Thread: Coffee Table Top Expansion

Hi Guys,

Good to be back in Oz again after my trip to the UK. I'll be getting back into the workshop this weekend and I just want to clarify something. I now have solid oak for the frame and good quality 19mm veneered plywood for the panel below. Will it now be ok to glue the frame to the panel as in photo below?:

grain.jpg

You should be fine.

Good quality ply is dimensionally stable, so the grain direction of the panel is irrelevant.

Your frame members will move ... a tad ... in thickness, but not in length.

I have had similar doors on my workshop cabinets (pine frames around a ply panel where everything is glued together) for 15 years. No issues at all.

What can happen occasionally is that lesser quality ply will remain dimensionally stable but will warp and/or twist. I have seen 1200 X 2400 ply sheets trying to adopt the shape of a propellor. Usually, it's an easy problem to prevent in the factory, but some factories have yet to do what is necessary to solve the problem.

MDF and particleboard are similarly dimensionally stable. That's one reason I sometimes use lipped and veneered panels in the sides of cabinets. I can tenon and glue the web frames to the sides because they aren't about to move seasonally. This provides an exceptionally strong carcass.