Shopsmith Forums

I got my SN #126 this week and it has lots of ideas for me.

I have a very limited space for my shop in the basement (9'x13'). Roll-a-round storage is one of my priorities. The cover article seems a great project for me in this regard.

Looking at the plans, the plywood back has hardwood strips glued with butt joints to its sides. I have yet to deal with birch or other quality plywood, but my instincts tell me this is a weak point in the design. I will probably build as designed, just wondering.

There is back panel edging glued to the back. These 1"X3/4" strips are rabbeted 3/4" (to fit the sides) by 1/4" inch deep. The sides are glued into the rabbeted strips. This effort hides the plywood edges and matches the front stiles.

charlese wrote:There is back panel edging glued to the back. These 1"X3/4" strips are rabbeted 3/4" (to fit the sides) by 1/4" inch deep. The sides are glued into the rabbeted strips. This effort hides the plywood edges and matches the front stiles.

Yeah. The sides have he rabbit joint providing face to face glue surfaces, but the back just has a butt joint to form the corner. That is my concern. Like I mentioned I will build it as the plans are. If I later have a failure, I can screw metal angles to the outsides of the corners to hold the corner pieces in place.

Just wondered what other ShopNotes readers thought of this part of the project.

Overall I am excited about this project. I have not priced the hardware or anything, but do plan to build it

Not to worry about the EDGE to EDGE joint of the hardwood strips. Plywood has alternating layers of edge face veneers and the strip will be truly an edge joint. NOTE: the author glues only one strip at a time in order to get a good fit.

This should not be called a butt joint as that term should be reserved to END to another piece of wood joining. End joining usually requires some type of tenon such as dowels, biscuits, tenon, etc. Other reinforcements are also available such as metal brackets, or glue blocks.

charlese wrote:Not to worry about the EDGE to EDGE joint of the hardwood strips. Plywood has alternating layers of edge face veneers and the strip will be truly an edge joint. NOTE: the author glues only one strip at a time in order to get a good fit.

This should not be called a butt joint as that term should be reserved to END to another piece of wood joining. End joining usually requires some type of tenon such as dowels, biscuits, tenon, etc. Other reinforcements are also available such as metal brackets, or glue blocks.

Thanks for replies. I saw the tip in the article about only doing one strip at a time.

I see what you mean on the difference between BUTT joint and EDGE to EDGE joint. A distinction I should have known applied here. Still, I would have thought the limited amount of edge on the plywood would have indicated the use of the reinforcements you mentioned above. So I gain a little of others experience here. Thanks again for taking the time and explaining.