Sideboard Joinery

The last sideboard, and most pieces like it that I build, I use panels of either mdf covered with veneer or quality 1/4” plywood of the same species. You don’t have to worry about wood movement and you can glue the panel in, which will give you a stronger piece and the panel won’t rattle.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

I prefer book matched panels myself! They just look nicer! I was in our local Merideth O’Donnell store recently, looking at the “fine” furniture there, and just about all of the side panels on their pieces are book matched panels.

-- Matt, Houston Texas

i’m new to woodworking,, can/will someone explain book matched panels? just curious..thanks

-- Dan Hux,,,,Raleigh, North Carolina

Hey Dan, book matched is where you take a board, resaw it (or have two consecutive slices of veneer), and then open the two pieces like a book. It gives you a mirror image grain pattern

http://cabnel.com/Cabinet%20Basics/Woods%20and%20Finishes.htm

-- I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

So Matt, do you tend to use a frame and panel side? Have you ever used a solid board?

-- I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

Hey Damiian
Depending on the style you choose for your sideboard you can use either or both solid or plywood .Frame and panel construction(whether it’s book matched or not) for the sides will work well because it minimizes wood movement by having a loose panel in the middle of a glued up frame. This is important because legs and panels wood grain runs in different directions and wood movement can tear a finished piece of furniture apart or cause joint failure .If that panel is plywood it has less wood movement than a solid wood panels do ,but you would still use solid wood frame around the panel. These panels can be joined with cope and stick mortise an tenon, stub tenons, biscuits or dowels. The joinery for the legs most probably would be mortise and tenon joinery. All of the joinery is subject to choice of the builder of the furniture or the plans you follow. I hope this helps rather than making things confusing. If you would like to see a fine example of a fine sideboard look at Tims(tenontim)

Jim

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

Hi Damian,

If you were to use solid wood construction you could use dovetails or finger joints making the joinery a part of the design. I personally tend to use either hardwood ply like I did here or veneer my on panels over mdf or particle board like I did here.
in both application you can either use a reinforced butt joint or some type of miter joint.
If you want to use veneer over mdf or particle board but still use sometype of exposed joinery you could cap the substrate with a piece of solid wood veneering over both the solid wood and substrate then cut your joinery into the solid wood. The result would look like solid wood but with the stability of mdf or PB. You can also control the lay up by bookmatching or slip matching your veneer. You obviously have to make sure the wood in oriented the proper way. In almost all case construction I do I use a full 3/4” thick back panel as I find it helps make the case absolutely sound.

-- Brian, Folsom, CA http://www.brianfullerdesigns.com

The last sideboard I built had frame and panel ends with solid stock panels, a solid top and low shelf, solid drawer kickers with ply dust covers, and a plywood bottom, vertical internal dividers, and back. All door and drawer parts are solid, except for the BB ply drawer bottoms. The plywood parts had 3/4” x 1” 1/4” wide face edging to hide the ply.

Allowance was made for movement across the width of the top, low shelf, end panels, and drawer fronts.

M&T throughout, except the top rails that run from the front legs to the drawer box sides was dovetailed from above. Drawers were through dt’d at the rear and half blind at the front.

-- - Please help keep Lumberjocks an enjoyable escape by refusing to participate in political discussions. Simply spit out the bait and ignore the thread...

On the huntboard I built, the sides and back were solid wood panels that floated on splines to allow for expansion. So far so good :)

-- Rich in Richmond