Handwork in Wood

by William Noyes

The best machine-made drawers are now made with the bottom paneled or dadoed in all around so that papers cannot slip out. The back, as well as the front, is dovetailed.

Directions for Making a Table Drawer. Dress the front and sides to size. Fit the front of the drawer to its place in the table or cabinet, leaving a little play all around it. Plow the groove in the front and sides for the drawer bottom. For ordinary drawers, a groove ¼" wide is proper. If the ends of the front are to be rabbeted (see above), do this next. The sides are best joined to the front with the half-blind dovetail joint. (For directions see [p. 166]). After fitting these, lay out and cut the dadoes for the back of the drawer. Prepare the bottom of the drawer thus: the grain should run right and left, never front and back. If the drawer is so long as to require it, glue-joint the bottom, and fit it snugly to place. There need be no play right and left, and the bottom should extend as far back as the sides. If necessary, bevel the under side to fit the grooves. Assemble all the parts to see that they fit, take them apart, glue the sides to the front and back, slip the bottom into place, apply the clamps, and see to it that all joints are square, using a diagonal brace if necessary, Fig. 294. Fasten the bottom to the front by means of a thin block glued into the interior angle between the under side of the bottom and the back side of the front. When dry, clean up the drawer and fit it to its place.

(3) PANEL STRUCTURES

These include doors and cabinets of all sorts. The principle of panel or cabinet construction is that there shall be a frame composed of narrow members whose grain follows the principal dimensions. In the best construction this frame is mortised and tenoned together and within this frame there is set a thin board or panel which is free to shrink or swell but is prevented from warping by the stiffer frame. The object is to cover an extended surface in such a way that the general dimensions and good appearance will not be affected by whatever shrinkage there is. Since the frame itself is made up of narrow pieces, there is but little shrinkage in them. That shrinkage is all that affects the size of the whole structure, because wood does not shrink longitudinally to any appreciable extent. The shrinking or swelling of the panel does not affect the general size. The cross construction of the frame also prevents warping, since, in the best construction every joint is mortised and tenoned. The panel may simply be fastened on the back of the frame, but a better construction is to insert it in a groove made in the inside of the frame in which the panel is to lie and have free play. The panel may be made of one board or of matched boards, may be plain or have raised or carved surfaces, or be of glass; and the joints between frame and panel may be embellished with moldings mitered in, but the principle is the same in all cases.

The frame of a door, Fig. 288, illustrates the panel construction. The upright, outside pieces are called the "stiles," the horizontal pieces the "rails." There are also the "top-rail," the "bottom-rail," the "lock-rail" (where the door-knob and lock are inserted), and sometimes the "frieze-rail" between the lock rail and the top rail. The "muntin" is the upright between the two stiles.

Fig. 288. Door, Illustrating Panel Construction: S. Stile; T. R. Top Rail; L. R. Lock Rail; B. R. Bottom Rail; M. Muntin; P. Panel; A. Double Mortise-and-Tenon; F. Fillet; A. B. C. Forms of Panels.

The joint commonly used is the haunched or relished mortise-and-tenon, Fig. 267, No. [42], [p. 180]; (See [p. 163] for directions for making). The tenon is sometimes doubled, Fig. 288, and a fillet (f) may be inserted to cover the ends of the tenons, or the joint may be a blind mortise-and-tenon, Fig. 266, No. [32], or in cheap construction, dowels may be used. The best doors are now made with cores of pine covered on the visible sides with heavy veneer. Large surfaces are covered by increasing the number of parts rather than their size, as in wainscoting.

Picture-frames also belong in this class of structures, the glass taking the place of the panel. They are made with mortise-and-tenon joints, Fig. 266, No. [33], slip joints, Fig. 267, No. [46], dowelled butt joints, Fig. 264, No. [8], end lap joints, Fig. 265, No. [17], and, far more commonly, mitered joints, Fig. 268, No. [52]. Mitered joints are the easiest to make, for the joints can be cut in a miter-box, Fig. 181, [p. 103], and glued in a picture-frame-vise, Fig. 172, [p. 101]. This joint needs reinforcement by nails, Fig. 268, No. [52], by dowels, No. [53], or by splines, No. [55]. If the sides are of different widths, the fitting of the joint is more difficult. Mitered joints are the only kind suitable for molded frames. The rabbets are cut out with a rabbeting-plane before mitering and assembling.

The principle disadvantage of a mitered joint is that, if the wood shrinks at all, it opens at the inside corners, as in Fig. 289, because wood shrinks sidewise but not lengthwise.