First off, is there a wood movement issue in a year-round hot and humid climate? I asked the Wood Talk Online guys this, but I haven’t listened to the latest podcast to see if they answered it.

Secondly, I’ve already done one rabbet so I can’t exactly do what you’re suggesting. However, I COULD do a dado on the other three walls, and rabbet the corresponding bottom edges. The one wall would be off structurally, but with such a tiny box you might never really know by looking at it.

Stay tuned and keep those comments coming!

Dave is right on the money. You will also need to cut rabbets on all four sides of the bottom, these will go in the dados on the sides of the bottom. This way the bottom will be locked in place when the sides are glued.

I would put just two drops of glue on the mid-points of the end-grain edges of the bottom. The wood will expand and contract across the grain… there may be some movement along the grain but for the sizes you’re using these will be close to zero.

I’m sending you a PDF by email with a drawing. Check the bottom of the second page.

Luis

I might be misunderstanding what you’re trying to do… but it looks like you plan to glue a solid wood bottom into a rabbet cut on all four sides. This will result in a wood movement issue. When the bottom expands, it could break the whole box apart.

The way to avoid this is to cut a dado on all four of your box sides to hold the box bottom. Then you cut the box bottom slightly undersized so that it has room to expand and contract within the dados. It’s important that you do not glue the bottom; it needs to float freely so that it can expand and contract. This is the same concept as frame-and-panel construction. For a box this size, I think a 1/4″ thick bottom would be sufficient, depending on what you plan to store in it.

Please let me know if my description isn’t clear… it can be difficult to explain without a picture.

Dave