Drawer making minutes

[Robert Reece]

Today I decided to make one drawer for my kitchen to make sure my drawings are accurate. I choose one of the drawers that is going to use 30" Blum slides so I could make sure those work like I think they do.

Here is the drawer spec: 30" deep x 35 1/2" wide x 4 3/8 high (big silverware drawer). 5/8" poplar sides, 3/8" baltic birch bottom, dadoed into sides. Blum slides require that the bottom panel be up 1/2" from the bottom of the drawer sides. Drawer sides are butt jointed and screwed with countersunk screws. They will be plugged, but I didn't do that today. See attached picture of the final product.

Here are the minutes of how long this drawer took. If any of this seems completely out of line, let me know so I can figure out what I am doing wrong and how I can speed it up. Obviously I will speed up when I can make multiple drawers at once.

17 minutes - pull rough 4/4 poplar out of stack, measure, mark and crosscut 4 drawer pieces.
44 minutes - face joint, plane to final thickness (5/8"), saw to final width (4 3/8"), joint edges to remove saw marks
12 minutes - setup dado and get it dialed in
4 minutes dado drawer sides for drawer bottom
4 minutes to change dado blade back to rip blade
2 minutes to rip dado off drawer back
17 minutes to crosscut draw sides to length
14 minutes to cut plywood bottom
39 minutes to sand all parts (RO sanding @ 150, hand sand @ 150, break all edges)
30 minutes to drill countersunk holes & pilot holes in drawer sides
5 minutes to assemble 4 sides into box
8 minutes to glue in drawer bottom and screw to back of drawer

At this point I only have to plug the screw holes and then it is ready to finish, so I call it complete. It took me 196 minutes. I think I could do it in 142 minutes if I took out the various machine setup time.

I found I had to hand sand the parts quite thoroughly in order to get out the machine marks left by my planer. Possibly I could try the slower speed on my planer, or I could use my performax drum sander. I could also save some time in the planing since I had to go from 7/8 down to 5/8. I did it in 1/32" inch passes, but it seems like I could really hog it off until the last two passes. Then take a light pass on each side to get it down to finish size. How much can a 3 hp 15" planer take off of poplar in one pass?

[Gene Howe]

I would dress my lumber at full length and dado, then cut to length. If there will be more than a few drawers, I'd dress a separate length for the backs.

[Lee Koepke]

my cabinet / millwork shop buddy told me about a vendor to buy drawers custom cut to your dimensions knocked down for your assembly for like $25 .... I am considering that for my upcoming media center project :D

[Peter Quinn]

Robert, I think most 15" planers can take off a heavy 1/16"' say .090"', before it gets hard on the planer. Depends on the width of your stock, which speed, the condition of your knives and which species. Poplar is pretty easy to mill so I'd figure on the heavy side would be possible. Your planer may allow closer to 1/8" per pass, try it on some scrap to see.

Your numbers look reasonable to me. It takes what it takes. I make my own drawers in the home shop occasionally, and I'm no speed demon myself. Very labor intensive. Doors I spit out quick, but drawers not so much. At work we buy pefinished dovetail drawers drilled for blum slides for maybe $35 per box, that's solid hard maple sprayed with some real tough lacquer. Maybe if we made drawers I!d be better at it? Boss says they tried and could't make them half as good for twice the money, so they quit and they all get subbed out now. Remember to enjoy the process!

[Steve Griffin]

Not bad for a single drawer. A bunch of them would go way faster.

I just did a job with 10 drawers almost that same size and it took 10.5 hours total--dovetailed 4" maple. A single drawer would take maybe 2 hours.

The biggest weakness in your timesheet is the sanding. For goodness sakes-39 minutes? I have a belt sander now, but before belt sander I would take no more than 5-10 minutes for this task. ROS with 120 grit to remove planer marks, ROS to 220, assemble drawer, touch up with ROS after glue dries and then less than a minute to ease edges by hand. I use a 6" ROS which is way faster than a 5", but in any case, hand sanding should just be for the edges at most.

-Steve

[Robert Reece]

Gene - the reason I don't dress my lumber at full length is that I can't see getting a flat and square piece of lumber when I start with a 10' long chunk of poplar. Maybe the flatness doesn't matter on a drawer because the bottom is glued in?

Steve- I agree the 39 minutes of sanding seemed like a lot. My ROS with 150 grit did not remove those really tiny planer marks (the kind that show up when you paint), that is why I went to hand sanding with a wooden block. While that did work, it wasn't fast. I might try to pick up a 6" sander and roll it with 120 grit. I also wasn't able to ease the edges as fast as you. I used 150 grit on a wooden block and I was basically looking for a 1/16" roundover. Maybe that is too much and I should "ease up" on the edge easing.

[Tony Bilello]

Why do you glue in drawer bottoms?
Normally they fit in the slot on the friont and both sides and the screw in the rear holds it in place.

[Dennis Hook]

The only time that stood out to me was the 30 min. to countersink holes. Are you using a bit and brace?

I may get run out of town on this, but I choose to use 1/2" ply of the material that I'm using for the carcass. It saves all the prep time.

Your drawer sure looks nice.

[Robert Reece]

Tony - I glue in the drawer bottoms because I can't see a reason not to. It stiffens the drawer and stops the drawer bottom from making that little rattling noise when you put stuff in it.

Dennis - The 30 min to countersink the holes is a little inflated. When I hit the part of the job, it wasn't clear what my next step was so I had a little bit of a false start. Once I remembered the process, then I got back on track. But still, because these holes are plugged I have to lay them out and drill them accurately on the drill press. They also have to be a consistent depth so the plugs sit down correctly. Then once the sides are drilled and countersunk, I have to drill matching pilot holes in the drawer front / back. So it adds up.

When I make a full set of drawers, I'll write down the minutes for that so I can get a feel for how much time I save making them in batches.

I also have a 1/16" roundover bit for the router, so I might try that instead of breaking the edges by hand.