Can you tighten a dado (92 of them)?

[onedash]

So my "jig" consisted of a piece of maple mounted to my miter gauge and two lines drawn on it where to start and stop the dado. It prevent most of the tearout. Most of the dados do not need to be tapped into place. I ordered dowels and dowel centers (haven't used a dowel since high school) and self centering drill bit so the dowels line up. Will dowels glued into every dado stiffen everything up do you think? With it dry fit together it's kinda wobbly.
I still have to round all the edges and cut out the ends-and drill all the dowel holes.

The plan called for rails under the Top but I left them out. I think I might have to go ahead and add them. I think it will look better from the side if they are there.



Correction: There are currently only 84 dados.

[vaking]

I would use gap-filling glue (something like "Gorilla") and believe it will do the job. It already looks nice.

[cwsmith]

Visually nice design, and your workmanship is very nice indeed. But it's leaving me wonder if this is supposed to be an assembly that is easily disassembled... sort of a 'knock-down' design (like portable)?

I ask only because I don't see any lateral or vertical stiffness built into it. The bottle fitted horizontal pieces seem to just stack on top of the side pieces, unless I'm missing something in the picture. It appears to have 2 foot pieces, 8 similar side pieces, 2 top side pieces, and 5 pieces each of the the horizontal bottle-fitting pieces (bottle neck and base). All those pieces appear to be stack fitted and then the top board added. Where would the dowels be fitted?

I think adding the two horizontal pieces under the top would only stiffen the top to the two side pieces directly beneath it, it wouldn't do much for the rest of the assembly. I know I must be missing something here, because as I'm seeing it now, even if the pieces were so tight that you had to use a mallet to fit them into the slots, it would still be a bit wobbly because of the many pieces making up the sides. I just don't see any lateral support or vertical stiffness to the sides.

CWS

[onedash]

It does stack together like Lincoln logs. The dowels will go in each dado. I'm not planning on taking it apart once it's finished. Originally there were 10 identical side pieces. The pieces I had left for the last two top rails were too short I thought instead of cutting up another big board I would just cut the dados off and use pocket screw to attach the top to the sides. I think it will look better if I add those rails though. Guess I will break out another board.

[cwsmith]

Thanks,

I guess if those dados are tight fitting it would be relatively stiff. Is this a published design or your own and is it supposed to be glued? (I wouldn't think so, as it appears to be more a design relying on fit rather than adhesion.) I'm not so sure the dowels will do much for you though. I'm thinking that a thin veneer-like sliver in those looser joints would stiffen things up enough. With the sliver cut just slightly narrower than the thickness of the stock, and used behind the horizontal pieces they would be well hidden.

It does look very nice though, and I like the workmanship and finish.

Thanks,

CWS

[Black wallnut]

I think, based on your joints looking tight, that if you just glue them it will add rigidity. If you added tight fitting dowels it would make it even more so. looks great by the way!

[onedash]

My wife handed me the plan at woodcraft and said I want this for my birthday/Mothersday. Since I had already had enough wood cut for the fronts and back that I was going to use to make raised panel sides for a book shelf, I repurposed it for this. Instead of cutting off a half inch or so I figured I might as well leave them alone. More wood to look at. It says to glue the dowels so I think I will clamp them up while the glue sets and it will hopefully be nice and tight. The self centering drill bits that I have on the way should really come in handy for doing hinges after this. I really hate doing tiny hinges on flimsy thin doors. Can't believe I didn't already have them.

[poolhound]

The self centering drill bits that I have on the way should really come in handy for doing hinges after this. I really hate doing tiny hinges on flimsy thin doors. Can't believe I didn't already have them.

Its always good to find a way to buy more tools :-)

[onedash]

Sanded about 7 hours Saturday almost all by hand since there isn't much flat surface and drilled all the dowel holes. I dry fit it all back together again and it is Very stable now. I probably wouldn't even need to glue them. I did break two dowels taking pieces apart so I had to drill em out.
Now I have to decide how much finishing to do before/after putting it together. This is my first time using sapele so my research has lead me to try Zinsser SealCoat (probably two layers), Danish oil and then Spray laquer. Usually I do 1 coat of stain if any followed by several layers of wipe on poly. This Danish Oil and Seal Coat both stink a lot more than wipe on poly. The Danish oil seems to look a little darker than the seal coat. Wondering if the seal coat will prevent the Danish oil from soaking in.
I'm wondering now if I should just use the Danish oil on all the pieces and just put in the extra effort on the top.

[tfischer]

Matthias Wandel did a video on different glue techniques on mortise/tenon joints, and ironically the one where the tenon was much too loose was one of the strongest. This was just with standard yellow glue. So I wouldn't worry too much about slightly oversized dados... just use plenty of glue, and make sure it's clamped well and square before it dries.