike
Thanks for the replies. I like the idea of the dovetail keys. Given the amount of work to do the keys, however, using pin nails is tempting.
The problem: I do not have a pin nailer, only a 18 guage brad nailer. Would 18 guage brads be too stiff and likely facilitate splitting the case side?
18 gauge is not too stiff, but the entry holes would require some cosmetic work.
Mike
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled