Drawer material

[wronghand]

Hey guys, I am getting ready to start my most ambitious project to date. I am building a chest of drawers and dresser for our nursery. I have the design of both pretty well figured out and was wondering what your thoughts were for the drawers. The drawers will be about 30w x 20d x 9 high. I am going to use plywood and am trying to decide between 1/2" and 3/4". What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Joe Scharle]

What I like to do with large drawers is to divide them in half with a center runner. Smaller bottoms tend to bow out less. And to allow more strength at the dado for the bottom, I use 3/4" sides and backs. Fronts range from 3/4" to 1 1/4".

View image in gallery​

 

[BSHuff]

For sides, a lot depends on what kind of slides you are planning on using. Also what construction method are you planning on building them with?

I say 5/8

 

[Bas]

For shop drawers that size, I'd use 3/4" plywood and 1/2" for the bottom. But, each of those drawers holds 4 nail guns, 4,068 pieces of decorative hardware that I'll never use but it was on sale, 15 cheap router bits, 4 mismatched screwdrivers and a broken grinder wheel. For storing diapers and baby clothes, 1/2" would probably be sufficient. If you're not sure, go with 3/4". The loss of storage space is minimal.

 

[toolferone]

1/2" Baltic birch is my ply of choice for drawers. 1/4" for the bottom. I agree with Joe that on wide drawers a center support is a good idea.

 

[red]

1/2" Baltic birch is my ply of choice for drawers. 1/4" for the bottom. I agree with Joe that on wide drawers a center support is a good idea.

+1 and you won't be sorry. Baltic birch also makes a nice looking strong drawer and it can easily be dovetailed. That is how I do all my drawers.

Red

 

[wronghand]

Thanks for the input guys. I have decided on 1/2" for my drawers. I am still debating between dovetailed and locking rabbet joints. If I can get my dovetail jig dialed in pretty quickly I will go that way. I will definitely take Joe's advice and use a runner for a little extra support.

 

[ScottM]

Thanks for the input guys. I have decided on 1/2" for my drawers. I am still debating between dovetailed and locking rabbet joints. If I can get my dovetail jig dialed in pretty quickly I will go that way. I will definitely take Joe's advice and use a runner for a little extra support.

Count very carefully. When you setup to do dovetails or locking rabbets make sure you cut all the pieces you will need. Then count again. It is almost impossible to properly reset your setup once you changed your setup.
DAMHIKIT :BangHead:

 

[MarkE]

I'm sure I will get flamed for this, but here goes.

Dovetails are for show, locking rabbets will give you all the strength you need with much less effort. If this is a showpiece, then by all means spend the time on the dovetails. If you want to create a strong, long lasting joint with a little less setup, go for the locking rabbet and save yourself some time.

 

[Brantnative]

If you live near Burlington, check out the Hardwood Store. They have a great collection of pre-finished drawer material. All smooth many layered plywood with curved and finished top edges. They even have the plywood for drawer bottoms.

 

[ScottM]

I'm sure I will get flamed for this, but here goes.

Dovetails are for show, locking rabbets will give you all the strength you need with much less effort. If this is a showpiece, then by all means spend the time on the dovetails. If you want to create a strong, long lasting joint with a little less setup, go for the locking rabbet and save yourself some time.

+1

 

[DavidF]

From experience.... Choose your drawer slides first if you are using shop bought ones, I found that I couldn't get any to fit exactly as I wanted when I started looking for them after I had made the carcass. I ended up making my own wooden ones, which didn't have soft close etc..

 

[ehpoole]

Another option when using store-bought slides is to add about 1/64" to 1/32" to the specified opening width (often 1/2" per slide if using nice ball-bearing slides, or 1" total, so aim for 1-1/64" to 1-1/32"). You can then use thin card-stock as shimming material to get a perfect fit. I have some heavy watercolor paper that is almost exactly 1/64" as well as some lighter card-stock that is almost a perfect 1/128", which works out nicely when the need for such shims arises.

