Lonnie Bird desk measurement problem

[hermv2000]

I am building the Secretary desk from FWW issues 154 to 156 and am stuck on a door detail, the large tombstone doors on the top part. The diagram shows the upper rail to be 5 1/2 inches wide. The arc is to be 4 inches radius, offset 1/2 inch below the bottom of the upper rail. That would place the top of this arc 2 inches below the top of the upper rail. Yet in scaling the drawing and the photograph of the doors the top of the arc appears to be between 2.5 and 2.6 inches below the top edge of the rail. Does that mean that the rail is actually 6 inches wide? Screen capture of the article page is attached.

Any help is appreciated,

Herman

 

[Mark Maleski]

I haven't built that piece, but the proportions in the drawing look good to my eye. I would likely adjust the dimensions from those listed to achieve those proportions if I was building it myself.

 

[hermv2000]

I haven't built that piece, but the proportions in the drawing look good to my eye. I would likely adjust the dimensions from those listed to achieve those proportions if I was building it myself.

Thank you Mark. Here's a photo of the door as made by someone else, with lines and dimensions obtained by scaling the photo, based on a height of the upper rail of 5.5 inches. That leaves about 2.5 inches at the top of the arch but if I follow Bird's measured drawings I'll end up with 2 inches. It doesn't sound like much but on a highly visible element like this door I think the difference would stand out.