wood runner placement for drawers

[Derek Voigt]

So I’m building a shaker style end table for my dad for Christmas. This will also be the first table that I have built that will have a drawer. My idea for the draw was to have the drawer supported in the inside by 2 wooden runners that would attach to the sides at the bottom of the drawer. This would give the drawer something to side on. The sides of the drawer would make contact with the top runner to prevent the drawer from wanting to tip forward too much, and the bottom of the drawer would of course slide along the runners.

I have typically seen this sort of thing but with the supports in the middle of the drawer. Has anyone tried this set up before and found it to not work? Should I modify my design to put the runner in the middle of the drawer instead, that will force me to change relook at my joinery in my drawer, and/or complexity of my runner application.

I'm trying to make this table top notch, my dad has some older tables that my grandpa made 50 years ago, so I have some competition.

Thanks!
Derek

[Pat Barry]

That will work fine for the support. I suggest you think about side guides as well, between the posts front to back to ensure the drawer slides in and out parallel. I found that as a finishing touch, waxing the runners with a high quality paste wax makes the drawers glide in and out nicely.

[Chris Friesen]

So I’m building a shaker style end table for my dad for Christmas. This will also be the first table that I have built that will have a drawer. My idea for the draw was to have the drawer supported in the inside by 2 wooden runners that would attach to the sides at the bottom of the drawer.

Will Neptune wrote an article for FWW called "Engineering a table with drawers" that is quite good. You should be able to find it at the library or you might be able to order a PDF online.

Overall the design is similar to what you discuss.

The side aprons get sticks of wood glued along the top and bottom edges to bring the inner edges flush or just inside the legs. These act as side guides. (The article calls them doublers because they basically double the thickness of the side rail.) Two more smaller sticks of wood are glued to the doublers. The bottom one is the runner and the top is the kicker. These are flush with or slightly inside the top and bottom front rails.

[David Thompson 27577]

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I'm trying to make this table top notch, my dad has some older tables that my grandpa made 50 years ago, so I have some competition.

Thanks!
Derek

I bought a house in 1981 which had been built in 1917. All of the kitchen cabinetry was original. And all of the kitchen drawers were done just about exactly as you describe.

And they still functioned nicely.

I think I finally replaced those cabinets in 1997. Not because of a lack of function, but because I knew I'd be selling the house in a few years.


The one element that you should consider, is the abrasion resistance of the species of wood you use for the runners. Don't use anything soft. Maybe even consider some of the extremely hard, and rather waxy exotic woods.

Think about it -- hard waxy runners made from (for example) teak. Your great grandchildren wouldn't wear them out.

[Derek Voigt]

Thanks for the advice... I didn't think about the side to side play in the drawer. But that makes good sense! Thanks everyone!