Alternatively, if you still come up a fraction too narrow, then your router and a chisel can be a lifesaver, allowing you to shave the final fraction of an inch off the slide's mounting area.

I have used both tricks to fix minor width and/or alignment errors.

 

[DavidF]

I also had a problem with the length to get the drawer extension I needed. I could fit in a slide, but it wouldn't get me the distance I needed. The full extension slide only needed about another 1" in length to fit, but I didn't have it!

 

[mkepke]

For drawers that size you definitely will want what Joe called a "center runner". Otherwise there's a good chance the bottom will come out of its groove eventually.

And as DavidF said - pick your hardware BEFORE you start.

Last tip: make sure you include some provision to prevent the drawers from being pulled all the way out accidentally. Commercial drawer slides will have this, but if homemade you'll need to concoct something.

Personally I like 1/2" poplar or SYP (with dovetails) for drawer sides, but that's me. And I don't have an..ahem..deadline like you do

-Mark

 

[Jeff]

Thanks for the input guys. I have decided on 1/2" for my drawers. I am still debating between dovetailed and locking rabbet joints. If I can get my dovetail jig dialed in pretty quickly I will go that way. I will definitely take Joe's advice and use a runner for a little extra support.

+1 for the rabbets. There's a good article in FWW titled "Drawers Without Dovetails" by Hendrik Varju that may interest you. His example is for a 3/4" t front, 1/2" t sides and back, and a 1/4" bottom, but that's easily adjusted to fit your specific requirements. All of the joinery is done on the table saw. Sturdy, neat looking, and easy! :thumbs_up

The sides are left about 2" longer than the dadoes for the back which allows a full extension without falling out of the case. Nifty IMHO.

 

[DavidF]

Go for something stable for the sides if not going with store bought slides, I use 1/4 sawn stuff for stability.

 

[Luckbox72]

I just built 4 drawers. I used 1/2" maple ply all the way then used 3/4 false front for the look I wanted. Since they were for the shop in the garage I just used biscuits and glue to hold them together. Then I had full extensions slides that I used to mount them. I cannot comment on durability since they are only about 2 months old, but I did do I mock up and it took some abuse before I broke it. Just wanted to make sure it would hold up to normal use before I put them all together.

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

I'll be the contrary one here. I think the choice of drawer material and construction method is first a personal preference, and should be based on skill (and desire to improve), intended use of and type of project. My shop drawers have 1/2 ply boxes and applied fronts because, hey, its just a shop. But I think solid wood is more in keeping with furniture.

Though the recipient won't appreciate them, the 14 drawers in the nursery furniture I recently built (thread here somewhere), had solid wood boxes- 3/4" cherry fronts (not applied) and 1/2" poplar sides, backs, AND solid bottoms. Due to cost, I probably won't use solid bottoms again. Construction was 1/2 blind dovetails in the front and though dovetails in the back. The edges of the 1/2" thick bottoms were cut with a RP bit so the resulting 1/4" edge could slide in grooves in the sides and front. The bottoms are held in with a single screw in a slot in the back to allow for seasonal movement. As far as construction, dovetails are more appropriate and make the strongest joint after box joints.

Also, there are no mechanical slides- the case has parting frames which support the drawers. Since the drawer sides are poplar just like the frames I decided to use UMHW "slick strips" from Woodcraft to reduce friction. The drawer clearance approaches a "piston fit" so even when pulling or pushing on just one side of the large 8" high X 34" wide X 18" deep drawers, they move easily and do not rack. These are solid, durable and good looking drawers, that will hopefully endure multiple users.

I only have one drawer photo showing the front and side of a dry fit drawer.

 

[wronghand]

Thanks guys for all of the input! You have been a ton of help. I am almost finished with the chest and am having an issue with a couple of my drawer slides binding. I used 20" centerline full extension slides from rockler. Two of the slides are now binding when the are about 6 inches from being closed. Everything was working beautifully until I put the back on the chest and finished it. Everything is still square so that is not the issue. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Pictures will follow as soon as I can get this worked out.