Woops-Bread board ends/wood movement

[Jeff Horton]

Making a cabinet for LOML for her Christmas (it's what she asked for). Using ply for the shelves and I cut tongue and grooves to trim the ends with some solid wood (poplar) to hide the ply. Just finished cutting everything and was about to glue this up when it hit me I had to allow for wood movement.

Shelves are 20" wide. Will have Laundry baskets on them being slid in and out. So I really need to attach the lip so a gap doesn't appear and the baskets catch on this and tear it up. Suggestions? It's late in the game to be asking, I know!

[Jay Lock]

Jeff

Are you talking about a simple edge band on the shelf, say 1" out of the 20" width?

I don't think you'll have to worry about wood movement unless the inside cabinet tolerances are VERY close. (i.e. the inside of the cabinet door just touches the shelf when it is closed)

I have put edge bands on ply shelves and never noticed any wood movement problems.

Jay

Here's a calculator you might like to play with

http://justwoodworking.com/software/wood_move.php

[Jesse Cloud]

Hey Jeff,
I think Jay is probably right. The ply is not going to move. The poplar isn't going to move along the long grain. The movement is going to be along the width of the poplar.

Is the shelf set in a dado? Are you concerned that the poplar would grow too big for the dado or too small? As Ken said, unless you have a real tight fit (or a real wide breadboard) there shouldn't be a problem.

[Jeff Horton]

Ah ha! I want to glue it along the long grain and I was afraid of it moving and breaking the glue bond, or trying anyway. Good, then I don't have a problem after all.

Yes, these will be set in dado's. Just getting ready to set up and cut them. It's a rather large cabinet. Has open shelves on about 1/3 of one side. The remainder will have a door with shelves behind that. It's a form follows function design my wife came up with. Hope to have it assembled soon with some photos.