I'm reading a Fine Woodworking book on "Boxes, Carcases, and Drawers."  It's just a collection of articles from the early days of FWW.  One of them is by Tage Frid, one of the major authors of the day.  He writes, "Furniture construction is broken into two main categories: frame and carcase.  In frame construction, relatively narrow boards are joined -- usually with a mortise and tenon joint -- as in a chair or table base, or a frame and panel door.  In carcase construction boards are joined end to end using dovetails, tongue and groove joints and the like, as in a drawer or hutch."

 

Seems simple enough, huh?

31 minutes ago, kmealy said:

Seems simple enough, huh?

Quite simple to me Keith, what am I missing here? Beside rational thinking on my part.

Honestly though, Tage's breakdown makes sense to me.

“The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.”

― Albert Einstein

4 hours ago, kmealy said:

Seems simple enough, huh?

I get it, so that wasn't a rhetorical question? I thought you were confused on his simplistic description of the two categories, my bad!

I think there are also hybrid constructs.  Me, for example:  my brain is an empty frame and the rest is all carcase.

Simple enough, although I'd have to add a few more paragraphs to describe the assorted furniture my students designed over the last 4 decades. The inflatable chair a student made in one of my last couple years comes to mind.