What way do you have the grain run on drawer bottoms?

[George Bokros]

I always thought it should run front to back and the drawers I made for my shop cabinets I ran it front to back. Today I cut the drawer bottoms for the apothecary cabinet I am making for the LOL and I cut it so it the grain ran from side to side. I checked our dining room set ant it ran side to side. I checked a living room table and it ran front to back. So I checked the TV cabinet and it ran side to side.

The dining room furniture is high end stuff so I believe it is the better example of how it is done on quality furniture. This being said, what I thought I goofed on is actually correct so I guess I won this time.

How do you do your drawers?

Thanks

George

[Loren Woirhaye]

Side to side is standard for solid wood bottoms let into a groove. That way they can move in width front to back without tearing the drawer apart.

Plywood changes that. Aesthetically speaking going longwise with ply can look nice and perhaps optimize material use better, depending on the situation.

There is a style of drawer with a frame in the bottom and a captured solid wood panel in the frame. I think it may be considered a french style.

[Pat Barry]

I put the grain to match the longest dimension, so if the drawer is wider than it is deep, the grain runs left to right. If the drawer is deeper than wide then the grain goes front to back. Thats the look I prefer, not sure its better that way or not.

[Jim Matthews]

Unless it's plywood, grain must be oriented laterally across the drawer opening so that endgrain rides in the side of the drawer.

Fixed in the front, it will expand toward the back of the cabinet.
Oriented the other way, the drawer bottom will expand sideways and the drawers will wedge shut in humid seasons.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/pdf/drawerbuildingbasics.pdf

FYI - I like plywood for drawer bottoms. It's easy to taper the sides, if the inside starts square.

[George Bokros]

Thanks for the article Jim. Good info. I saved a copy.

My drawer bottoms are baltic birch ply so expansion is not an issue. Thinking about what Pat said it does look better with the grain running the longer dimension which in my case is side to side.

Thanks for all the input.

George

[scott vroom]

Plywood has a strength axis...generally the grain direction of the outside layers. On modern hardwood veneer ply where the outside layers are paper thin, I'm thinking the strength axis runs perpendicular to the outside veneer grain direction. In any case, I'd confirm the strength axis and run that parallel to the longest drawer dimension. For solid hardwood, I'd always run the grain parallel to the long dimension (strength axis and minimize impact of shrinkage).