32 F I N E w o o d w o r k in g Photos: Jonathan Binzen

Strong, Stunning Sideboard

Use, strength, and beauty
blend in a contemporary
case piece
b y C h r i s G o c h n o u r

S ideboards are among my favor-

ite pieces of furniture to build.
They offer great utility—whether
used in a dining room for dishware
or a family room for entertainment
joinery in the piece, none of which
is exposed, I used Domino slip ten-
ons. I built the case with solid riftsawn
white oak, which has quiet grain and
a tawny tone. That set the stage for
equipment—and they invite a wide some splashes of color and figure in
array of approaches in terms of struc- the panels of the sliding doors, which
ture and joinery, materials and finishes. were made with veneers of live oak
With care taken in the design phase, that I sliced from a spalted firewood
the sideboard form is also often quite log. I built the base with white oak,
beautiful. but to differentiate it from the case I
For this sideboard I used half-blind darkened it by fuming with ammonia.
mitered dovetails to join the case,
providing excellent strength but also
enabling me to create a water-
fall effect at the ends of the
A jew el of a joint
top—the grain runs con-
tinuously up one side, Gochnour joined the corners of his
across the top, and sideboard with half-blind mitered
down the other dovetails, a strong joint that
side. For punctuates the white oak case.
the other
 Traditional meets modern Chris Gochnour’s contemporary sideboard blends traditional half-blind
mitered dovetail joinery with modern Domino slip-tenon joints.

mit e r e d d ov e ta i l layo u t
For extra visual pop, the pins are spaced in pairs. Dado, 1⁄4 in.
To accommodate the miter, at both ends the joint Runner, 7⁄16 in. deep by
Domino tenons, 6mm thick by 1⁄2 in. wide 1
⁄2 in. wide
starts with a half tail instead of the typical half pin. C⁄L Case top, thick by 20mm wide
3
by 121⁄8 in. long
⁄4 in. thick by 40mm long
by 153⁄4 in.
wide by 47
5
⁄8 in. long

7
3
⁄16 in. ⁄16 in.
11 3
⁄16 in. ⁄16 in. 129⁄32 in.

153⁄4 in. Rabbet,

3
⁄16 in. deep
by 1⁄4 in. wide

Back panel,
7
3
⁄16 in. ⁄16 in. thick by
151⁄4 in. wide
by 131⁄2 in. Partition,
3
long ⁄4 in. thick by
Partition is inset 141⁄8 in. wide by
365⁄8 in. Groove, 1⁄4 in. 13⁄16 in. from 131⁄8 in. long
3
Bottom, ⁄4 in. wide by 7⁄32 in. front and 7⁄16 in.
thick by 153⁄4 in. deep, inset from back.
wide by 475⁄8 in. 3
⁄16 in. from the
long back

Side, 3⁄4 in. thick

by 153⁄4 in. wide
by 145⁄8 in. long
side view Unglued dowels,
3
15 ⁄8 in. dia. by 11⁄2 in.
⁄16 in.
long, locate case
161⁄8 in. on base. Screw holes
oversized to
475⁄8 in. allow for wood
3
⁄4 in. 3
⁄4 in. barnsley movement.
155⁄8 in. 147⁄8 in. 155⁄8 in. joint detail
Screws, #10
13⁄4 in. by 21⁄4-in. long
19⁄16 in.

145⁄8 in.
111⁄16 in.
17⁄8 in.
3
⁄16 in.

1
⁄2-in.
radius
Skills spotlight side view 5
⁄16 in.
22 in. To see how Gochnour builds
and installs side-hung drawers,
turn to p. 24. 1
⁄4 in.

Domino tenon,
front view 6mm thick by
15
⁄16 in. 20mm wide by
48 in. 40mm long
top view

34 F I N E w o o d w o r k in g Drawings: John Hartman

 d e c o r at i ve cove 7
⁄32 in.
After cutting stopped grooves in
the case parts for the sliding doors
and for the back panels, Gochnour Cove, 17⁄32 in.
routs a wide, decorative cove along wide by 7⁄32 in.
Shelves, 1⁄2 in. thick
deep, cut with
by 135⁄8 in. wide by the front and back edges.
Detail groove, 1-in. radius bit
147⁄8 in. long
3
⁄32 in. wide by
3
⁄32 in. deep
Top rail, 3⁄4 in. thick by 17⁄8 in.
wide by 151⁄4 in. long

