Breadboard Ends, Dowel Plates, And Drawboring

I'm back to the blanket chest now. I have been readying the frames for finish and leveling the floor among other things. Today I am attaching the breadboard ends to the top. Due to concerns about wood movement (the 18" wide top could expand almost 1/4") I decided to drawbore the breadboard ends to the top.

I first made some dowel blanks on the table saw.

I then used my spokeshave to make them approximately round and a bit oversize. Finding a good way to hold the piece was a little tough. I ended up putting them nearly vertical in the vise. A shaving horse would be nice for this.

I used a Lie Neilsen dowel plate to form the dowels from the blanks.

I found that one has to be careful to leave a bit of material on the blank to be removed by the dowel plate. It helped to start an end to give me a visual to work to.

If your blank is undersized you will not have a round dowel. Once the blank is ready you then hammer it through the appropriate hole in the dowel plate.

I made a test hole with the bit I planned to use and checked the fit of the dowel.

I marked out the hole locations on the BB ends and made the holes on the drill press.

With the ends tightly on the top I used the bit to mark the hole centers, removed the BB ends, and set the hole centers about 1/32" closer to the shoulder to draw the ends tight.

After drilling the holes in the tenons I widened the two outer holes to accommodate any expansion or contraction.

I then applied glue to just the center mortise and tenon. I also glued the dowels and drove them into their holes. After the glue set I sawed the dowels flush. Now I can plane the BB ends flush and size the panel (it's still a bit wide).

Thanks for taking a look. The chest is moving towards final assembly. I hope you check back again and see how it's going.