Drawer size?

[Andy Howard]

Hey all, I am wondering what depth drawer everyone finds most usefull?

Drawer storage will be used for general shop storage stuff, nothing in particular.

I am making a cabinet to set my grinder atop and will have somewhere between 6-9 drawers in it, but cant finallize the drawer heights yet. The width and depth will be 20", and I am using full extension slides.

Thanks
Andy

[Don Baer]

Andy;
When ever I build something like this I like to have differant size drawers. Some realy shallow one saw 2 1/2 to 3 inches for small tools like screw drivers, chizzels and such. Others 4-5 inches for boxes of screws, drill indexes and such and some 6 to 8 inches so I can store small power tools like corless drills. Hope this helps.

[Todd Burch]

While a shallow drawer keeps a drawer not (seemingly) as full, it limits what can be put in the drawer. For shop use, A lot of my drawers are 8" and 9" deep. I just finished 9 drawers, 9" deep, 16" wide and 20" deep. A 5" drawer can hold a lot of stuff. When you approach making your drawers, making them all the same size usually goes faster - fewer setups and tool adjustments. Conversersly, graduated drawers sure are good looking and make a statement.

By the time I get around to making a shop drawer, it's usually already slated for its contents and the size is already dictated!

Todd

[Effie Lever]

Andy,

My strategy is similar to Don’s. For smaller stuff a shallow drawer works best and for the larger tools make them 5 to 8 depending on what you plan to sore in then, JM2C.

Effie

[Ken Garlock]

I just finished a replica of the NYW workshop hutch, without the hutch. The drawers in my version are all 23" deep, front to back,and 30" wide. Along the underside of the top are 3" high drawers(top to bottom), and below each of those there are stacked two drawers each 12" high(top to bottom.)

I built two cabinets side by side and connected them together(16ft total) for a total of 6 shallow drawers, and 8 large drawers. The partitions on each end have doors with a slide out tray at the bottom for larger items.

I started moving tools into it yesterday, and it looks like I will be out of space when everything is in its new home :eek: :(

[Alan Turner]

Mine range from 3" to 10", depending upon the contents. It is all ocntent driven, IMHO. Files do well in a shallow drawer so that one is less tempted to stack them, but a router needs 10" or so to be comfy. On my two deep ones, I put on full ext., 250# slides, and one has two 50 lb. weights, 3 routers, and an old cast iron Delta tenoning jig, which makes it probably over 200 lbs. Works fine.