Simplest drawer for shop cabinets?

[Salem Ganzhorn]

I would like to add some more cabinets to my garag^h^h^h^hshop.

After reading http://www.tomclarkbooks.com/tomclarkbooks.com/Designing_Shop_Cabinets.html I am convinced that I want mostly drawers. They don't have to be pretty, just functional and reliable. What is the simplest sturdy drawer construction method?

Also looking for recommendations on inexpensive slides.
Thanks!
Salem

[Sonny Edmonds]

Well, the absolute simplest would be to nail together boxes and hang them under cabinets or benches.
Don't use cheap drawer slides, they will fail under the loads you will be likely to put in them.
For shop use, simple, substantial, and functional.
Save pretty, good looking, and finish for your projects.
There are show shops...
And then there are go shops.
Mine happens to be a go shop. ;)

[Danny Thompson]

Two cheap options: 1) Pocket-screws or 2) rabbets and brad nails. Either way, use 1/2" ply for the drawer tray (front, back, sides, and bottom). (You can go 3/4 for the front, back, and sides if you want.) Make the front, back, and bottom a uniform height. Rabbet the bottom edge, and make the bottom to fit in the rabbets; them make sure you glue and screw, or glue and nail the bottom.

Depending on what kind of front you want, you can get away with a 1/2" ply panel (with optional veneer-tape edging) or a solid wood front.

How you hang them depends on their intended weight capacity. If relatively light (say under 10 lb) you can go with wooden rails and a dado. If heavy, go with heavy-duty drawer guides.

Make sense?

Here are some removable drawers/trays on wooden rails made with the glue and brad-nail method:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=73600&d=1192466121

And here are some drawers on guide rails made using the same glue and brad nail method:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=73601&d=1192466128

I did not edge-band the fronts, but wish I had've. The time and expense would have been minimal, and the look would have been improved quite a bit.

[Salem Ganzhorn]

Thanks for the pointers guys. I took a look around my house and I think I found the cheapest way to do it :(.

Many of the drawers are melamine covered chipboard. The sides are butt joints stapled together. Not even sure there is any glue involved... The bottom is then stapled to the frame and the slides are screwed to the bottom. They seem functional enough and I think the melamine covered drawer bottoms is probably good for a shop. But I will probably do the rabbeted sides and glue for some additional strength.

[Rod Sheridan]

Thanks for the pointers guys. I took a look around my house and I think I found the cheapest way to do it :(.

Many of the drawers are melamine covered chipboard. The sides are butt joints stapled together. Not even sure there is any glue involved... The bottom is then stapled to the frame and the slides are screwed to the bottom. They seem functional enough and I think the melamine covered drawer bottoms is probably good for a shop. But I will probably do the rabbeted sides and glue for some additional strength.

Hi Salem, if I were going to make the drawers out of melamine covered particle board I wouldn't use rebates or glue.

Use simple butt joints with #8 X 1 3/4" particl board screws, and set the bottom inside the drawer, not attached underneath.

The bottom will square up the drawer (if you cut it square), and the screws will be in shear rather than tension load which is far stronger in particle board.

Don't forget to purchase your own iron as opposed to using the household one for applying the edge banding.

That's the voice of experience speaking on that one!

Regards, Rod.

[Tom Godley]

Did you get his book?


........... bought it a few months ago and felt it had some good ideas.


His drawer construction is very simple -- I am going to make some this way. I also liked the fact that everything was modular -- that way you can make up a bunch of drawer parts then supports then sides etc... Makes the whole process go quicker.


He purchased his slides from Grizzly -- have not checked out them out yet.

[Darius Ferlas]

I made a storage unit a couple weeks ago, with 10 drawers. My objective was to build it inexpensively and I didn't care whether the drawers are pretty inside or not. The unit is 8' tall and 64" wide.

For the drawers I used whatever I could without spending $, mostly old particle board shelves, parts an IKEA bed (IKEA: Never Again!) an old desk etc. Drawer boxes are butt joined with wood screws and some gorilla glue.

Bottoms vary, between 1/4" melamine and 1/2" particle boards. Screws and gorilla glue hold the bottoms to the frame of the drawers. Faces are made of old pine shelves (still need some sanding).

Drawer slides are euros. They are plenty strong when attached to the frame with 5/8" wood screws. One of the drawers is filled with small hardware (screws etc), probably 80 pounds in all, another holds 1 gallon cans of paint ans such. I used the same sliders in another chest I built 16 years ago. They held large drawers 24" by 48" without a problem. Sliders were attached to the bottoms of drawers with two 5/8" screws. The sides were attched to the frame with 4 screws. All screws used are #5.

