Each joinery method has it's strengths and weaknesses, and it is very dependent on what type of wood you are using. I focused on MDF in this post.
I have built hundreds and hundreds of various enclosures from MDF over the years and wood glue is stronger than the wood itself, so glue with brad nails to keep it in place while the glue dries works just fine in most cases. Unlike hardwoods, you don't have to clamp MDF to get an ideal glued joint, the wood is so porous that as long as it is firmly butted up and the glue allowed to completely dry before any stress is put on the joint, and you used enough glue, that joint will be plenty strong. Just like real wood, if you have a properly glued joint and try to break it, the wood will come apart before the joint will break.
However, not everyone has a compressor and brad nailer, and while it is not difficult to get a good, tight fit on a simple edge butt seam with this technique, it can be far more tricky to do so on a blind seam. Also, under certain circumstances if the cabinet is poorly constructed (ie large amounts of area with only 2 planes of construction, like top and sides with no front or back), this type of joint can fail under extreme circumstances. So this method is not for everyone or every circumstance.
Like I said, each type of joinery has it's weaknesses and strengths, and as long as you are building a cabinet with at least 5 of the 6 sides having a decent amount of material (ie more than 3 planes to support each other), which pretty much all arcade cabinets have, you are playing to simple glued butt seam's strengths and it will withstand anything short of a sledge hammer (and even then hold up until the wood itself fails).
The only place I wouldn't use a simple glued butt seam for most of my joints is with basic plywood. Plywood has incredibly weak endgrain, so any of the other joinery methods (other than biscuits or tenons) is going to be superior.
Battens are a great alternative because you don't need anything other than a drill, a few bits, a handsaw, and some screws. Personally I wouldn't use a batten without glue because the screws themselves are not nearly as strong, although they do add some substantial mechanical strength to the joint. I also wouldn't personally use any soft wood unless it was also being glued along the entire surface area. Soft woods are pretty weak along the grain, so if you are relying strictly on mechanical fasteners to hold the joint together, you are relying on the grain of the wood for the strength, and only where the screws are, so you are doubling up on the weakness. Use hardwood and glue and you have a fantastic joint. The simplicity of using this is one of the biggest strengths, but they also mean the most amount of finish work as you will have screws to cover up on BOTH surfaces (although you can screw from the backside to one or both surfaces, but then you lose most of the mechanical advantage of the screws).
Biscuits or tenons with MDF are both slightly better than a glued butt seam, and slightly worse. On the one hand, they add to the surface area that can be glued, and since they are crossing the "grain" of the MDF, they will mechanically hold better. But they also swell when glued and are slotted into the edge of one piece of MDF, and if you use too many you can split the MDF and weaken the joint. Used in moderation they are VERY effective. In real woods, biscuits and tenons are probably the best form of joinery around.
Dados for MDF are also a great choice. The only downside is they require special tools (dado blades or router bits) and dados that stop short of the edge are tricky to cut and hide properly. However, if properly glued, they have more surface area than a simple glued butt joint, and have a mechanical advantage as well, making them superior in almost every way to any other joint when using just about any kind of wood (in cabinetry of course).
The bottom line, however, is that if you design the cabinet well, ANY of these joinery methods will be far more than you need to hold the thing together. Unless you are moving the cabinet constantly, there is little to no stress on any joint. If I were giving advice to any first time builder, I would say that A) wood glue is your best friend, and B) make sure your design is structurally sound and you will have no problems building something that will outlast you.
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Topic: Battens: What/How Useful? (Read 5379 times)
