Hardwood/softwood used together?

[toddler]

Morning guys,

I was wondering if I could get your opinions on what I'm about to do before I mess something up!
I'm making a baby changing unit - 2 open shelves and a shallow drawer at the top. So far its all made from oak. I was going to make a hand dove-tailed drawer with an oak front, but I thought I would use a different wood for the rest of the drawer. My question is, is it OK to use pine for the drawer sides and back? Also, if it is OK, what sort of dovetail angle should I use, as I know that dovetails in softwood should be more steeply angled than in hardwood.

I should also say that the draw front will be half blind dovetails.

Thanks in advance,

Andrew.

 

[George_N]

Drawer sides and backs were traditionally made from 'secondary' woods, frequently pine I should think. If you use a jig for your dovetails you may not have a choice of dovetail angle, it will be dictated by the router bit (okay, there are different angled bits available). If you are hand cutting, it is traditional to use 1:6 for softwoods and 1:8 for hardwoods...why not compromise at 1:7, it will work just fine.

 

[toddler]

Thanks George, I'm hand-cutting, so 1:7 it is.
I'll try and remember to post some pics up to show how it turns out.

 

[lucky9cat]

Andrew,

I've made drawers with oak fronts and pine sides before and had it pointed out to me on the forum that a cheaper hardwood such as beech would have be better for the sides on the basis that it wears better. It's certainly logical and that's what I do nowadays.

Cheers

Ted

 

[Karl]

Hi Toddler

It depends on whether the drawer is to mounted on runners (in which case Pine will be fine) or a traditional slide - in which case Pine will be too soft. It will wear too quickly, although if you aren't planning on keeping the baby unit for any length of time (ie making it a family heirloom!) then this may not matter.

Cheers

Karl

 

[tnimble]

Why would pine to soft? If being soft would cause it to wear out too quickly, what would be "too quickly"? Many traditional furniture don't have slides and obviously don't have runners and use pine for drawer sides, backs and bottoms and still last after more than 100 years.

 

[Digit]

If bothered about wear on draw runners or slides simply tack the runners into place and tack a hardwood runner into the top of an oversize draw groove.
Both then become replaceable.

Roy.

 

[BradNaylor]

I would be more worried about different rates of movement in the two woods.

Pine will almost certainly shrink more than the oak; this could well cause the drawer sides to split as they are prevented from moving by being dovetailed to the oak fronts.

I would use oak for the sides. Are you contemplating using pine just to save money or because you haven't got enough oak left and don't fancy buying a new board just to make a small drawer?

Try asking a local carpenter or cabinet maker if he's got a few offcuts that he can spare for the price of a nice bottle of wine for with his tea.

I've got hundreds!