Of course, with a chest, the answer is to pin in the front, where you can
see or bump into it, and float behind, where you can't.

"mindesign" wrote in message
...
there are a range of methods to achieve breadboard ends that are fully
functional and none that will avoid shrinkage

if both sides are going to be visible it sounds like a dowelling job to me

One way to reduce the visual impact of shrinkage is to first of all make
the
piece so that the ends are "just a wee bit" shorter than the table's width
... I am talking 2 millimetres at each end at the most - then chamfering
the
corner where it meets the table .... but just a little and the table
corner
as well .... say a 3 mm chamfer on both ... it just "knocks the hard
corner"
off each and when the movement happens - and it probably will - you have a
bit of leeway. Finally, I wrote out the exact brand, mixture etc of stains
I
used on the top and glued it to the underside for future reference so that
when I need to, I am not hunting for the correct stuff to get an exact
match.