Drawers without metal/mechanical glides

[Tom Hoffman]

I'm designing drawers to fit beneath my newly constructed workbench. The outside dimensions of the face frame is 54" x 20". I plan to have 3 columns of drawers each with 4 drawers for a total of 12 drawers. I don't want to spend the $$ for drawer glides, so I'm thinking of using hardwood runners on the sides of the drawers. THE QUESTION IS: should the dado go on the side wall of the carcass (with the runner on the side of the drawer), or on the side of the drawer (with the runner on the side of the carcass)? How deep should the dado be? Do I need to worry much about the weight of the tools - can this type of design handle heavy loads?

[Todd Burch]

Hi Tom, and welcome to the creek!

Either option will work, but here are my thoughts.

If your carcass is plywood or MDF or particle board, you can glue the runner into a dado in the carcass. A +-1/2" or so wide runner, glued into a 1/4" , or even 1/8" dado in the carcass will hold a lot of weight. Then, dado your drawer sides and you are in business.

If your carcass is solid wood, I would do the same thing, but I would only glue the first couple inches (next to the face frame) and then screw the runner in at the front, and then elongate a couple other holes further back in the runner to accept screws to hold the runners in the dados.

If your carcass is web frame, you could glue and screw in the front and back.

Paraffin wax is a great long term lubricant for drawer runners. My shop drawers (1/2" baltic birch plywood) run on their bottom edges on hardwood strips glued to the bottom of the drawer opening - the carcasses are all MDF. They hold a lot more weight than they should and have held up fine in daily use for several years.

With this type of "friction" system, be sure your drawer corner joinery is good.

Let us know what you decide. Pictures.

Todd

[Tom Hoffman]

I'm designing drawers to fit beneath my newly constructed workbench. The outside dimensions of the face frame is 54" x 20". I plan to have 3 columns of drawers each with 4 drawers for a total of 12 drawers. I don't want to spend the $$ for drawer glides, so I'm thinking of using hardwood runners on the sides of the drawers. I'm using 3/4" ply for the carcass and maple for the drawers. THE QUESTION IS: should the dado go on the side wall of the carcass (with the runner strip on the side of the drawer), or on the side of the drawer (with the runner strip on the side of the carcass)? How deep should the dado be? Do I need to worry much about the weight of the tools - can this type of design handle heavy loads?

(I also posted this in the design section, but after I did that I saw that there are so many more viewers in this forum, I thought I'd get more views here. Forgive me if this is a no-no - I'm new).

[Tim Sproul]

Another option of to skip those entirely and build with runners and kickers, relying on the drawer sides to act as guides.

[aurelio alarcon]

I haven't done any side runners out of wood. But I have done them on the bottem of the drawer. This might be an option.

[Mark Singer]

Tom,
Welcome! I found an old post of mine on drawer construction with wood bottom glides. It is an old Scandanavian technique and slides well.
Here is the thread....
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=5586

[Tom Hoffman]

Mark Singer: Thanks for the reply. I looked at your old posting on drawers and I am curious about it, but I'm not sure I completely understand. Are the skis narrow strips you glue to the bottom side edges? From the pictures, it appears the strips are proud of the side - why? - is it to limit lateral side to side movement? How much proud of the drawer bottom are the skis? I assume this drawer technique requires a flat surface below each drawer for the skis to rest on? With 12 drawers I was kind of hoping to not have to have all those dividers in the carcass? Or am I not getting it?

[Mark Singer]

The skis are "L" profile mouldings that create clearance so only the bottom and side of the ski touches the carcass. This minimizes the contact area and friction. A bit of parafin and it really glides great. The Dynaslide is a inexpensive ($5) copy of Accuride and they work great too...if you decide to go metal.

[Jamie Buxton]

There is a drawer design called "NK" which works very well. In essence, you first build a sliding tray. The tray has all of the drawer's sliding surfaces. You tune the those surfaces while you can still see the fit between the tray and the cabinet. After you get it exactly right, you build a drawer box and stick it to the top of the tray. No part of that drawer box touches the cabinet.

If you build a drawer in the traditional order -- that is, build the drawer first, and then tune it to the cabinet -- all the sliding surfaces are hidden back inside the cabinet and you can't see what the problems are.

There was a good article about the NK technique in Fine Woodworking #150 (August 2001).