Drawer side material advice

[Erik Christensen]

I am in the process of construction of my first set of real use cabinets. I have built a number of cabinets for my shop and have learned a lot about materials, construction, wood selection, finishing, etc. so that I now feel I might be able to pull this off.

I am at the point where I am trying to decide on drawer box material. I use a Leigh D4R jig, so all box corners have half-dovetails. My hardware is for ¾” sides and I use ½” ply for the bottoms. All my drawers so far have been with Baltic-birch ply – I have found that using a sharp bit and careful technique I am happy with the dovetails in the ply.

But now that I am doing something that others will see I am considering making the drawer sides out of solid wood. I have seen some of the drawers that others have shown here and it has encouraged me to give it a shot.

If I was going to use a solid wood for the drawer side what would you suggest? The cabinet cases are maple ply with a 1” edge band in hard maple but I don’t think it matters if the drawer sides are from something different.

I am not much concerned about material cost – the hardware & fixture costs of this office remodel project dwarf this question. I really want something that is going to be easy to work (I have learned they aren’t kidding when they call it ‘hard maple’ – not something I want to sand 20 drawer boxes made with), durable in use and look great when done – I am using hidden under-mount slides so I don’t obscure my dovetails.

[Peter Quinn]

I usually use either hard or soft maple, sometimes poplar. I like to sand the inside faces of drawers before assembly, because it's no fun afterward. With applied fronts, that's really only the two sides you must sand, not a lot of surface area really.

[Jay Allen]

Poplar is pretty commonly used as a "secondary wood" for things like drawer sides, but you have to be careful to be selective. It can have some wild color variations from green through purple with nearly every variation in between. Most of it should be fairly pale, but the streaks of color can be anywhere. It doesn't hurt anything on internal parts that are never seen, but may detract from the looks of drawer sides.
It's cheap and cuts easily, so if you can pick through the selection, it's fine.
I have used Cottonwood several times with great results. It is in the Poplar/Willow family and as such has as rather white and bland coloring. The stuff I have available to me locally is not streaky or colored, so it makes great drawer sides. It's cheap and grows straight and fast so knots aren't a problem either.

[glenn bradley]

Your glide choice allows a wide choice in drawer side material as it will not be the mechanical element as in wooden slide type drawers.


The cabinet cases are maple ply with a 1” edge band in hard maple but I don’t think it matters if the drawer sides are from something different.

I'm going to disagree a bit. You don't mention your finishing choices but, you don't want a warm brown carcass to erupt with green/white poplar drawer sides when the drawers are pulled out :). If you are staying neutral with your maple, careful selections of poplar could work but I would go looking for alder or soft maple (not really physically soft) or some other light, consistent-in-color secondary wood in your area.

I am not much on finishing drawer sides but have put clear shellac on the outer faces to get a certain "look" or used a light dye/shellac when matching things to my pieces. In your use of DT's for the joints, they may as well be shown to their best advantage. You are spending quite a bit on glides to show those joints. I would spend just a bit more (no, I don't own stock in your lumber yard) and get a nice matching wood. Let your carcass finish be your guide.

One trailing thought, I like to keep drawer sides in a matching or lighter color that the piece, never darker than . . . but that's just me. :)

[Shawn Christ]

I've seen some other threads on the Creek about this topic. It seems the general consensus is it is not necessary to match the cabinet material; any hardwood will do. Most people select something that is tight-grained, less expensive, and relatively free of voids and knots.

I've seen and installed a lot of high-end cabinets from a local custom cabinet shop. They used maple (soft, I would guess) for all drawers with birch or maple plywood bottoms. In recent years the cost for maple went up, so they occasionally used hickory. Thickness was usually 1/2" or 5/8".
You could also see what the cost is for birch in your area.

When I built a vanity cabinet, I used poplar. My local supplier had a deal on shorts, so I could pick through the stack and with the short pieces I was able to avoid the contrasting, dark green colors.

In the same forums some mentioned they use baltic ply for drawers. If it is less expensive and you have no problems with tearout, it's something to consider. Good luck!

[Gary Curtis]

Drawer material is typically referred to as Secondary Wood. With the possible exception of the fronts.

A lumber dealer in Redwood country of Northern California always has a stock of boards he sells as 'drawer wood'. sometimes this is even cherry and sells for little more than $1 bd/ft. And it is usually 1/2". I've only built 9 drawers, but I can assure you that you'll consume a lot of lumber making them.

[Erik Christensen]

Thanks for the input. I intend to finish my drawers same as I do the cases and fronts – water dye and water poly. I have an AAA sprayer and it is too easy to not do it. I don’t think poplar would work as it would not look much better than Baltic ply IMO.

I saw on another thread someone suggesting either beech or birch – can’t find the thread again & have not worked with either. My only hang-up with maple is that it is so hard – making sanding & dovetailing a real pain. Just looking for woods that might go well with the maple fronts & cases but a bit easier to work with overall.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[fRED mCnEILL]

On my kitchen remodel (birch) I used apple wood for the drawer sides.They are EASILY the nicest looking wood in the whole kitchen.

Fred Mc

[Robert Reece]

Recently, I made three sample drawers from poplar, baltic birch, and hard maple. It was easy to tell which one was most appealing - the hard maple. I don't find the hard maple too bad to sand. I had some big drawers and I sanded all sides and broke all corners on 11 drawers (44 parts) in 2 hours. That was random orbit at 150, then a quick 150 by hand, then 220 by hand. All in all, when making a set of drawers, it averages out to about 5-6 hours per drawer. That's rough lumber until they are installed in the cabinet (including finish). That's probably pretty slow, but I'm not trying to make money at it so I don't get worried.

[Steve Griffin]

I like softer hardwoods for dovetailing, such as poplar or soft maple, alder, or low grade black walnut. It seems to be easier on the tooling, and more forgiving during assembly than hard woods such as hickory or hard maple.

By the way, do not be concerned with the green color in poplar--it will fad to a grey with time. Still, it's not as attractive as other species.

Lately I have been using 1/4" drawer bottoms which match the primary woodspecies of the cabinets. (ie, the last cherry kitchen I did had soft maple dovetailed drawers with 1/4" cherry bottoms). This can actually price out well as it combines cutlists and reduces number of different materials ordered.

-Steve

[Larry Frank]

The most recent drawer that I made were made with Ash. I have made them in the past from soft maple and poplar. I think that the common theme in the responses is to look for something that is economical and free from knots and other defects.

[Jim Becker]

My drawer sides are either poplar or soft maple in most cases.