Carcass glue-up advice

[Randy]

In the middle of a dresser project and looking for your expertise. It's a nine drawer plan with 5 horizontal dividers and 5 vertical dividers. Joinery for the carcass is dados and rabetts. I'm almost to the point of glue-up which should be simple enough but I have some questions about the best way to tackle it.

My initial thought was to glue the sides together with the top, bottom and 3 other horizontal dividers. The only thing left to add would be to "slide" the vertical dividers into their respective dados then glue and clamp. My concern is that wouldn't the "sliding" in of the vertical dividers just push all the glue through the dados and out the back? :dontknow:

 

[striker]

Randy,

I don't know that I have the answer to the question at hand but I'll share a few points I've found handy.

First, you have to work fast so do a trial run with clamps and any necessary blocking you'll need. Cellophane works good to prevent unwanted gluing on any blocking. Keep a tape, any squaring tools and a mallet handy. The glue applied to joints can swell causing a dry slip fit to turn into a real headache - thus the mallet.

Break the glue up into manageable portions. Bear in mind wood movement - it may not be necessary or prudent to glue every inch of the carcase.

I'm sure I'm glazing some important steps but others will fill in I'm sure.

Stephen

 

[Bas]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. The vertical partitions are there to guide the drawers, there won't be any weight resting against them. There should be enough glue left (provided the joint isn't too tight) to keep everything in place. Plus, the strength comes from the shoulder, a dado doesn't have a lot of glue strength (end grain).

What you could do instead is first glue up the horizontal and vertical dividers, let dry, then glue the subassembly into the sides. It makes cleaning up the squeezeout a little simpler. Clamping and keeping everything square might be a challenge though. Depending on the size of the project, you could glue up and lightly clamp the subassembly, then insert into the sides dry just for alignment.

I'll echo what Stephen said - prep the glue-up carefully. For anything complicated, I use plastic resin glue (DAP Weldwood - available at Ace Hardware). It has an open time of about 30-45 minutes, which cuts down significantly on the stress level. There is also a product called Waxilit that will prevent glue from sticking to the wood (it comes off with mineral spirits).

 

[Randy]

Great tips guys...thanks for the advice. Bas, gluing up all the dividers first is something that I had not even considered but seems like a great approach to my glue push-out concerns. I really like the idea of then dry fitting that into the box to eliminate any squaring issues while the dividers set up. I've been using Titebond Extend which gives me a little more open time and I've been pretty happy with it so far but I'll look at DAP as an option too.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Stephen and Bas both had excellent suggestions. On a large carcass project like this I always find it best to start w/ the inside and work my way out in stages. Assemble the interior frames, horizontal and vertical, first, and let that assembly dry. To keep it square, use inside corner braces clamped to a couple of connections. You won't need to square every joint, just two or three. If those two or three are square, the rest will also be square by default.

HTH

Bill