Panels for my polychrome chest of drawers

Rather than recreate the famous scene from Adam Bede in which Seth Bede assembles a door with no panels, I figured I'd go ahead and make the panels for the side.

Like the original, they are white pine. Unlike the original, I had to glue them up. The original piece was done with a single wide board. Give that the piece will be heavily decorated with simulated oyster veneering and two separate runs of molding, the visual difference will be negligible.

Anyway, the side panels are about 3/4" thick and are beveled on the inside to fit into the 3/8" groove in the frame components. The beveling was done with a combination of my Mathieson fore plane and my Mathieson try plane.

After sizing the panel and flattening the show side, I marked a line roughly 1/4" in from that face with a marking gauge. This was done all the way around the panel. I then planed down to that line on a bevel, keeping the angle of the plane consistent. This is exactly how one would go about raising a panel for a show application as well, although a bit more care in layout would be advised.

Once the beveling is complete, a dry assembly of each side is advised. This ensures that the panel's bevels will fit all the way into the grooves and will not hold up the framing components from seating properly.

It's really coming together now. Still need to make the back panel.

Any concern about shrinkage will be allayed by the moldings which will run around the inside edge of the show face. I will most likely paint these panels before assembly, although I will save the surface decoration until after everything is glued up. 

Next up is the grooved molding on the side rails, then I can think about gluing the side sections up, although I'm still not sure when I'm going to cut in for the drawer hangers.