[Woodworking] SilverBullitt's quick and dirty how to make a drawer primer

[DAB]

all righty, listen up. SilverBullitt needs to get some drawers made for his new out feed and work table. this is how i made our kitchen drawers (44 of them in the kitchen alone ) out of prefinished maple plywood, using pocket screws.

some sample pics attached.

first is a drawer for our new coffee table (poly still drying) made with dovetails. it takes some skill and some good tools to do that right, and it takes too long. we won't be doing that in this thread. it just shows an alternate if you want to show off.

the other two are a drawer holding hot pads in our kitchen. the large screw heads you see go to the handle.

key point is the glides selected, these are full extension Blum glides, exactly 1/2" thick. so the drawer is exactly 1" narrower than the opening in the cabinet.

the cabinet is 24" deep, the inside depth, because of the stringer at the back of the cabinet is 23-1/4". so i selected 22" long glides and made the sides of the drawer also 22". they normally come in 2" increments.

the sides are a true 3/4" thick plywood, and the cabinet outside width is 13". so the opening is 11-1/2". therefore, the drawer is 10-1/2" wide. the front and back of the drawer are screwed to the sides with pocket screws so the screws are in shear mode (not in tension, that would have them pull out too easily). so the front and back are 1-1/2" less than the drawer width, or 9" in this case.

this drawer is 3" high, so just enough room for 2 pocket screws on each end.

once you figure out your drawer size and get the pieces all cut, time to cut dados for the bottom.

i leave 1/4" of material of the sides/front/back, and in this case, used 1/4" ply, so i cut a 1/4" dado in the sides.

it will help if you mark the outsides/insides of the drawer pieces, so you don't cut on the wrong side.

get the dados cut. then measure how big to cut the bottom.

in this case, i made the dados 3/8" deep, so the width of the drawer bottom opening is 3/4" less than the width, or 10-1/2 - 3/4 = 9-3/4". likewise, the length of the opening, front to back is 22 - 3/4 = 21-1/4"

now, before you go cut the bottom, subtract 1/8" from each of the above, this will let you fit the bottom easier, and give it a little room to expand if it gets humid later.

so the bottom in this case would be cut to 21-1/8 x 9-5/8

time to assemble the drawer. i'll wait.

good.

most glides come with instructions on how to mount them, most tell you to either put them a certain distance from the bottom, or to put them at the center of the height of the drawer.

be sure to leave a little room, say 1/8", for the bottom drawer to clear the bottom of the cabinet.

any questions?

[Jobaka]

Nice work.

Just curious, why not drive the pocket screws from the other side so that they are not visible under normal operating conditions? Do they need to be tightened periodically?

[DAB]

Originally Posted by Jobaka

Nice work.

Just curious, why not drive the pocket screws from the other side so that they are not visible under normal operating conditions? Do they need to be tightened periodically?

if all the drawers had drawer fronts, that would work to hide the pocket screws, but many of the drawers in the kitchen are actually behind doors, and don't have a drawer front. i didn't want to have to have 2 designs to keep track of.

they also sell pocket screw hole plugs, that you can put in the pocket holes to hide the pocket screws. Mrs. DAB decided to pass on those, as they normally sit proud and you have to sand them flush. that wouldn't work on pre-finished plywood.

[Black94lt1]

For utility drawers I just run the screws in from the exterior of the sides into the front and back panels - imagine side "B" is the face

[DAB]

Originally Posted by Black94lt1

For utility drawers I just run the screws in from the exterior of the sides into the front and back panels - imagine side "B" is the face

Similar idea, different screw location.

[CertInsaneC5]

Originally Posted by DAB

Similar idea, different screw location.

And as you mentioned in the OP. Different and better load on the screws. I doubt the pocket screws will ever back out.

[DAB]

Originally Posted by CertInsaneC5

And as you mentioned in the OP. Different and better load on the screws. I doubt the pocket screws will ever back out.

After about 3 years of daily use, they are doing fine.

Could not also add a dab of glue, as the plywood already had a finish on it. But if you are using raw wood, you could. And I would.

[Black94lt1]

Originally Posted by DAB

After about 3 years of daily use, they are doing fine.

Could not also add a dab of glue, as the plywood already had a finish on it. But if you are using raw wood, you could. And I would.

I've often wondered about that with the prefinished plywood, I guess you could biscuit it as the glue would work on the biscuits or do a real shallow dado/half lap - just deep enough to take the finish off the plywood.

[SilverBullitt]

Awesome advice, as usual, DAB. I'm sure this will be a big help to me. I hadn't considered building the drawers out of 3/4 stock because I just thought they'd be too heavy and cumbersome, especially since a couple of them will be about 22" wide. I guess the same principles would apply if I used 1/2 inch plywood stock? (assuming I can find one of the micro kreg jigs to use for the pocket holes)

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this for me. Very kind of you to help a newbie. I'm having to figure everything else out by trial and error.

[DAB]

Originally Posted by Black94lt1

I've often wondered about that with the prefinished plywood, I guess you could biscuit it as the glue would work on the biscuits or do a real shallow dado/half lap - just deep enough to take the finish off the plywood.

In theory yes. But with 44 to build, it would take longer waiting for the glue to set in the clamps.