Brand New X-Carve Pro owner and EaselPro user here! (like 1 day)
My upper cabinet construction is 2 sides, a top and bottom, with 1/2" back. I dado all sides, tops and bottoms so that I can set my 1/2" back down in the dado and square the cabinet and staple/screw it off.
Using Cabinet Maker, I noticed that just the sides are dadoed but the top and bottom are full depth with no dado. Am I missing something? The back needs something to sit against on the top and bottom…right?
Should I just not use a dado and screw the back directly on?
I appreciate any suggestions or feedback!
1 Like
Hi there, Kyle
Thanks for reaching out, and congrats on the new X-Carve Pro!
You’re not missing anything. Due to the blind dado construction method for the box, the top and bottom panels don’t capture the back panel in a dado. This is because the top and bottom panels have rabbets to attach to the side panels, and those rabets are milled into the ‘outside’ face of the panels.
To capture the back panel with a dado, we’d need to mill a dado on the ‘inside’ faces of the top and bottom panels - which would require you to mill these panels on both sides. This process is called flip-milling, and it is more complicated because it requires very high precision when positioning the workpieces after flipping them over. If the material is not alligned just right afterr you’ve flip it, the dadoes and rabbets will be offset and the carcass may not come together properly when you try to assemble it.
We hope to have a solution in Easel Cabinetmaker that allows users to make a box with blind dado construction and a full-dado for the back panel - but in the meantime, we have opted to only dado the back panel into the side panels to provide a workflow that does not require flip-milling. If you are using the dado back panel option and have concerns about the structural support of your box, we recommend screwing and/or glueing the back panel to the top and bottom panel for extra stability.
Please let me know if you have any other questions or feedback as you continue exploring Easel Cabinetmaker!
Best,
Natalie
