Chest of drawers, plywood as material

[Wakahisa Shinta]

I have a request for a chest of drawers from my wife. Its sole purpose is for storing dresses flat. Rough dimensions are 40" wide, 18-20" deep, and about 48" high. For some reason, tansu design/construction keep popping into my head. I consider building this all out of plywood. Essentially, this is a large box with dividers to guide smaller boxes as drawers. The drawers are full width of the chest. Anyone built a chest of drawers out of plywood with edge banding?

[Yonak Hawkins]

Wakahisa, when you say ...


... plywood with edge banding ...
are you referring to plastic edge strips and wrapping it around the corners of the plywood, etc. ?

Where will this chest be ? ..In a closet, an attic, bedroom ?

[Sam Murdoch]

For such an application you will be fine with ply and edge banding where needed.

I would recommend using a prefinished maple ply even for the drawer boxes - 3/4" sides/backs and fronts, 1/2" bottom. The cabinet could also be 3/4" ply with a 1/2" back. There is 2 side pre fin and one sided. You could make the drawer boxes with 2 sided material and use 1 sided for the cabinet with the good side facing in. This way you could paint the exterior if you prefer.

You can also obtain some prefinished maple veneer tape that can be ironed on your drawer edges and other exposed edges. If you apply the veneer tape attentively - even pressure and make sure the glue is melted - it will be a very good end result. I prefer using 7/8" wide tape on 3/4" ply. I use a veneer trimmer and sandpaper to remove the excess. You can easily repair any are where the finish is removed (if you sand a bit much) with a quick wipe with clear urethane or oil or the product I use is Qualasole pad lacquer (not necessary to buy anything special.).

As you will be using this cabinet for your wife's dresses this cabinet will not be subject to any abuse and should be great forever. I especially like the idea of the prefinished maple because it is a very durable and smooth finish. There would be minimal off gassing compared to applying another finish by hand.

Of course all of this can be done with regular ply that you will finish yourself. If you like the look of the clear maple the added cost of pre fin is negligible compared to the time and material needed to do it yourself - and the end results is better than hand applied.

[Jay Jolliffe]

Never new there was a prefinished veneer tape. Heat doesn't screw up the finish?....Where do you get it Sam ?

[Jim Matthews]

Why not make a blueprint cabinet, of sorts?

There's no reason for deep drawers, really.
You need a large flat tray, set onto runners.

This would be fine, made from plywood.
Just make sure there's a smooth sealant
on the surface, or smooth liner.


306118

[Sam Murdoch]

Never new there was a prefinished veneer tape. Heat doesn't screw up the finish?....Where do you get it Sam ?

Atlantic Ply was my last source. I've had a roll now for quite some time - don't use it much. No a hot iron is not a problem anymore than with unfinished - just need to keep moving - slow and steady. Sent you a PM Jay.

[Jamie Buxton]

Never new there was a prefinished veneer tape. Heat doesn't screw up the finish?....Where do you get it Sam ?

Edgemate is one brand. You can buy it online if you can't find it locally. For instance http://www.wwhardware.com/edgemate-iron-on-wood-edgebanding-et-wood-iron-on
And yeah, the heat from the iron doesn't destroy the varnish.

[Wakahisa Shinta]

Jim's idea parallels mine. This chest's purpose is not much different from that of a blueprint cabinet. I just didn't remember the name "blueprint cabinet." However, the dresses require deeper drawers. They are dresses and gowns from her grandmother and mother. Some of them are wedding presents. They are irreplaceable.

I thought about building it out of hardwood (e.g. cherry, walnut), but prefer the stability of plywood. There was a FWW article I read a while back showing that very nice furniture can be made from plywood. I also prefer function over form, to a degree, and has always liked Japanese style furniture. This is where the tansu idea keeps popping into mind.

As far as edge banding, I thought to band the plywood with a hardwood strip, say 1/4" thick. Sam's suggestion has not crossed my mind, so thank you. I'll look into the edging material and pre-finish plywood.

If I get this project started and completed satisfactory, then there are rumor of orders from relatives waiting to be filled.

Something like this:
306171

[Randy Red Bemont]

If you use baltic birch plywood it does finish very well and has no voids if you have any edge grain exposed. It can be used for the carcass and drawers.

Red

[Sam Murdoch]

Jim's idea parallels mine. This chest's purpose is not much different from that of a blueprint cabinet. I just didn't remember the name "blueprint cabinet." However, the dresses require deeper drawers. They are dresses and gowns from her grandmother and mother. Some of them are wedding presents. They are irreplaceable.

I thought about building it out of hardwood (e.g. cherry, walnut), but prefer the stability of plywood. There was a FWW article I read a while back showing that very nice furniture can be made from plywood. I also prefer function over form, to a degree, and has always liked Japanese style furniture. This is where the tansu idea keeps popping into mind.

As far as edge banding, I thought to band the plywood with a hardwood strip, say 1/4" thick. Sam's suggestion has not crossed my mind, so thank you. I'll look into the edging material and pre-finish plywood.

If I get this project started and completed satisfactory, then there are rumor of orders from relatives waiting to be filled.

Something like this:
306171

PLEASE don't use those pulls :eek: :D.

As for edge banding I prefer the solid wood as you discuss but am inclined to go no less than 3/8" as the extra thickness stays flatter and otherwise works better than thin stock.

The veneer tapes is easier but is a potential area of failure in the long run on surfaces that will get rubbed or handled on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong - if applied properly - it can last and last without coming undone and it's easy to repair if ever necessary. Still, solid wood is forever.

In the case of using solid wood over pre fin ply you end up with a finishing chore that won't exist with veneer tape.

Just to share - really off topic otherwise :rolleyes: - here are a couple of Tansu I built (long ago) with custom hardware. I too have always been taken with the Japanese furniture esthetics.

http://i1310.photobucket.com/albums/s659/Rammeer/Elm-Tansu_zpsskfiuylm.jpg (http://s1310.photobucket.com/user/Rammeer/media/Elm-Tansu_zpsskfiuylm.jpg.html)

http://i1310.photobucket.com/albums/s659/Rammeer/Step-Tansu_zpsv2n1vm0v.jpg (http://s1310.photobucket.com/user/Rammeer/media/Step-Tansu_zpsv2n1vm0v.jpg.html)

[Chris Hachet]

I like your work, Sam! Thanks for sharing that.....

[Andrew Pitonyak]

As far as edge banding, I thought to band the plywood with a hardwood strip, say 1/4" thick.

I have used the self adhesive stuff, and I have glued on a strip of hard wood. I had better luck with the hardwood strip. Admittedly, although I notice the difference, no one else has commented on it or noticed that I used the edge banding.

My local woodcraft sells a "Quad Trimmer" that does a pretty good job of trimming the edge banding. When I say pretty good, I mean it works better than any other method I have tried. They also sell inexpensive edge banding, which means that you can do a few experiments (if they are local to you) to see if you want to give it a try. It can be a bit tricky to put an edge band on a long piece of plywood. I generally had someone help me when I did it if I could.

The hardwood strip was easy to create and add, but it was a bit more difficult to then trim the edge flush. Luckily for me, I have a perfect setup with my Festool router to do this task, so, after setup, it is very fast and very easy to do.

My biggest complaint with the self adhesive edge stripping is that it is rather thin, so, on an edge that takes some abuse, I expect that it will not hold-up as well. I can take some pictures of my Mahogany desk where I used edge banding as well as a hardwood strip if you want to see how they came out.