Popular Woodworking 2005-10 № 150, страница 61

your case piece happens to be a mobile filing cabinet, or a kitchen island on wheels, there are more stresses to consider. Moving one of these mobile case pieces racks the box in multiple dimensions, not just from side-to-side.

With a file cabinet you can still use a back and frame to control the stress. But with the kitchen island, there's a very good chance you'd like to be able to access storage from more than one side of the island and that takes away some of your bracing. Adding strong frames

on both sides, or adding interior bracing (such as dividers that define the drawer spaces), will tame the stress.

One other "mobile" thought: While you probably know enough to purchase wheels that will be adequate for the weight of the case, how those wheels are mounted is important. If the bottom of the case is simply nailed between the sides and the wheels are attached only to the bottom, the weight of the case will cause that joint to fail. Sure the bottom and wheels will still be standing, but the sides will be sitting on the floor. Carefully planning ahead for such construction concerns will lead to a successful project.

Cornices, Plinths and More

Once the shape and size of your box is determined, and you've considered the storage needs for

your case piece, it's time to have a little fun adding some creative aspects.

Throughout the centuries the concepts of dressing up a box have run the gamut from simple to sublime. The most common details to adjust have been cornices and plinths. These parts of furniture actually derive their names from architecture that was originally parts of columns. Both are horizontal decorative additions, with the cornice occurring at the top of the structure (what we would often call a crown on a piece of furniture today) and the plinth refers to the decorative horizontal addition at the base of the structure.

With cornices, or crowns, the detail is up to the woodworker and can be as simple as a large cove crown (at right), or as elaborate as a bonnet top with even more creative detailing (at right). The odd part about the cornice is that it serves no pur

Here are a couple good examples of mobile case pieces. The mobile kitchen island above is an open construction, but the box in the center adds cross-connecting strength to keep the island rigid while mobile, otherwise the motion would rack the drawers and they wouldn't work properly. The tool cabinet at right is designed to carry a substantial amount of weight with tools stored in the open upper section as well as in the drawers. The case is enclosed except for the front, and the upper section's dividers are built into the case construction to add strength.

Popular Woodworking