Building Cabinet Drawers

The sample base and wall cabinets shown below have these features to make building them as simple as possible.

Building cabinet drawers.

To assemble the drawer box first apply a small amount of glue to each of the dovetail joints. We ll be using 1 2 cabinet grade plywood for all parts of these drawers including the bottoms. Building drawers still stress me out every single time. Also i make all my drawers using plywood for the box and plywood for the bottom.

I like to use plywood to build my drawers because then i don t have to worry about twisted or warped boards causing me issues with alignment. Building drawers are almost like a rite of passage going from beginner woodworker to more intermediate woodworker. If the cabinet is more than 30 in. When you follow these instructions you ll end up with an inset drawer that has a perfect 1 2 wide space for a drawer slide.

In wood magazine torture tests this drawer joint proved stronger than even dovetails. A whole lot of making installing and building drawers is making sure things are lined up and square. But i don t try to stay away from them anymore. This technique works extremely well for constructing drawers that will be mounted with mechanical drawer slides.

Discover the secrets to making strong drawers by cutting locking rabbet joints on the tablesaw as taught by wood magazine design editor jeff mertz. Wide consider installing two narrower rollouts side by side rather than a single wide one. The 3 4 plywood case eliminates panel jointing planing and glue ups. How to build a cabinet drawer choose your drawer material.

My journey learning to build drawers the very first time i built a drawer was for this x leg accent. Begin with the right cabinet dimensions. This means some extra building work and buying more slides but the smaller rollouts will operate more smoothly and easily. Sliding dovetails aren t just for building bookcases.

Most traditional side mounted drawer slides require 1 2 clearance on each side of the drawer. Face frames cover plywood edges. Wider shelves and drawers tend to bind or rack as you slide them in and out. Let s stick with those since it makes sizing your drawer super.