Wood Use & Design Question

[cputnam]

Stupid simple project - or is it? Thanks to a fellow woodnetter I have an ample supply of curly maple from which I intend to make bookshelves/cabinets that will reside above the kitchen style base cabs that I bought for my office. I know how to make a bookshelf from solid wood and I know how to make one from plywood. What I'm not sure of is how to mix the two. Consider that I've got appx. 24 lineal feet in 2 runs of 10' of shelving to make with two dead corners. I've got 8 visible ends (there's a window in there) that should be good wood but the rest could be made of maple ply. My thought has been to make the show faces from the curly maple and the rest from maple ply (edged with curly). Assuming that stretching the curly supply with ply is a good idea, how does one best mate the two?

The tops, being 8' in the air and topped with crown need not be primo wood, while the bottoms being more or less visible probably should be good stuff. At least one shelf will carry my xtra heavy LP collection (thinking of you Walt) and the rest will be books, so they need to be well built. How would you go about it?

Can't cross grain glue/screw/constrain solid to ply but you can solid to solid and ply to ply. What is your advice for the best mix of ply and solid?

[MannyBoy]

For what it's worth, my thoughts.  Can you use panel and frame construction (for the sides, back, and doors if you are using them)?  So solid wood frames each with a groove on the inside the frame surface in which the plywood would be the center.  Very much like most kitchen cabinet doors are constructed.

Another idea when joining boards at 90 degree is to make dado-ed grooves say 3/8" into the solid.  You would then glue the plywood into the grooves.

[cputnam]

Another idea when joining boards at 90 degree is to make dado-ed grooves say 3/8" into the solid. You would then glue the plywood into the grooves.

I'm thinking this is exactly what I cannot do. It is my understanding that a 12" deep shelf will crack if solidly glued to plywood. If it were all all solid wood I would through dovetail the top, bottom and sides of the carcass and put a sliding DT shelf in the center. The rest could be adjustable. I really don't see that a face frame bears on the carcass construction. All of which, of course, is why I'm asking these questions.

[Lynford in Reno]

Matching solid end grain and ply is always a problem.  It is the similar long grain to cross grain problem because the plywood does not move.  One way to make your shelves work in grove is to only glue the front inch or so and let the rest move in the grove.  This will require just a bit of clearance at the back edge of the shelf if you have a back on the cabinet.

[cputnam]

Thanks Lyn!  I've thought of that, especially for shelves.  Not so sure about the strength required to hold a carcass together when load heavily.  Perhaps I should give up and make the most "show" units with solid wood and then make the interior units from ply.  Face frames will be made from show" wood.