Your preferred method of producing drawer sides/bottoms?
During a recent discussion with some fellow woodworkers our discussion fell to the production of drawer sides and backs. I have always despised producing the stock for drawers, particularly when I have many to make. We found that we all felt pretty much the same about this portion of woodworking. The methods of producing the stock varied and many times depended on the stock that we had. The methods we had used fell onto:
1) Planning 4/4 boards to 5/8″ or 1/2″. This is very time consuming and wastes a lot of wood
2) Bandsawing 5/4 boards in half to obtain 1/2″ stock
3) Just using standard 4/4 boards for the sides and backs, eliminating any stock preparation time
4) Use 1/2″ baltic birch plywood
5) Purchase the stock already milled for drawers as 1/2″ or 5/8″ thickness.
I thought it might me interesting to hear from other woodworkers on how they feel about producing these pieces and their preferred production methods.
Replies
I actually enjoy the drawer making part of a project.
The type material used really depends on the type of piece you are building. On a shop cabinet, plywood is fine for drawer sides. On cabinets or simple furniture, I would only use solid material like pine, poplar or maple. On more special furniture, I would up the ante and go with quartered sycamore, quartered maple, figured maple or quartered beech. Same goes for drawer bottoms, though on cabinets or simple furniture I'm not opposed to using plywood for drawer bottoms.
As for thickness, that too depends on the piece. I guess 1/2 would be a standard and I go from there based on what the piece calls for. I've actually found that for kitchen cabinets or a bathroom vanity with center-mount self closing hardware, the drawer likes to be beefier, so 5/8 or 3/4 works well. (I have three drawers in my center island with 1/2 sides and 1/4 bottom and they seem a little light for the hardware.) I've gone down to 5/16 on some furniture to get a light refined looking drawer.
I generally resaw the drawer parts I need. I try to avoid letting efficient use of the material dictate design decisions. That is, if I need 1/2 stock and only have 4/4 to get it from, I'm only going to get 1 board out of it. I'm not going to compromise my design and make the side 3/8 to maximize the yield.
On special pieces I want the drawer to be on par with the rest of the piece and to be a pleasant suprise when opened - nothing secondary about that wood.
These photos are of a walnut table I made using 5/16 QS Beech for the drawer sides. I added 1/8 cockbeading. (Sorry, I don't know how to rotate the images here. I'm still working on the whole photo thing.)
Frank
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh !
As in very satisfying to look at. Thanks for the pics. They look great. If sideways when you up load them to knots you can rotate them on your photo editor before up loading. Be sure to save, then upload.
As far as making drawer sides I hate waste so cannot imagine using a surface planer and just turning the excess into chips. I would slab off the extra on my bandsaw even it the little slabs then just sat on the shelf as veneer for ten years.
I enjoy using my bandsaw so much that making custom thicknesses of components is fun ( and why I bought a bandsaw ). I suppose if I was making a living from it that would all change but I am not.
Self flipping
Thanks roc,
Having seen the pictures on the site now, at least they seem to self flip when opened here.
Frank
Moderator please delete this duplicate comment
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making drawers....
top/bottom/sides all of 1/2" Baltic birch.
Precise dadoes, assembly self aligning, rock solid and square, and while my clients do love em, perhaps more importantly I've had zero call backs on drawers, and after repairing many "traditionally" made drawers made by the "pro" shops , I love em too.
One material, minimal set up, no call backs.......that's a triple win to me.
I could dovetail em, but that struck me as overkill and pretentious....Oftentimes I have considered using mac-tac stick ons on the corner to imply dovetails!!!! (Joke )
Eric in Calgary
Planing chosen stock
While prepairing stock for total work at hand I look for stock that is
solid but has poor color or small pin knots on the surface of one
side of the stock. I save this stock for drawers. Since I see the defects
on one side only, I plane the stock on the side of the board I'd
like to try improve. Since the defect didn't go all the way through the
stock, there will be a point during planing when the defects will be
removed. I find I'm pleased with about 80% of the stock after planing
to 5/8". It takes some guess work, and some time, but I'm often able to use
stock that otherwise might end up in a woodstove.
