Type of wood to use for unexposed parts of a dresser
chancito
| Posted in General Discussion on
I’m getting ready to start to make my first dresser which will have a frame, top, and sides of cherry and drawer fronts with Birdseye maple. I’m wondering what type of wood to use for the unexposed back, sides, and bottoms of the drawers as well as for internal frame of drawer supports?
Thanks so much, this forum is a great resource.
Replies
Most anything you want. It would be a good place to use your cherry sapwood if you have a lot. My only suggestion would be to use another hard wood and, if you will have wood rubbing on wood for something like drawer slides, use a dense hardwood like oak or maple, etc (poplar would be a bit soft I think). Plywood will work fine for the back and drawer bottoms.
Thanks I was wondering about plywood for those areas so this helps and the sapwood is a good idea too.
It can depend on where you live, but I use soft maple and occasionally Poplar for drawer boxes. Hard Maple would be my first choice for wood drawer glides and other wear surfaces. If you are doing intermediate frames and or dust panels, I would use soft maple for the hidden parts of the frame.
I love white pine for drawer boxes. It dovetails beautifully. I would also use something harder for the web frames. If you've got scrap cherry or maple, you can use that. Otherwise, go for maple. Cheap and durable.
If you use plywood anywhere on this, one day you'll regret it.
For unseen carcass parts I find that poplar works quite well. It's easy to work and is prone to not splitting and is relatively inexpensive. Many people use plywood for drawer parts and I have but I prefer and think that a hardwood drawer gives a much nicer appearance. Since your thing is maple/ cherry I would consider one of those. Beech is nice, gives a clean consistent look or my standby is sometimes just what I have on hand. I have shorts from other projects and drawers are a good place to use them if appropriate. If I were to use plywood I like prefinished apple ply and cap the exposed edge. Drawer bottoms for convenience can be ply, or hardboard but I usually just plane and glue up bottoms from a similar wood, same reason, it looks nice. A floor guy I know saves cutoffs for me, maple ,oak ,cherry ,walnut ,occasional weird exotics. Once plained because of the back cut you end up with material that is sub 1/2 " -makes for good drawer bottom material or maybe boxes ,dividers etc. If the drawers are large though I will opt for apple ply -probably- because of its stability and strength. Large drawers may end up holding a great deal of weight. Sometimes a bottom support on larger drawers might be necessary and with the ply your not concerned with expansion problems. Are you using manufactured slides or are you making it up yourself? I like to use a good hard wood for that and often maple. A good quality manufactured slide is not a cheat to my thinking ,makes full extension easier and has a built in stop. Backs can be anything.. depends on quality of the project. If the casework is done properly the back isnt doing anything or much of anything structurally. A chest of drawers, the back is unseen so plywood or hardboard but if for no other reason than maybe for showoff I will make up t&g material for that and always if it can be seen. I have a setup for making 5/16" t&g if i need a match or I can revert to a lifetime supply of redwood t&g that I picked up sometime back. I do this for money and since someone can go to West Elm and buy a piece of furniture complete for less than the cost or at least the value of the materials involved I have to go the extra mile and hopefully find a clientele that knows and appreciates and will pay for the difference. If your making an heirloom piece for yourself you might consider doing the same.
In making machines, there is a principle of choosing which parts you want to do the wearing and which not. Typically you have the wear parts being the easiest to restore to original size. Having refurbished a 3 drawer chest a year ago with both badly worn drawer sides and drawer glides (in the chest), I made the drawer guides surfaces out of hard maple and the drawer sides out of poplar or soft maple. Hopefully the next guy to restore the drawer action will thank me for giving him an easier time than I had restoring the very inaccessible drawer glides.
Maple is my go-to secondary wood. Durable and inexpensive. Poplar is common for drawer bottoms in some furniture. UHMW tape for drawers can make them slide easier and reduce wear on softer woods.
Thanks for all the thoughtful comments. A lot to consider; I’m going to with maple and avoid the plywood.