Stile, 11⁄16 in. thick

by 11⁄2 in. wide by
111⁄2 in. long
Sw eet- s lidin g
do o rs
Panel, 7⁄16 in. thick
To determine the
by 125⁄8 in. wide by length of the
97⁄8 in. long top and bottom
tongues on the
Tenon, 1⁄4 in. thick sliding doors,
by 7⁄8 in. wide by Gochnour made
1 in. long
a dummy door
5mm shelf pins in MDF. Then he
Bottom rail, 3⁄4 in.
thick by 2 in. wide used the same
Side rails, 13⁄4 in. by 151⁄4 in. long tablesaw fence
thick by 17⁄8 in. wide
by 13 in. long settings to mill
Drawer back, 7⁄16 in. Drawer bottom,
thick by 37⁄8 in. wide 3 tongues on the
⁄8 in. thick
by 147⁄8 in. long real doors.

Top groove, 3⁄8 in.

wide by 5⁄16 in. deep

Top tongue,
3
⁄8 in. wide by
1
⁄4 in. long
Domino tenon, Drawer front, 5⁄8 in.
6mm thick by Drawer side,
7 thick by 45⁄16 in. wide
20mm wide by ⁄16 in. thick by
by 147⁄8 in. long Bottom tongue,
40mm long 45⁄16 in. wide by 3
⁄8 in. wide by
1215⁄16 in. long 5
Cove, 11⁄2 in. dia. ⁄32 in. long
Front/back rails, by 3⁄8 in. deep,
13⁄4 in. thick by cut with 13⁄4-in.
17⁄8 in. wide by radius cove bit
447⁄8 in. long
Pull,
Wedge 9
⁄16 in. dia. Bottom groove, 3⁄8 in.
wide by 1⁄16 in. deep
3 13
⁄4 in. ⁄16 in.
Leg, 13⁄4 in. sq.
by 22 in. long drawer pull detail

R e c e ss t im e
Gochnour inset the turned
drawer pulls so that the doors
would slide past the drawers.
He cut the recess for them
with a router bit run at slow
speed in his drill press. Then,
using the same fence and
stop-block settings, he drilled
a perfectly centered hole for
the pull’s tenon.
Hand cut the half-blind mitered dovetail

A different
dovetail. Having
continued the
layout onto the
inside face of
the pin board,
Gochnour saws
the cheek kerfs
on a 45° angle.

Tail transfer. After cutting tails in the case

sides just as he would for through-dovetails,
Gochnour uses a knife to transfer the tail
pattern to the pin board.

Half-blind mitered dovetails:

traditional layout with a twist
Two fine saws I love the strength and integrity of the
rough out the half-blind mitered dovetail joint and the
waste. Where the classic aesthetic impact it adds to a piece.
gaps between pins For this sideboard it also offered minimal
are wide, Gochnour
interruption of the waterfall grain pattern I
uses a coping saw
to remove the wanted. You can cut the joint largely with
waste wood. But machines (see Master Class, FWW #236),
in tighter quarters but I find it simpler and quite efficient to
he uses a fretsaw, cut it mostly by hand.
whose tiny blade As with typical dovetail joinery, I cut the
permits him to tail portion of the joint first. On this side-
make 90° turns in
board, the tails are on the cabinet sides, so
the backsaw kerfs.
that’s where layout starts. The layout dif-
fers from conventional dovetails because
here you’ll want the joint to end with a
half tail at the front and back of the case
instead of a half pin. This is essential due
to the miter that will be cut later. One other
thing that sets the layout apart is that the
full baseline is scribed only on the interior
face of the tail and pin boards. On the tail
boards there is a baseline on the outside,
but drawn with a pencil. After the tails
A backsaw is are laid out, I use the marking gauge to
simpler. Where it’s
scribe a partial baseline on the outside—
feasible, Gochnour
clamps the pin
but scribing only in areas where wood will
board upright and be removed. Although I milled the stock a
uses a backsaw to smidge thicker than 3⁄4 in., I set the mark-
remove waste. ing gauge for scribing the baseline right at

36 F I N E w o o d w o r k in g
 Bevel guides the chisels. To create the finished
surface of the miter on the pin board, Gochnour
clamps down a shopmade bevel guide. He uses a
handful of chisels, starting with a narrow one
and working his way to progressively wider
ones to create a flat, smooth plane.

