Swingman wrote:
snip ... it was not until I ran across an article in the Sep/Oct 1999
issue
of "Fine Wood Working" magazine, by Will Neptune, entitled "Sideboard
Strategies", whereby the author, a teacher at a respected woodworking
school in Boston, taught/proposed a four part, casework construction
method that was a bit unusual for traditional sideboard construction -
basically a dovetailed box, turned on its side, with legs attached to
the box, that I found a solution I thought I could live with.

In a nutshell, the basic principle of this particular casework
construction method is:

"If a case part joins another at a corner, dovetail it; if one part
meets along another's length, use multiple through tenons."

I finished reading Will Neptune's article last night. I will make a
short list of what I gleaned from it later, but it should definitely
improve my game! I'll be watching for other of his publications (I
noticed he co-authored a book, "Introduction to Fine Woodworking".

He repeated what you quoted at least 3 times: "If a case part joins
another at a corner, dovetail it; if one part meets along another's
length, use multiple through tenons." : )

Okay (don't push..LOL), here are the highlights of what I gleaned:

--The tenons from the inserts going through the top can help prevent
sagging (at least he says so, and it's believable).

--Extra wood is not a bad thing. For instance consider screwing the top
to the (solid) "box". Build up extra wood on the sides (inside),
between the legs to that there is a nice surface to support the edge of
a drawer. I'm not planning on using drawers but it's still a nice idea.

--The notion of a "cleat" to support the panels in the back was a new
notion to me.

--He said he generally uses stops on his cabinet doors. That led me to
try to figure out what he was talking about and to spend my lunch hour
examining hinges. I'll have to decide whether I'll be using a face frame
or not. I'm due for another SU session.

Next, I can take a careful look at the links below.

Bill




Since then I have used this basic principle, with some occasional
modifications, in quite a few pieces of casework, both furniture and
kitchen cabinets.

Careful studying the photos in the links below should give you an idea
of how to use this principle to mitigate sag in your casework:

http://www.e-woodshop.net/Projects13.htm

https://picasaweb.google.com/1113554...1917253 74850


https://picasaweb.google.com/1113554...2144547 81186


Resulting in:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1113554...0 36822986818


https://picasaweb.google.com/1113554...6579392 12162


Good luck, and let me know if I can answer any questions.

(If you can get a copy of the above mentioned article, do so ... it
covers using this principle in many more styles than what I show above)