I agree with Frank. It depends on the piece the drawers go in. There is always some twisted, bowed or incompletely sawn 4/4 stock in a lift of lumber as well as shorts available that I put aside for drawer parts.
Resawing 5/4 usually results in bannana pieces, if you are talking larger sizes.
I think 3/4" sides add too much weight in many applications.
Can't ever recall using plywood.
I've looked into purchasing drawers but the stock sizes seldom fit and custom is too expensive.
On my last drawer project for built ins, I found a lift of 4/4 red oak that was sawn terribly, you couldn't get 3/4" finished out of the boards, I went 9/16". The drawers were fairly large and there were 24 of them. I milled the stock to 9/16", glued up pieces for the sides and kept them as even as I could, so that the joints only needed a little scraping to get flush, rubbed a coat of shellac on them and called them good.
Resawing is going to depend on the length of the drawers. Over the last couple weeks I've tried twice resawing different rift red oak boards about 30" long for drawer sides and about 16" long for drawer bottoms One mistake was planning to use the same lumber for the rift red oak desk and the drawer sides and bottoms - in the future I'll order quartersawn material for the drawer sides. The other mistake was not allowing for a wider gap after resawing the longer boards.
Almost every resawn pair showed the banana move, even after being stickered for 1-2 weeks, and the gap between resawn pairs was usually wider for the longer pieces. After flattening and straightening the rested resawn pieces, some of the 30" long pieces were less than 1/4" thick, while all the 15" pieces were still 7/16" thick.
Ideally, all solid drawer sides, fronts, and backs would be quartersawn, especially if the drawers are intended to be well fit to the opening. QS will undergo less seasonal expansion and contraction than rift and flatsawn stock. Just my opinion.
Walnut,
I frequently use shelving pine as drawer stock. Usually I get 1x12's. Relatively inexpensive, if you consider that half the work of taking 4/4 down to 1/2 is done for you. Some waste in cutting around the knots (typically they are about 24" apart, about what the length of a drawer side wants to be), but if you can pick thru the pile, you can pull the boards that might be picked over and rejected as shelving because of some cupping, a split, or a waney edge, yet are relatively clear of knots. Some of the 1x12 stuff is close to quartersawn, with the pith of the tree running down the center of the board- this is ideal for drawer sides and backs 5" or narrower. Wider parts can be gotten from boards that are flatsawn, that will be rift grain on one edge.
Have also gotten pine stock that is roughsawn at 3/4", intended for weatherboard or clapboard siding. Here the width is all 6", flatsawn, but may be pretty good grade-wise. This is all air-dried, and may need to be strip stacked in the shop for a time to further dry.
Ray
Order them!
I enjoy making drawers as some others have posted, but like you when I have a lot to make and am on a time schedule it becomes rather a strain. What I did to solve this problem is went and got a business license which allows me to set up an accounts at local door and drawer box making businesses. This way I can order all the drawer boxes and doors in any style, design or wood I need and have them within a week. I've found that they can usually make them , faster , better and cheaper than I can.
Depends on project/client.
Sides:
General production - what the client specs, sometimes just Baltic. Occasionally more profitable to have complete drawers done by http://www.scherrs.com/
Good company. Top Drawer :)
Fine furniture sides:
All Q/S stock.
Plane down equal both sides to desired width, normally 1/2", mill to final.
Bottoms:
Run of the mill drawer bottoms -- baltic ply, veneer ply or flat glue up solid wood. 1/2" for large drawers, 1/4" small/delicate drawers:
First grade drawer bottoms -- Raised panel bottoms. All q /s stock. Glued up 1/2" - 3/8" bottom panels. Flatten. Band or table saw rough bevels on bottom - 4 sides to 1/4 - 1/3 panel width to approx. thickness of kerf needs. Cut tongues on TS. Finish with smoothers out to edges for kerf insert, shoulder plane to finish tongue. Thicker center - stronger bottom - less "tinny". Not as time consuming as it sounds / worth effort.
BB
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