I am building a wall unit composed of 6 cases, some with shelves, some drawers and some doors. The lower tier of cases will project out beyond the upper cases by about 7″, so part of the lower case tops will be visible. I was planning to use through dovetail joints to join the tops to the sides and I would have the pins in the top and the tails in the sides. This would show the angled part of the joint from the side view and the straight part from the top view.
Having said all this, I admit most case construction using DT joints that I have seen use the half blind DT joint for the tops and bottoms to sides with some method of hiding the top of the joint. Is there anything wrong (from the design standpoint) with using the through DTs on the tops?
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I think half blinds tend to be used because traditionally people didn't want to see end grain in these situations. Just a surmise.
I personally think the tail part/pin ends is the prettier view of the joint as opposed to the pins/tail ends. I might consider having them show on the top. A passing thought for what it might be worth.
I agree that the tails and the pin end grain are more attractive than the tops of the tails and the pin long grain. In my case it is a real toss-up which view is more prominent, side or top.
I have another question about putting together multiple cases into one unit. On the one hand it would be nice for the cases to be useable as stand-alone units if desired. On the other hand it is doubtful I can simply stack the cases beside each other and on top of each other to form a complete wall unit without some form of inter-attachment mechanism to hold them together (e.g bolt side to side and top to bottom). This means some form of attaching scews or bolts that will leave visible holes if the units are ever separated. Out here in California it is also going to be necessary to secure the units to the wall for earthquakes.
Any recommendations on how to assemble the cases together?
Any recommendations on how to assemble the cases together?
Yeah, check out the knockdown hardware at Lee Valley and Rockler (for example):
hhttp://www.leevalley.com/hardware/page.aspx?c=2&p=41308&cat=3,41306
http://www.rockler.com/CategoryView.cfm?Cat_ID=115
Rockler also has excellent options for hanging cabinets as well under "furniture hardware" "brackets and braces"
http://www.rockler.com/CategoryView.cfm?Cat_ID=20
Check out the steel cleats, for example:
http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/product_details.cfm?offerings_id=347
Thanks for the leads. Interesting hardware. I'm still trying to figure out what the chances are that I can build 6 large cases perfectly square to each other. There will almost certainly be some side-to-side gaps between the units when they are all stacked together. If I tighten up the connectors to bring some sides together, it may draw another side or top even further out of alignment.
There will almost certainly be some side-to-side gaps between the units when they are all stacked together.
You might think about incorporating some sort of face trim or molding into the design so that you can mask those gaps and any cased by seasonal wood movement.
To me a dovetail looks good ANYWAY.. Some better than others but all good..
jack,
Because of the way the joint is formed, dovetails will withstand stress better in one direction than in the other. (That's why drawers are d't'd in the orientation that they are, if assembled the other way around, the force of pulling open a jammed drawer would tend to disassemble the joint.) With this in mind, you should orient the pins and tails in the direction that will withstand the anticipated stress that using the object will exert on the joint. This might be side-to side, in a case of drawers, or up-and down, in the instance of the bottom of a hanging cabinet.
Otherwise, it is a matter of what you think is best appearance-wise.
Regards,
Ray
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