One thing to consider is that most euro slides will slide out only 3/4 of their length.

[Luther Oswalt]

Check American Woodworker Page 74, Feb.- Mar. They have a nice fast method!
Leo

[larry cronkite]

I built the router cabinet Tom Clark has in his book per his suggestions on cabinet and drawer construction. I am very happy with it.

[John Adam]

I'm working on the same project right now. I had a bunch of 1/2 plywood, so I used it for the bottoms...

I built the drawers like shelves with a box screwed to the top.

I cut 5/8" dadoes every 6" in the cabinet sides, then cut the 1/2 plywood to fit each cabinet (slides easily). Then I used 3/8" plywood to build a box on top of the plywood, screwed from below.

I used 3/4" ply as the front, overhanging a bit on the bottom for a handle. Pocket screws hold the front to the drawer bottom, since that's where the stress is.

I'm making about 40 drawers, each one takes about 5 minutes this way. Also, they're fully customizable, I can have 6", 12", 18" or 24" inch drawers anywhere I want, can move them swap them, etc. Best of all, there's no hardware, so they're CHEAP!!!

It's a huge kludge, but it works well for my needs...

btw, not NEAR as cool looking as Larry's router cabinet.

[Salem Ganzhorn]

Thanks for the info guys. It will probably take me a week or two to finalize the garage layout and then a month or so to realize it :).


Hi Salem, if I were going to make the drawers out of melamine covered particle board I wouldn't use rebates or glue.

Use simple butt joints with #8 X 1 3/4" particl board screws, and set the bottom inside the drawer, not attached underneath.

The bottom will square up the drawer (if you cut it square), and the screws will be in shear rather than tension load which is far stronger in particle board.


I could see this going either way. If I put a screw in 1/2" particle board that would not leave much material above the screw. So you are saying it takes less load to pull out ~3/4" of threads in PB than to chip out ~1/8" of PB laterally?



Don't forget to purchase your own iron as opposed to using the household one for applying the edge banding.

That's the voice of experience speaking on that one!

Regards, Rod.

Ha! I got the funniest looks from neighbors when I was "ironing" in the garage at 11pm (heatlock veneer glue). And yes, I really should have bought my own iron :).

[Tom Veatch]

...I am convinced that I want mostly drawers. They don't have to be pretty, just functional and reliable. What is the simplest sturdy drawer construction method?...

Just finished 24 of them for an Assembly Table base (modification of the Woodwhisper Torsion Box design). Front/back/sides are of 1/2" ply (Woodwhisperer use 3/4"), bottoms are 3/8" ply (he used 1/2"). Here's a video (http://thewoodwhisperer.com/episode-19-assembly-table-stand/) which shows the construction technique (along with a lot of other stuff). Basically, the front and back of each drawer is rabbeted to receive the sides, and the front/back/sides are dadoed to receive the bottom. Corners are glue and brads.

Best prices I found on 100# 18" full extension drawer slides was Woodworker's Hardware (http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/GroupID/Cabinet%20Drawer%20Slides/CatID/Drawer%20Slides%2C%20Full%20Extension%20Ball%20Bea ring/SubCatID/Economy%20Full%20Extension)

[John Sanford]

Don't fret about the iron. You can clean the heat sensitive adhesive off easily with lacquer thinner.

[Rick Fisher]

I just built a bunch of strong, fast and simple drawer from 3/4" Birch ply. Not the good stuff, the $25.00 stuff.

Pocket screws, staples and glue. No Dado's.. I used Blum full extention slides, not the cheap ones, the good ones :)

Anyhow, each drawer holds belt sander type tools. Heavy.

[Larry Edgerton]

In my shop I made them out of 1/2" fingerjointed Poplar, no fasteners, with tempered masonite bottoms with Accuride slides. I overload them terribly and have yet to have a failure. Cheap and tough.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

For my workbench and under a workbench countertop I used full 3/4" SYP sides w/ paneling bottoms (just what construction material I had on hand). I dadoed the bottoms and backs and lap jointed the fronts with plenty of nails and glue. I then hung them on hardwood runners which I slicked with beeswax (wonderful stuff). Because the front extends down under the bottom a bit and on mine there's nothing to obstruct grabbing the bottom front being a single line of drawers I never put pulls on the fronts. That way there's nothing to hit a workpiece against or snag my pants on having the smooth drawer fronts. They've held up fine for whatever I wanted to put in them for about 25 years.

