A clever quick way to make drawer boxes

[Tim Janssen]

Have a look at this video. An interesting invention:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S074ke-EJ6U

[scott vroom]

It's basically 2 plywood butt joints per corner.....don't think it would last long.

[George Bokros]

Neat idea but I agree with Scott, strength / longevity are my concerns.

[Chris Padilla]

Very cool. While it is essentially a butt joint, it does have a bit more surface area for glue than a butt joint. I like it. I wouldn't buy it but it is a clever idea and doggone it, it is wickedly sweet folding up plywood and viola, a drawer box! :)

[Eric DeSilva]

It is very clever. Heck, if you have strength concerns, seems like it would be pretty easy to put together a doweling jig that would increase the strength substantially. That said, I seem to recall someone around here who build a gazillion shop drawers and they were all butt-jointed together. I think maybe he even was an author of a book about shop cabinets? He claimed he didn't have any failures for shop use.

[John Lankers]

Hmm, interesting concept and definitely stronger than the melamine drawers you'll find in many kitchens nowadays. But I personally prefer box joints or through dovetails.

[julian abram]

It is interesting, the milled cuts remind me a little of the miter lock router bit pattern that is discussed so often. Not sure he will ever profit much from the patent.

[Tim Janssen]

It is very clever. Heck, if you have strength concerns, seems like it would be pretty easy to put together a doweling jig that would increase the strength substantially. That said, I seem to recall someone around here who build a gazillion shop drawers and they were all butt-jointed together. I think maybe he even was an author of a book about shop cabinets? He claimed he didn't have any failures for shop use.

Your memory is correct. I built three shop cabinets based on his book. Total of 20 drawers. no failure yet.
Cheers,

Tim

[Jim Matthews]

8:00 in he performs destructive testing.
It's quite strong. It would be stronger if the bias of the plies were held constant, but that would come at a cost to time and would result in more waste. It's clever.

[Matt Day]

As said, he addressed strength concerns and even said something along the lines of "now I know someone will mention strength concerns..." Well you guys sure did!

I think it's very clever and could be a great product. Tough thing will be that ever dado set out there is probably just a bit different diameter so you'd have to buy a matched set i think.

Great idea and some very innovative thinking.

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

very clever and I applaud for effort and sharing with us.
Ed.

[Mark Blatter]

OK, I will be the first to say, I would buy it. I currently make all my drawers with through dove tails and like the look, but they take time and the glue is a bit messy. The part I don't like is that you end up with 1/2" bottoms and I prefer 1/4" but what the heck. If I could make the drawers in 25% of the time, I would give it a try.

[Britt Lifsey]

If you want thinner bottoms, just do as he demonstrates near end of video to make boxes. Cut a 1/4" grove in side material, use his tool to cut the "folds" for the sides, insert a piece of 1/4 material into grove and fold/glue around it.

[Larry Fox]

Someone sent this to me yesterday and I have to give the guy his due for creativity as it is a really cool idea and watching him fold them up was really cool. I am not a fan of plywood drawers for things like kitchens but for shop / utility drawers it looks like a really handy system.

[Bill Huber]

I will have to agree, that is really neat and I can see if you were making a lot of drawers that would sure help.

I was thinking why couldn't you make blades that shape for a molding head cutter on the table saw. I have never used one but I have seen them and it looks like it would work, I think. Maybe that would be to much wood to take out in one pass, but there is no reason you couldn't do 2 passes.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

That's clever. I'm thinking a very similar joint could be made with tooling we already have, like a dado set at 45 degrees.

[Eric DeSilva]

I think coupling the diagonal cutter that he had custom made with a dado stack means you can use it on different widths of plywood. Given the variances in plywood thickness, I'm not sure it would be viable to market a cutter for each.

[Pete Staehling]

It's basically 2 plywood butt joints per corner.....don't think it would last long.

My dad built some two butt joint workbench drawers that were loaded with heavy stuff and lasted at least 40 years of hard use. I wouldn't be very concerned over longevity on drawers built this way.

[George Bokros]

If you want thinner bottoms, just do as he demonstrates near end of video to make boxes. Cut a 1/4" grove in side material, use his tool to cut the "folds" for the sides, insert a piece of 1/4 material into grove and fold/glue around it.

Those boxes are just drawers only smaller. I agree this would work if you wanted 1/4" bottoms.

[Mark Blatter]

If you want thinner bottoms, just do as he demonstrates near end of video to make boxes. Cut a 1/4" grove in side material, use his tool to cut the "folds" for the sides, insert a piece of 1/4 material into grove and fold/glue around it.

Good point. It should work. As I said, I would buy one to try it out. I already use BB for all my drawers, shop as well as furniture. Hope he can make it go.

[Jim Dwight]

I like 1/2 Baltic birch plywood for kitchen and even furniture drawers. I don't attempt to hide the fact that it's plywood but the lack of voids makes it look fine to me. I usually use half blind dovetails in it. I back cut to avoid chip out. It is so easy to dovetail that I do the backs too. If I want a nice looking and strong drawer, this is the way I make it.

For shop drawers, I use 3/4 plywood or solid wood and glue and screw them together. I've used through screws but the ones I'm doing right now are pocket screwed. Early on I did some furniture with through screws and glue and it held up for the 30 years or so we used it. I've dovetailed some of my shop drawers too - when I had both some 1/2 plywood scraps and time I could spend on the joints (doesn't take much).

