Material to Use for Drawer Boxes

[George Bokros]

Going to be starting on a closet organizer project and am wondering what to use for the drawer sides. Considered using soft maple but if I bought 4/4 and planed it down to 1/2" I would be tossing lots of material and dollars into the dust collector. Also considered poplar but the green shading turns me off. Baltic birch is a possibility but I really wanted to make this my first pass at dovetail drawer boxes and do not think Baltic Birch is a good candidate for that. If I use BB and drawer lock or dado & rabbet construction I will apply edge banding to hide the plys ,wife is not fond of that look.

I do not want to make this a costly project at this point. What suggestions are your suggestions?

Thanks

George

[Jim Matthews]

If you can get sugar maple, it makes an excellent box.
Poplar can be painted, and that would make a good looking drawer.

You might be surprised at how expensive plywood is, these days.

[Ron Kellison]

It should be relatively easy to find poplar without the green streaks. I picked up several 1" rough planks from my local supplier last month. I picked through the top of the stack and I would guess that 70-80% of the boards I looked at had brown streaks instead of green. I don't think the brown streaks would detract from the appearance of the drawer sides.

Ron

[Sam Murdoch]

My favorite drawer box material is basswood. Nice even grain, rugged but light weight, and finishes very nicely, especially clear coated to compliment birch or maple ply cabinetry. Hand cut dovetails in the basswood (like with pine) require sharp tools and an easy touch because the grain can tend to crush. You need sharp tools for hardwoods too of course but it is easier to keep the cuts crisp. However, I don't see how you can avoid the same waste issue as with the maple unless you can by thick and resaw so this might not be a better option. Of course you can just stop planing the 4/4 at 5/8" which is a good thickness for drawer boxes.

[Andrew Fleck]

I don't see how you can avoid the same waste issue as with the maple unless you can by thick and resaw so this might not be a better option.

I agree with Sam. I don't see how you can avoid the waste with the other species either. If you have a bandsaw, resawing 5/4 will get you 1/2" drawers easily. I normally use hard maple, but that is just because I have a ton of it.

[Yonak Hawkins]

You may consider ash. It's pretty inexpensive, in these parts anyway, often less than $2/bf even for 8/4 kiln-dried, rough-sawn, and is quite strong at 1/2" thick. I don't know the depth of your drawers but if you don't mind re-sawing, you could get three out of 8/4.

[glenn bradley]

I'm a big fan of BB ply but, since that is a no-no - I will pick up 5/4 soft maple (or hard maple when the price is lower than soft), resaw it and get two 1/2" slabs out of it. I really prefer 1/2" BB ply for drawer boxes that aren't in fine furniture for the stability and ease of joinery choices.

[Lee Schierer]

You may not know this, but the green streaks in poplar will turn brown in a short time when exposed to light. Even the purple color sometimes found will fade to brown in a short period of time when exposed to light.

My local wood supplier "Summit Hardwoods (http://www.summit-hardwoods.com/)" has 1/2" thick stock, but the price is the same as 3/4" material. I don't know where in Northeast Ohio you are, but this supplier isn't that far from you. All their material is kiln dried, S4S and free of knots and voids. The will sell one board or a truck load, but call ahead if you want a truck load.

[John Downey]

I like ash too, it's a nice utility wood to have around for stuff like this. Ash also makes a quite pretty drawer, it's a bit more shimmery than other open grained woods like oak.

I usually make drawer boxes from baltic birch with 1/2" box joints for stuff like kitchen and shop cabinets. When using ball bearing guides, there is no need to dovetail the box unless you really want to do so (and that is a fine reason to do it). Even without the guides, in most cases a box joint would be plenty strong enough.

Baltic birch is pretty pricey these days, something like $35 per sheet. I remember paying $15 when the dollar was strong and the economy was humming along. Even at $35 the stuff is a bargain, so I'm not complaining :D

[John TenEyck]

For a closet organizer I would use BB plywood w/o hesitation. You can cut dovetails, too, in BB, no problem, but I use 1/2" finger joints. I really like the look they give on a modern style piece. I have a sled all set up for them and I can turn out a batch of drawers in no time w/o having to fool around with dovetails. If this was a Shaker table with drawers, on the other hand, I'd use maple for the drawer sides with dovetails. But for a closet organizer, BB would be my choice.

John

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[Matt Meiser]

Personally I wouldn't bother with dovetails for a closet organizer but that's just me. I'd probably use baltic birch and assemble them with pocket holes on the front and back. Fronts would be hidden behind applied fronts.

Also, I came across a supply (now dried up) of inexpensive 5/8 baltic brich and have come to appreciate a thicker drawer box. That source was making drawer box sides from it in addition to selling random size offcuts and I was buying both. I was buying direct from him but Kencraft in Toledo started buying from him too. When he closed up, they started making them too, I think still in 5/8. You can knock out some nice, strong drawers pretty quick from that stuff using the pocket hole technique. I've used it for a kitchen, bathrooms, and other non-furniture projects with great results. The tops on those are rounded over so they aren't suitable for edgebanding unless you trim that off.