[frank shic]

metaboxes are the simplest drawers to make. just cut out the bottom and the back, bore the drawer front and whack the whole thing together! i made over 30 drawers in the span of a few hours using them.

[Tom Veatch]

metaboxes ...

OK, I'll bite. That's a new term for me, so what's a "metabox"?

[Dirk Lewis]

Metal box kits from blum (linky) (http://www.blum.com/us/en/01/40/40/index.php)

[Salem Ganzhorn]

Metal box kits from blum (linky) (http://www.blum.com/us/en/01/40/40/index.php)

Wow, looks like ~10$ a drawer, that is pretty cheap considering how quick/easy they look. Thanks for the pointer.

[Jay Yoder]

Where can you buy these Metaboxes? Only downside i was was they only seemed be available for 24" cabinets.

[frank shic]

jay, you can buy them at woodworker's hardware:

http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/GroupID/Cabinet%20Drawer%20Slides/CatID/Blum%26%230174%3B%20Metabox%20Drawer%20Slides

you want to get the c-15 M drawer boxes and the expando clip front fixing brackets. after my last experience using them, i will never build another melamine drawer box again for built-in projects and i'll probably use the higher end tandemboxes for bathrooms and kitchens. the drawer is quick and extremely durable - far stronger than your usual 1/4" drawer bottoms.

i would also recommend buying the metabox c-15 drilling guide as well as the drawer front marking templates to avoid complicated mathematics if you have the extra cash. otherwise, blum has fairly detailed instructions on the wwhardware site as well.

[hank dekeyser]

I've made hundreds of shop drawers - 3/4" ply for the boxes, 1/2" for the bottom. You can use fancy joints , dadoe's, halflaps, whatever. In my experience it doesnt matter much. Staple and glue. Drawers I want to be nicer I use a 3/8 x 3/4 cut on sides of the front and backs of the sides, w/ a 3/8 x 1/2 cut on the bottom edges to accept the 1/2 bottom. When I saw "cut" I mean just that , set the fence on TS and cut all in on eset up, reset blade and make the other cut. Dado blades waste time and energy for this when a simple 2 cut method is more precise and quicker. For sides of cabinet I like to use 1/2 or 3/4 ply and attach runners for drawer height plus 1/4" Put a metal thumbtack on the front for drawer to slide on. Build a face and attach to sides - screw it to the wall or (my favorite) between bench legs. If you move or change the shop / whatever - you have boxes that are easy to remove / re-use, etc. I've got the same drawers today that I built 15 or so years ago (and 4 different shops)-

I would NEVER use particle board, OSB, blandex, fibrecore, or fancy schmancy metal "kits" for a SHOP drawer. Build them once, out of plywood, and be done almost forever. I can literally stand inside any one of my drawers extended 3/4 out and not worry if it will break. (6'3" 225#) I do it all the time to get at stuff in the rafters.
Theres something about a good solid drawer that just feel right and has that "right sound" pile 'em full abuse 'em, whatever. Plus you don't need to worry about expensive chisels, bits,etc, clanging inside a metal drawer.
my 2 cents

[Jeff Qualmann]

Jay - the "meta box" style hardware is basically an integrated oversized euro drawer slide with a side height tall enough to form the drawer box sides - you just add a simple to cut back front and bottom. They are used frequently for "institutional" style cabinetry - think frameless style medical / office cabinets.

Pretty much all of the euro hardware manufacturers, Blum, Mepla/Alfit, Grass and the off-shore knockoffs have a "metabox" style system. And you can get them in a wide range of side heights and drawer depths anything from 12"/300mm deep to over 24"/600mm deep. They really are a slick and easy way to make drawers - but they are not ever going to be considered fine furniture. However if you are building drawers for the shop and want to knock them out quickly - perfect.

[Bill Huber]

I have made all of my drawers from 3/4 pine with a 3/16 hardboard bottom. They have worked very well and even the drawers I have full of heavy tool there is no sag in the bottoms.

I just used rabbets on the corners and I did glue the bottoms on a slot 1/4 inch up from the bottom.

108628

[frank shic]

another advantage to the metabox system and it's clones is that you have more storage room since the sides are <1/8" thick whereas most drawers built of solid wood or plywood are going to be out of 1/2" or 3/4" material. there's no need to fuss around with dado's and subsequently sizing the drawer bottoms and the best part of all is that you've eliminated yet another step: installation of the drawer slide hardware!

[Jim Holman]

Glue,nail sides, front and back together. Front should be 3/8" taller than sides and back with the additional height at the bottom. Attach a 3/8" plywood bottom that projects out by 3/8" an the left and right side. Cut dados in the cabinet to match the drawer bottom. Brutally strong, cheap and easy to replace but the will probably last forever. My file drawer contains upwards of 50 pounds and is still going strong after 20+ years.

