Replies

1. 
   jackplane | Apr 29, 2004 04:05pm | #1

   Hopefully by now you've made a valuable discovery. A 58" wide dresser is going to need support somewhere in the middle.Dressers of this size usually have dividers near the middle, i.e. three drawers at the top. I see no way to remedy this without reconfiguring your drawer structure, but maybe someone else will have another idea.

2. 
   ronniebe | Apr 29, 2004 05:40pm | #2

   	You are going to need more than one middle leg at the back of the dresser. If it is sagging now, wait until you have those eight drawers full! Without a photo it is difficult to give a recomendation, but at the very mininum you will need to support the front middle as well. Just supporting back will not eliminate sagging at the front of the dresser.

   
   

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   Edited 4/29/2004 10:44 am ET by woodglue

   
   

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   Edited 4/29/2004 10:46 am ET by woodglue

3. 
   Knothead05 | Apr 29, 2004 07:15pm | #3

   Ironic that your question comes just as Fine Woodworking (Issue #170) has a cover story on building a chest of drawers!  It's an excellent article, but I'm afraid that the level of detail in that story (p. 50) is so high that it might put people off from building more basic units.

   My suggestion, while rather "inelegant," might save both the appearance of what you've built and rescue it from the sagging problem that could render it useless when the drawers are full:

   You probably have a base stretcher under the bottom drawer, and surely have frame elements between drawers.  They are also probably at least 3/4" wide, and the base even wider. (vertical dimension)  Try installing a 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/8" steel angle behind each and every horizontal stretcher and at the base.  You can drill the mild steel with an ordinary drill press (remember to use cutting oil), and fasten the angles with, say, #10 wood screws lagged into the back of the runners/stretchers.  I'd recommend screws at least every 4 - inches.  Simply precut and predrill the angles, clamp them to the back of the dresser horizontal pieces, predrill into the wood, and install the lag screws.

   Yes, inelegant, but the final result will provide the necessary stability and will be totally invisable when the project is finished.

   I agree with the others that there is a lesson to be learned about spacing and size of chests of drawers, but the price of the lesson shouldn't have to be wasting what you've already built.

   I find steel and aluminum angles and bar stock to be invaluable as a supplementary element is some of the more challenging woodworking situations.  As you can see, I'm not a "purist," and I believe that if it works, especially to save a lot of work already done, that it's more than O.K.

4. 
   scooter1 | Apr 30, 2004 07:43pm | #4

   58 inches is too long a span for unsupported plywood.

   Regards,

   Boris

   "Sir, I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow" -- WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1934