When I did my own kitchen I bought dovetailed drawer boxes in maple, also 5/8.

[Myk Rian]

If you're careful with the re-saw, 7/16" works well for drawer boxes.

[Aleks Hunter]

You could stain the poplar. Its not the prettiest, but it is stable and works like a dream.

[Mike Nguyen]

For me it's quantity of drawers. When I tried to do my first half blind dovetail, I only have 4 drawers for the entertainment built-in to do so I chose half blind dovetail and because there were only 4 drawers, the cost was minimal. But last year when I decided to replace all the drawers that the builder installed, I went with box joint and baltic birch ply because I need to replace 60 drawers. So cost and speed played a role when I have to make 60 of them.
Mike

[Ole Anderson]

I did my kitchen drawers in Beech, 9/16" thick with through dovetails (Leigh jig) and 1/2" prefinished maple bottoms with Blumotion slides. Routed a radius on the top edges, clear wipe on varnish. Real happy how they turned out. The rotating shop stool worked great while rounding the top edges with a trim router and while sanding.

[Kent A Bathurst]

............resawing 5/4 will get you 1/2" drawers easily....

Me, too. Either hard or soft maple, whatever I have available at the time.

[keith micinski]

Personally I wouldn't bother with dovetails for a closet organizer but that's just me. I'd probably use baltic birch and assemble them with pocket holes on the front and back. Fronts would be hidden behind applied fronts.

Also, I came across a supply (now dried up) of inexpensive 5/8 baltic brich and have come to appreciate a thicker drawer box. That source was making drawer box sides from it in addition to selling random size offcuts and I was buying both. I was buying direct from him but Kencraft in Toledo started buying from him too. When he closed up, they started making them too, I think still in 5/8. You can knock out some nice, strong drawers pretty quick from that stuff using the pocket hole technique. I've used it for a kitchen, bathrooms, and other non-furniture projects with great results. The tops on those are rounded over so they aren't suitable for edgebanding unless you trim that off.

When I did my own kitchen I bought dovetailed drawer boxes in maple, also 5/8.


This is what I was thinking and what I actually did on my wives closet organizer. Unless you want to practice the dovetails and this is a good place to hide sub par practice work that is.

[George Bokros]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The wife has agreed to baltic birch without edge banding it. I would like to find some that is "B" on one face but do not think I will be able to. Hartville Hardware will have 1/2" grade "BB" on sale next Friday and Saturday for $26.99 per sheet. I will pick up one more sheet for this project. I have almost a sheet left so I should have plenty.

Next question, I can get 1/4". 3/8" 1/2" and 3/4" at Hartville. To reduce the weight I would like to use 1/4" for the bottom but fearful at the size of the drawers, ~18" deep and 16" wide, will it be strong enough? I would capture it in dados on all four sides. I do not think I need to resort to 1/2" for the bottoms but it may cheaper than the 3/8" if it is not also on sale.

Maybe use 1/4" with a front to back support under the middle?

George

[Matt Meiser]

1/4" will be plent strong at that size for clothing.

[johnny means]

Why are you worried about drawer weight? Surely, a few extra ounces for a thicker bottom wouldn't be an issue. But 1/2" bottoms will definitely make for a solid feel and sound.

[Stew Hagerty]

I agree with Sam. I don't see how you can avoid the waste with the other species either. If you have a bandsaw, resawing 5/4 will get you 1/2" drawers easily. I normally use hard maple, but that is just because I have a ton of it.

+1 on 5/4
I usually use maple or ash. I never use ply to build drawers in anything but shop cabinets. I used butternut a couple of times and it turned out beautifully.

[John TenEyck]

I agree with Matt; 1/4" BB is plenty strong enough for that size drawer in closet organizer. The drawer in the photo I showed above is about that size and has a 1/4" BB bottom. It's plenty stiff. You don't need to but it will be even stiffer if you glue it into the drawer box.

John

[Jacob Reverb]

I have a source for lots of pallets, often in decent shape. I often use 1/2" white oak from those pallets for drawer sides.

[Justin Ludwig]

I agree with Matt; 1/4" BB is plenty strong enough for that size drawer in closet organizer. The drawer in the photo I showed above is about that size and has a 1/4" BB bottom. It's plenty stiff. You don't need to but it will be even stiffer if you glue it into the drawer box.

John

+1

I've built 100s upon 100s of draws larger than your dimensions using BB for box and 1/4" birch (actually 7/32") for the bottom. Glue the dados, square and set to dry or pin nail the bottom in the dado.

Here's my wife's closet built in I did last summer while on break from shoulder surgery. She didn't want fancy, which was good, because 1 armed closet building requires a lot of patience... The FF is poplar stained with golden oak. No sealer, just stain.

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[Roger Feeley]

I used to teach industrial arts and the wood shop teacher was really old school. He kept Sycamore around just for drawer sides. He said that it hardened instead of wearing down and slid really well.

[Phil Thien]

Many of the screws that come with the slides are intended for 5/8" thick material.