Bevel guide

Workpiece

MDF
backer
board

Miter the tail

3⁄4in. This leaves a tiny flat at the tips of board. With a
the miters when they are complete. The crosscut sled
on the tablesaw,
flat is removed after glue-up, bringing the
convert the
miters to a seamless corner. conventional tails
Apart from these steps, the execution you cut to mitered
of the tails is just the same as with con- ones. To reduce
ventional dovetail joinery. Once the tails chipout, take
are cut, you can transfer them to the pin multiple shallow
boards and set the tail boards aside. passes as you
sneak up on the
45° layout line.
Cut and pare the mitered pins
Transferring the tails to the end grain of the
pin board again parallels typical through-
dovetail joinery. Once that’s done, turn the
pin board so that the interior is facing out
and, using a square and a marking knife,
extend the layout marks down the inside
face of the board to the baseline.
Cutting the cheeks of the pins means
sawing at a 45° angle. Because of the
length of the pin board, I find it awkward
sawing with it clamped upright. Instead, I
mount it flat on my benchtop with its out-
side face down. That makes the sawing
much easier. With the pins defined, I
remove the waste between the back-
saw kerfs with a coping saw. This
sawing too, is done on a 45° angle.
Between closely spaced pins I use
a fretsaw for its narrower blade
and tighter turning radius.
To bring the miter to a nice,
flat surface, I use chisels and a
beveled guide. I align the lead-
ing edge of the guide with the
baseline, and the backs of the
chisels ride on the bevel as I Test the fit. Check all
four case joints as you
pare away the waste left by the
finish them and tweak
coping saw and fretsaw. I find the fit as needed.

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Interior case joinery that many narrow cuts are more effective
than fewer wide ones. I start with a 1⁄4-in.
chisel and make a couple of cuts from the
Dominos between baseline to the miter’s edge. Once I have
the dovetails. To a wide enough channel pared, I switch to
guide the Domino a 3⁄4-in. chisel. Being broader, it has more
machine as he
stability, resulting in a flatter surface. I pro-
cuts mortises for
the partitions, ceed across the miter, paring from baseline
Gochnour uses a to tip and taking just 1⁄8 in. to 1⁄4 in. of
piece of MDF that material per cut.
has been cut to With the pin board complete, I use a
the interior width tablesaw crosscut sled to miter the tail
of the drawer boards. I make the miter cut in a series of
compartment and
marked with the
shallow passes. That done, it’s time for a
mortise locations. test fit. If things are tight in spots, the pins
can be adjusted with chisel cuts or judi-
cious work with a file.

Dominos fall into place next

With the mitered dovetails fitted, I move
on to the rest of the case joinery. First I cut
Domino slip tenons for the two partitions,
which divide the case into three compart-
ments. I cut the mortises in the case top
and bottom first, using a story board that is
cut to the width of the center compartment
and is marked with the tenon locations.

tip
To cut the mating Domino mortises in the
ends of the partitions, I make a different
story board with the same layout spacing
and clamp it to the partition.

Prepare for the drawers and doors

Now is the time to cut dadoes in the
partitions to receive the runners for the
side-hung drawers. (To read about my
side-hung drawer technique, see Skills
Spotlight, p. 22.)
The sliding doors need grooves to slide
in, and I rout them now. These grooves are
stopped at both ends. I cut them on the
router table, starting and stopping them
just shy of the dovetail baselines, and then
I square the ends with a chisel. While I’m
at the router table, I also cut grooves for
the back panels in the case parts and the
partitions. The case top and bottom get
stopped grooves, but the case sides and
the partitions get through-grooves.
This is also the time to rout the decora-
tive cove on the front and back edges of
the case parts. I used a 2-in.-dia. cove bit
but set the router fence so that only a por-
tion of the bit was exposed.
Nifty template. When cutting Domino mortises in the ends of the partitions, Gochnour uses a
layout tool he made by cutting a channel in a piece of poplar and gluing a clamping straightedge Assemble the case
into it. He draws his mortise centerlines on the poplar and clamps the template to the workpiece. The case is glued up in three steps:
For future jobs he can erase these mortise layout lines and draw new ones. First the partitions and back panels are

38 F I N E w o o d w o r k in g
A patient assembly

One step at a time. Gochnour first glues the partitions and back panels in place, dry-
clamping the ends to make sure the case is square. To allow for movement, he glues only the
center few inches of the back panels. And he uses slow-setting liquid hide glue so that after the
clamps are on he can adjust the position of the panels, making certain the reveals are even.