[Mark Godlesky]

Tom,
That's by far the best price I've seen on that type of slides. Have you used them? are they close to the accuride in quality?

Thanks,

Mark

[David Keller NC]

"Thanks for the info guys. It will probably take me a week or two to finalize the garage layout and then a month or so to realize it :)."

Salem - If your shop's in a garage, and the garage isn't continuously air-conditioned, heated, or at least de-humidified, building shop furniture with melamine-covered particle board may be a very bad idea. Particle board doesn't have a good track record in standing up to high moisture levels, and even MDF isn't generally recommended for these applications.

From the standpoint of sturdy, dimensionally stable drawers that will never need repair, I would highly recommend that you use birch or "apple" plywood. It does indeed cost more than MDF or particle board, but it will stand up to high humidity and large loads (heavy tools). It also opens up a number of different joints that don't hold together well in particle board or MDF.

In particular, if you have a dovetail jig, I'd dovetail them in plywood. There is no stronger joint, and they go exceedingly fast with a router jig and a mini-production run.

If you don't have a dovetail jig (and don't want one), I'd use a router-made lock-miter joint. The bit sets to make these are relatively cheap, and the joint when put together with glue will be very strong. This is a very common joint in modern kitchen cabinet drawers, and is time-proven.

I'd recommend against pocket screws. I use this joint a lot to put together face-frames, attaching the face-frames to the cabinet, and other, non-load bearing applications. However, I did use them to put together the drawers for my router table, and that was a mistake. Because of the heavy load of router bits and other tooling, the pocket screws loosened up and stripped out within a year (4 pocket screws on each of the 4 corners of the drawers). I replaced those with ones that were put together with lock-miter joints, glue, and glued-in plywood bottoms. After 5 years, no failures or sing of failures yet.

[Jim Mattheiss]

Salem:

My first drawers were built for my tablesaw base cabinet. The drawer boxes are made of 3/4" BB Plywood and the bottoms are 1/2" Oak Veneer Plywood. (The oak ply was already in the lumber rack and the 3/4 BB was left over from the cabinet build).

The joinery was butt joints with pocket screws.

The bottom resides in a 1/2" groove cut 1/2" above the bottom of the sides. Since I don't have a dado set I cut the "edges" of the groove with on the table saw and routed out between them on the router table. That way there was no chipout of the sides of the groove.

They are really sturdy for what I'm using them for.

I will reiterate that buying good drawer slides will save you in the end. I bought 100# 3/4 extension slides and the drawers have the tendency to open as I'm moving the saw around. We'll see how that works once the drawers are fully loaded.

Cheers

Jim

[Tom Veatch]

Tom,
That's by far the best price I've seen on that type of slides. Have you used them? are they close to the accuride in quality?

Thanks,

Mark

They appear to be pretty close. I've not done a microscopic inspection of them, but I don't see any obvious down checks compared to my memory of accurides I've used in the past.

I'm in the process of installing 24 drawers in some shop furniture using the 100# 18" full extension version of those slides, and, for now, they seem fine. The drawer action on a couple that I've completed may be a little stiff, but that could be due to the drawer cavity being slightly underwidth because of warping in that cheap plywood I used for the case. I haven't noticed any roughness or binding in any of them before being installed.

Looking 6 months to a few years down the road, who knows:confused:. But, so far, I don't regret getting them.

[ron hokenson]

I built the router cabinet Tom Clark has in his book per his suggestions on cabinet and drawer construction. I am very happy with it.


Larry, Thanks for posting your router table picture. I do have a question about the placement of the slot above the center door. In reviewing Tom Clark's website, I note that he has 2 holes at the bottom of the center door The picture of your table shows the inlet at the top just under the table top. Is this slot for air into the compartment that houses the router? Do you have any dust or chip buildup in the compartment because of your change?

...ron

[larry cronkite]

Larry, Thanks for posting your router table picture. I do have a question about the placement of the slot above the center door. In reviewing Tom Clark's website, I note that he has 2 holes at the bottom of the center door The picture of your table shows the inlet at the top just under the table top. Is this slot for air into the compartment that houses the router? Do you have any dust or chip buildup in the compartment because of your change?

...ron

Ron

Sharp eyes.

Actually that slot above the middle door is a "goof" that I have yet to correct.

The only air intake should be through the router insert and around the router for maximum dust collection. I do have a little dust accumulation in the upper part of the table because of this extra air inlet.