I am in the process of reading David Charlesworth’s books Furniture-Making Techniques volumes 1 and 2 and came across something I had never seen or heard of before. Drawer slips. What is the purpose and reasoning behind them? They seem to add multiple steps to something that seems as simple as dadoing the drawer side. BTW the books are excellent though some of the verbiage is different and some of the illustrations are missing. Overall excellent reading.
Eric
Discussion Forum
Get It All!
UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month.
Start Your Free TrialCategories
Discussion Forum
Digital Plans Library
Member exclusive! – Plans for everyone – from beginners to experts – right at your fingertips.
Highlights
-
Shape Your Skills
when you sign up for our emails
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. -
Shop Talk Live Podcast -
Our favorite articles and videos -
E-Learning Courses from Fine Woodworking
-
-
Replies
Drawer slips in traditional drawers running on horizontal frames and so on are like tyres on a car. They wear out and are replaced. Traditional hand cut dovetailed drawers typically have slim sides in elegant work, often 10 mm thick or less dependant upon the overall drawer box size. Cutting a 6+ mm deep groove in a slim drawer side weakens it considerably, hence the slip.
Charleworth does know his stuff. He's worth reading. Also, here's a link to one of my online drawer making articles. http://curve.phpwebhosting.com/~luka/articles/drawers/rjones1.html Slainte.
I use them because often times my drawer sides are to thin to accomodate a structurally sound groove to house the bottom.The slip can also be made of a more wear resistant wood for the drawer to slide on. It also aids in fitting the drawers top and bottom tolerances in the drawer opening.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled