Ask Mitch - Gun Cabinet Door Joint

Half Lap Joints for a Gun Cabinet Door?

I like the way you do the half lap joint..I am wanting to build a gun cabinet.the frame of the door is 1" inch thick by 4" inches wide and 72" inches long.the bottom and top pieces are 1" inch thick and 4" inches wide and 36" inches long. Do you think if I do the half lap on this and then drill 4 holes near the corners of the half lap then use walnut dowels it would be strong enough. I don't have a mortise and tenon jig. Or do you think I should do a loose tenon then do the 4 hole dowel thing

Larry

With 16"sq of long grain glue surface area at each corner, I'm sure it will be strong enough with a pva adhesive. The dowels would look nice, but shouldn't be necessary. 4" is about the widest I would make the joint because of the cross grain nature, and the possible movement across the width - if the cabinet was likely to experience a wide range of humidity then I might suggest mitred corners with splines (or loose tenons).
Of course you might like the added challenge of a bridle joint - I haven't done a machine cut version on video yet, but the hand cut video will explain the joint.
Mitch

Recommended watching: Half Lap - Easy & Accurate Table Saw Method

Hand Cut Bridle Joint

Email your questions to me at mail@womadeod.co.uk

And if you have a better answer, please comment below and/or email me

Stepped Gooseneck Splice (Koshikake Kamatsugi)

If you haven't seen it already, take a look at my first attempt preparing a Stepped Gooseneck Splice (Koshikake Kamatsugi) joint by hand. Watch it here.
Traditionally used in Japanese architecture to join ground sills together in their length.

Supporters Page

I'm pleased say that I'm receiving some support with my online presence, and as such have added a Supporters Page to the website. Just two so far, but much appreciated.

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American Walnut (Juglans nigra) gets the World in Woods treatment

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The Side Table & Video Build Guide - FREE

Several months ago I built some simple side tables, by hand, with modest joints. The design, based very much on an old table built in woodshop class by a relative over sixty years ago, is classic and scalable. Videos of this build are available, free, on my Get Into Woodworking channel, starting with this one: https://youtu.be/NSue46eWsxQ

I've used round tops, but of course you can use a square top with the legs under each corner.

Scalability means that you can easily build the table to the size you want, without ruining the design. Just scale every dimension by the same factor. There's no reason why you couldn't build a dining table this way, or even a dolls house table!

A SketchUp model is available, for free, on the downloads page

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