I don't think this method looks as nice as dovetails and it isn't as fast as pocket screws. I worry that getting the joint consistent with just the right amount of wood left to fold without either going through or leaving so much that it splits when folding would be an issue. But even if it isn't a problem, I don't see a place for it in my shop. But if others like it and use it I wouldn't say it's a bad joint either. It's a very clever idea.

[Peter Aeschliman]

For shop drawers, I would just cut all five pieces separaely and screw and glue them together with butt joints.. Ya'all are too fancy for me!

[roger wiegand]

Very slick! I like it.

Because it's plywood it's not exactly a butt joint, so has some strength. My last kitchen had butt jointed and nailed solid wood drawers (the guy who sold them liked to stand on them to show how strong they were), however over a span of 10 years 50% of them failed and broke and I had to make new boxes.

[Peter Quinn]

It's good engineering, but it solves a problem I don't have and creates one I don't have now. My shop drawers took less time to build than it takes to set the height on that miter fold set up. Wham bam done, sides screwed and glued, bottomed glued in, no special tooling, no failures to date. Going on 10 years. The slides are holding all the weight on mine, very cheap side mounts on some, simple maple runners on others. What do you suppose that miter cutter paired with a full matched dado stack costs to manufacturer?

They sell tooling like that for CNc box production, does basically the exact same thing, but from above so thickness variations are canceled, you cut from the same piece directly adjacent so it's not a concern anyway. Problem with those boxes for actual cabinetry is can't use undermounts, no 1/2" lip, would be fun calculating drawer parts and setting up a sled to make taller drawers, the only time I can think something like this might be worth the cost to manufacturer is for very tall plywood drawers that are really too high to use solids. For shop drawers? Hello scraps and brad nailer.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I think that is a very clever idea. The corners look like they would be nicely done, and I think that he addressed the strength of the joints adequately.

Doc

[Richard McComas]

Isn't that just a different profile of an old concept of miter folding?

[Roy Harding]

Isn't that just a different profile of an old concept of miter folding?

Yes. Perhaps a bit stronger (more surface area to be glued), but basically, yes. I've done the same thing with a 45 degree v-carve bit on my router table - same idea, but his are probably stronger.

That said - I admire his ingenuity.

[jack forsberg]

+1 CNC is great to mill from the top but so is a RAS with a HSS moulding head. would take me about an hour to grind the shape from an off the shelf set of cutters for $25. it clever but kind of funny that he patented it. what stopping you from ordering the cutter like he did.

http://corobcutters.com/images/home-page-1.jpg
http://corobcutters.com/



not faster than my Brookman dovetailer by a long shot and he can only do ply. No over hanging face so only false drawers too. I think its clever but the guy needs to look around there are similar cutters like the drawer lock. Faster i don't thick so.



It's good engineering, but it solves a problem I don't have and creates one I don't have now. My shop drawers took less time to build than it takes to set the height on that miter fold set up. Wham bam done, sides screwed and glued, bottomed glued in, no special tooling, no failures to date. Going on 10 years. The slides are holding all the weight on mine, very cheap side mounts on some, simple maple runners on others. What do you suppose that miter cutter paired with a full matched dado stack costs to manufacturer?

They sell tooling like that for CNc box production, does basically the exact same thing, but from above so thickness variations are canceled, you cut from the same piece directly adjacent so it's not a concern anyway. Problem with those boxes for actual cabinetry is can't use undermounts, no 1/2" lip, would be fun calculating drawer parts and setting up a sled to make taller drawers, the only time I can think something like this might be worth the cost to manufacturer is for very tall plywood drawers that are really too high to use solids. For shop drawers? Hello scraps and brad nailer.

[Chris Parks]

+1 CNC is great to mill from the top but so is a RAS with a HSS moulding head. would take me about an hour to grind the shape from an off the shelf set of cutters for $25. it clever but kind of funny that he patented it. what stopping you from ordering the cutter like he did.

http://corobcutters.com/images/home-page-1.jpg
http://corobcutters.com/



not faster than my Brookman dovetailer by a long shot and he can only do ply. No over hanging face so only false drawers too. I think its clever but the guy needs to look around there are similar cutters like the drawer lock. Faster i don't thick so.

Jack, he will soon find his patent is a waste of time if any company takes a liking to the idea. Been there and done that.

[Warren Wilson]

I was shown this same type of joint by a northwest coast Indian bentwood box maker years ago. I don't doubt the youtuber came to the same design independently, but is is certainly an ancient joint -- normally cut in cedar and bent with boiling water -- and I have to wonder how much the Haida, Haisla, Tshimsian and other northcoast First Nations would take to a white guy trying to patent a technology they've used for millenia. :rolleyes:

[Ole Anderson]

Depth of cut seems to be critical, too shallow and it won't fold, too deep and, oops, let's try again. And I am surprised that the thin grain left after the cut doesn't just break or split when folded. Seems like you would need to steam the fold area but apparently not. I don't make so many shop drawers that it would appeal to me. For the few I make I will stick with hardwood and dovetails with my Leigh jig. But I will give him his due, this guy was really thinking outside the box...