Drawer Assembly Techniques

[Lamar Horton]

I have a kitchen with 21 drawer boxes, I typically build my drawers from 1/2 in ply with butt joints. Does anyone have a way cool jig or technique you use to make the assembly faster?

[Jeremy Schiffer]

We used to use pocket screws in 3/4" ply. Pockets on the drawer box front and back, and when the drawer is assembled there are no visible fasteners and it's a very strong, no-nonsense easy to build drawer.


With the CNC now we just blind dado 'em.

[Will Williamson]

Have you figured out a way to do those blind dado without flip operations? To me that is the biggest waste of time . The last time I setup a shaper and ran the flip op onthe shaper

[Gary Puckett]

Have you looked into outsourcing the drawers? When I first started I did everything myself now I get my doors and drawers from the same supplier and what a relief the drawers are dovetailed and prefinished.

Gary

[Jeremy Schiffer]

Will,

As long as the drawers are made from two-sided material (remember it needs to be specified as two-sided within the ecabs material database too) there are no flip operations for blind-dadoed drawer boxes. If that isn't the problem, I'm curious to know how you are getting flip ops on them?

[Gary Puckett]

Will and Jeremy,


It sound like you guys have routers, if so why aren't you just dove tailing the drawers?

Gary

[Will Williamson]

Gary
In the 2 years I've owned this machine I have only made 3 or 4 cabinets and a half a dozen drawers . I used the blind dado method because I could run the drawers without any additional setup of tooling . I only have a 4 position tool bar. and I could run the drawers with the same tool settings as the rest of the cabinet parts

Jeremy
The only drawers I have made were done on a rush job in the middle of the night . I used 1/2 " double sided material with blind dado construction for sides and bottom .

That why I got in this post I need to learn more about the subject . It has been over a year since I made those drawers and I was thinking that I will eventually make some more. I have all the tooling for the dove tail drawers I,m just waiting for someone to pay me to learn how to use them.

[Gary Puckett]

Will,

What do you use the router(Thermwood) for if not for cutting out cabinets, and drawers?

Gary

[Jeremy Schiffer]

Will, if you're also using 1/2" ply for the bottoms and blind-dadoing them in, then it would cause flip ops. I hadn't thought of that earlier. We use 1/4" bottoms.

Gary, we haven't come across anyone who was willing to pay the extra for the dovetail drawers. They'd rather spend the money on something they can see from the outside of the cabinet, rather than just a purely cosmetic addition to the inside. Even if there were no extra charge for them (many people don't charge extra and just provide them by default,) I haven't yet heard anyone say they actually preferred it. It's always met with complete apathy.

So, our dovetail bit sits unused, never having been run.

[Gary Puckett]

Jeremy,

Didn't mean to offend, but the dove tail is not only cosmetic,it is one of the best and most reliable joints there is especially for a drawer.I and many others offer this as a standard item. All I was saying was with the router at your disposal I would think machining the dove tail would be a snap.When I do have to cut dovetails by hand I have to use my Leigh Jig. This happens only if I just have 2-4 drawers anything more and I out source.

Gary

[Jeremy Schiffer]

Certainly no offense taken Gary. I've got nothing against the dovetail joint at all. It's just my personal opinion that they aren't worth the time required, in the modern era of the pocket screw and blind dado. All methods produce a joint that will not fail.

It's hard enough to get folks to pony up money for custom cabinetry (around here anyway) so to reduce the cost we get rid of the most laborious and/or time-consuming things first.

Fortunately (knock on wood) a nearby hospital has kept us pretty busy building laminate cabinetry for most of the past year, so wooden drawer boxes, dovetail or otherwise, haven't even been mentioned. I haven't missed the headache and handholding that goes with the residential stuff.

Anyways, I'm way off topic now. What the hey, it's Saturday night. Let's drink.

[Lamar Horton]

Gee fellas, all I was asking is anyone had a quick and easy way to assemble the drawer box.

BTW dovetails are over rated, while they are a superior joint the strength is not necessary. I find 50 to 75 year old cabinets with just a couple of nails holding the box together and working fine.

[Rick Palechuk]

This is what we do Lamar. Cut, sand, glue and staple through the ends at a slight angle. Then a touch up sand and off to the booth. After that, slide the bottom in, nail it off.

[Will Williamson]

Lamar
What I have done in the past is use a table with a 90 degree fence attached to one end and use that for drawer and cabinet assembly. Most of the time you can just push them into the corner after aplying glue and then either nail or screw.

Gary
Even though I have a very well equipped shop I use my cnc for everything that I traditionally used hand tools and stand alone machinery . I use it to mortise ,tenon , joint , thickness , mold, carve and the list goes on and on I think of a new application every week .

[jerry johnson]

Hey guys, here is my standard drawer box with blind mortise and tennon constructin. It requires no flip ops and assembly is very fast. I use pre finished nine ply maple plywood. The boxes are clean and strong.
Hi, Will.