Now for the ends.

Once the glue from
the first assembly
is cured, Gochnour
removes one dry-
fitted end, applies
glue, and clamps
it back on. When
that one is cured,
he does the same
for the other end,
finishing the case
assembly.

Careful cleanup.
glued to the case top and bottom, then With assembly
one case side gets glued on, then the other complete,
case side. Gochnour flushes
For step one, I glue the Dominos and al- up the pins and
tails. His bevel-up
so put a small amount of glue in the center
smoother handles
few inches of the top and bottom grooves both end grain and
that house the back panels. Gluing the face grain well.
back panels at the center lets them ex- Then he softens the
pand and contract with the seasons while corner with a block
ensuring that the reveals around them will plane.
remain consistent. I use hide glue for this
assembly because its longer open time lets
me adjust the reveals (using the narrow
edge of a card scraper like a mini pry bar)
before the glue sets.

www.finewoodworking.com S eptembe r / Oct o be r 2 0 1 9 39

Build the base
A slice off the
inside. The leg
surfaces that get
the miter also get
a shallow recess
to accept the rail.
Gochnour makes
the cut at the
tablesaw with a
tenoning jig.

Mini miters. The legs and rails of the base meet in a Barnsley joint—a
small miter that divides a shared curve. After cutting Domino mortises,
Gochnour cuts the small miters on the two inside faces of the leg.

The case sides are clamped in place dry

during step one. When the glue for the first
assembly is cured, I use a dead-blow ham-
mer to remove one case side, apply glue to
the dovetails, and clamp it back on. When
that glue-up is cured, I do the same with
the other side, and the assembly is done.

Barnsley joint adds a challenge

to the base construction
The base of the sideboard is simple, con-
sisting of four rails and four tapered legs,
but achieving simplicity sometimes re-
quires careful work. Here, the transition
from the base’s rails to its legs is softened
with a gentle arc and secured with a small
miter, which minimizes short grain. This is
a Barnsley joint, named for the British fur-
Matching the niture maker Edward Barnsley, and mak-
miter. Using a
ing it well takes some care.
scrap milled to
the width and I do the joinery in the base—cutting
thickness of the mortises for Dominos and making the
rail, Gochnour sets small miters and recesses of the Barnsley
up the tablesaw to joint—while the parts are still square. To
miter the rails. create the Barnsley joint, the rail needs to
be inset slightly into the leg. After making
the small miter cuts in the legs and rails at
the tablesaw, I raise the blade to 90° and
put the leg in a tenoning jig to make the
shallow recess for the rail. At this point, the
base can be dry-assembled using Dominos
to ensure everything lines up.
Next, to get clean tapers and curves on
the legs and rails, I create routing tem-
plates and attach stops and hold-downs
to them. After bandsawing the curves and
tapers on the legs and rails, I flush-trim

40 F I N E w o o d w o r k in g
 Clamp

Leg

End block

End block

Leg tapers: Bandsaw first, then into the jig. Gochnour rough-cuts the
leg taper on the bandsaw, then finishes it in a jig on the router table. The Template
base of the jig is a template of the taper and also creates the curve at
the Barnsley joint.
them to final shape with the templates on
the router table. Alternatively, you could
Rails ride a jig, simply clean up the bandsawn parts with
too. Gochnour uses planes, shaves, and files.
a second jig, this Once the legs and rails are shaped, the
one with curves at base can be glued together. I glue each
both ends, to shape end independently and then, after the glue
the rails. The long
has set, complete the assembly by gluing
front and rear rails
just fit between the the two ends to the front and back rail. □

jig’s end blocks;
the short rails are Chris Gochnour makes furniture
clamped at one in Salt Lake City, Utah, and teaches locally
end of the jig, and and across the country.
flipped end for end
to cut the second
curve. Online Extra
Watch an interview with Chris Gochnour
at FineWoodworking.com/277.

Assembly: Short rails first.

Gochnour starts assembling the base
by gluing the legs to the short rails.
He pulls the Domino joints home
with a pipe clamp, then uses F-style
clamps to make sure the Barnsley
joint miters are tight. When the
glue cures, he connects the end
assemblies with the long rails.

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