I'm rebuilding/refinishing a maple hutch and there are several
crossgrain situations. The bottom half of the hutch is several inches
deeper than the top half. The bottom had a couple of tongue and
groove dust frames to which the solid panel sides and top were
screwed. Those frames failed.
The top section the sides are glass in cope and stick panels and again
those are screwed directly to the solid wood bottom. The length of
the cross grain section is about 9", compared to about 14" in the
bottom, and nothing has failed there.
Obviously I'll be reworking the bottom half. But if the top half
hasn't failed after 30 years or so should I bother messing with it?
The screws are in at an angle, which if I'm off with I'm going to
punch through either the inside or outside of the sides (both are
visibile) and the screws are flat head so it's not a simple matter of
elongating the holes in the bottom, otherwise I'd have it done in less
time than it took to write this.
-Leuf
Leuf wrote:
> I'm rebuilding/refinishing a maple hutch and there are several
> crossgrain situations. The bottom half of the hutch is several inches
> deeper than the top half. The bottom had a couple of tongue and
> groove dust frames to which the solid panel sides and top were
> screwed. Those frames failed.
>
> The top section the sides are glass in cope and stick panels and again
> those are screwed directly to the solid wood bottom. The length of
> the cross grain section is about 9", compared to about 14" in the
> bottom, and nothing has failed there.
>
> Obviously I'll be reworking the bottom half. But if the top half
> hasn't failed after 30 years or so should I bother messing with it?
> The screws are in at an angle, which if I'm off with I'm going to
> punch through either the inside or outside of the sides (both are
> visibile) and the screws are flat head so it's not a simple matter of
> elongating the holes in the bottom, otherwise I'd have it done in less
> time than it took to write this.
...
I'd go w/ the "if it ain't broke..." mantra here, most likely. At 9",
the movement in maple isn't terribly much and the screw is probably not
_that_ rigid, anyway. Depending on the design and what would be needed
for stability, one could only leave one or move it to the middle
region, but if it hasn't been a problem so far, my inclination would be
to wait until it actually is one...
dpb wrote:
> I'd go w/ the "if it ain't broke..." mantra here, most likely. At 9",
> the movement in maple isn't terribly much and the screw is probably not
> _that_ rigid, anyway. Depending on the design and what would be needed
> for stability, one could only leave one or move it to the middle
> region, but if it hasn't been a problem so far, my inclination would be
> to wait until it actually is one...
I was thinking the same thing. On the other hand, if the violation of a
design principle bothered me enough, I might try to straighten it out
just so I wouldn't feel that nagging irritation every time I looked at
the piece. From a practical standpoint, I'd say leave it. From a
personal standpoint, maybe fix it.
Leuf wrote:
> The bottom sits in a rabbet in the sides, three screws going up at an
> angle into the side. So all the screws are doing is keeping the
> bottom from falling out when you pick it up. I figure I can lose the
> rearmost screws and be fine. Thanks guys,
I have this image of the screwdriver touching the screw and the whole
piece flying apart violently. ;-)
On 12 Sep 2006 10:04:44 -0700, "boorite" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>dpb wrote:
>
>> I'd go w/ the "if it ain't broke..." mantra here, most likely. At 9",
>> the movement in maple isn't terribly much and the screw is probably not
>> _that_ rigid, anyway. Depending on the design and what would be needed
>> for stability, one could only leave one or move it to the middle
>> region, but if it hasn't been a problem so far, my inclination would be
>> to wait until it actually is one...
>
>I was thinking the same thing. On the other hand, if the violation of a
>design principle bothered me enough, I might try to straighten it out
>just so I wouldn't feel that nagging irritation every time I looked at
>the piece. From a practical standpoint, I'd say leave it. From a
>personal standpoint, maybe fix it.
The bottom sits in a rabbet in the sides, three screws going up at an
angle into the side. So all the screws are doing is keeping the
bottom from falling out when you pick it up. I figure I can lose the
rearmost screws and be fine. Thanks guys,
-Leuf
On 13 Sep 2006 18:12:41 -0700, "boorite" <[email protected]> wrote:
>Leuf wrote:
>
>> The bottom sits in a rabbet in the sides, three screws going up at an
>> angle into the side. So all the screws are doing is keeping the
>> bottom from falling out when you pick it up. I figure I can lose the
>> rearmost screws and be fine. Thanks guys,
>
>I have this image of the screwdriver touching the screw and the whole
>piece flying apart violently. ;-)
I already saw that when I flipped the K-Besseys around to pushing and
took the sucker apart the first time, after taking out all the screws
of course. Poor thing never knew what hit it.
-Leuf