Drawer case construction advice

[Daniel Rode]

I'm planning to build a case of small drawers to hold screws and small hardware.

The drawers will be about 5" wide, 6" deep and 2 1/2" high (4x5x2 inside). I'll probably arrange them in 4 or 5 columns 3 rows high. Think of an apothecary cabinet meets Roy's nail cabinet but shorter and wider. It will be made from recycled 5/8" x 18" x 4' pine that I got for almost nothing. I got 16 of 'em, so I should be covered on materials. I may even make 2.

I'm interested in doing all the work by hand with the tools I already own. I have basic planes (4, 5, 6), a small plow plane, a router plane and a compliment of chisels and hand saws. I'll do the rough deminsioning with power tools but all hand after that.

I can dovetail the drawers and case but this is shop equipment and Roy's drawer's are, IIRC, nailed. Any tips on designing and building these with hand tools would be appreciated.

I'll try to be diligent and photograph my progress and post the build here. A simple hand tool project that anyone could build :)

[Jim Koepke]

My suggestion would be to build the case first then build the drawers to fit.

Blind dovetails on the front of the drawers will also help hide the slot for the drawer bottoms.

Another thought is to find a piece, or pieces, of nice wood for the front of the drawers and arrange it so the grain or figure is continuous on the face of the case.

jtk

[Mark Stutz]

It seems to me there are two philosophies to building stuff for the shop. On is quick and dirty to get the job done and move on. Roy's nailed drawers would probably fit this description. The other is to use this as an opportunity to learn and improve ones hand tool skills. That was when I made my first raised panel by hand, my first grooves and my first actual use of dovetails for joinery. Making all those drawers with half blinds on the front and thru dt on the back should make you pretty proficient.

[Pat Barry]

I'm planning to build a case of small drawers to hold screws and small hardware.
The drawers will be about 5" wide, 6" deep and 2 1/2" high (4x5x2 inside). It will be made from recycled 5/8" x 18" x 4' pine :)

Keeping in mind the purpose of these drawers / cabinet as stated, I can't see any reason to get fancy and make dovetailed joints unless you need practice doing that. From a functionality point of view the nailed / glued approach should be fine and hold up in this application for a very long time. I'd favor the KISS principle for this project and use the time saved to work on a real project that requires better joinery.

One other thought I just remembered to add - given the material is 5/8" thick you will probably want to rip the stock down for 1/4" thick drawer sides and bottoms. Are you up to doing that by hand?

[Daniel Rode]

given the material is 5/8" thick you will probably want to rip the stock down for 1/4" thick drawer sides and bottoms. Are you up to doing that by hand?

I'll be doing the grunt work to roughly size things with power tools.

Actually use a hand plane and power tools together to get wood flattened and thicknessed. I remove surface dirt with a hand plane and remove any serious twist or bow. Then I use the power jointer and/or planer leaving about 1/64" of extra material. I work in a similar fashion to get the width and length. It's fairly fast and the working parts have planed surfaces. Also, I don't worry so much about chips or semi-dull blades in the jointer and planer since they are only for rough work.

I'm thinking that the drawer sides will be 3/8", 3/16" or 1/4" bottoms and 1/2" fronts. I could make the sides thinner, but I don't see a benefit.

[Brian Holcombe]

I think rabbet joints would be good for this. They work against the force of the drawer (pulling and pushing).

[Daniel Rode]

Thanks Mark,
I'm leaning toward the latter. I can go to harbor freight and get bin rack for under $15 that will hold screws just as well. I could also make this quickly with router.

For me, this is more about refining skills and having fun building something. Since it's a shop project built from inexpensive materials, it's low risk. I don't think I'll add cock-beading, but maybe I'll design it to be more than just functional.



It seems to me there are two philosophies to building stuff for the shop. On is quick and dirty to get the job done and move on. Roy's nailed drawers would probably fit this description. The other is to use this as an opportunity to learn and improve ones hand tool skills. That was when I made my first raised panel by hand, my first grooves and my first actual use of dovetails for joinery. Making all those drawers with half blinds on the front and thru dt on the back should make you pretty proficient.

[Daniel Rode]

I don't own a rabbet or shoulder plane, so I'd need to make all the rabbets with a saw and chisel. For me, through dovetails would be easier. Half-blind would take longer but are not really harder.

I think rabbet joints would be good for this. They work against the force of the drawer (pulling and pushing).

[Jim Koepke]

On things like this I tend to plan for future use. There was some spare room in my tools storage so a remodeling was in order.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?208154-Lots-of-Errors-But-So-What

It looks nice and can be salvaged for future use. Since then the shelves have been modified again to hold more molding planes but the drawers are still there and serving quite well as storage for tools and some spare block plane blades.

If things go along with more tools storage remodeling they can be reused in a future design.

jtk

[Prashun Patel]

If you are set on dovetails, I suggest ganging parts together and cutting several tails and pins in one go.

If you are not averse to a little power in your process, you might cut the tails with the bandsaw and a tapered jig.

Rabbet your tail boards...

[Brian Holcombe]

I don't own a rabbet or shoulder plane, so I'd need to make all the rabbets with a saw and chisel. For me, through dovetails would be easier. Half-blind would take longer but are not really harder.

If thats the case I would dovetail them. As Prashun mentions you can gang up the sides and cut them in large groups.

On the plus side, after everything is wrapped up you will be like a dovetail machine.

[Bill McDermott]

Dan, I made similarly small drawers for a shop cabinet and went through a similar thought process. I settled on individually fitted 1/4" plywood bottoms that are epoxied on. The solid sides/backs were single dovetails. The fronts got more attention, you know... nice looking, continuous grain and the like. They were attached with simple dados. I used epoxy on all the joints. It was a efficient, effective and fun way to get it done. Such small, shallow drawers, lightly filled drawers don't really need much joinery and the epoxy was left over from a boat. Hmmm. What else can I use epoxy on?? Anyway, make the fronts nicely and get the rest of the box done expeditiously. I am happy with the result of that approach. Bill

[Daniel Rode]

Great advice. Ganging them up speeds things up and it's easier to saw square on 1" than on 1/4". 12 drawers, 24 sides = 48 joints not counting the case joinery. It's more than a few, but not overwhelming. I may do through dovetails and then an applied face on the drawer fronts. It would be faster, but maybe not by much.

[Kees Heiden]

Rabbets and nails is an age old technique. Those drawers hold up fine. Peter Follansbee had an interesting blog this week about ancient drawer building techniques.

https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2015/08/11/drawers/

[Daniel Rode]

Thanks for the link, Kees. Peter's timing couldn't have been better :)

I've always had this bias against nails in furniture. Even the use of screws should be avoided except for specific purposes; hinges, for example. Watching a Video from Jim Tolpin yesterday, he described a standing desk and a joiner's project, rather than a cabinet maker's. He elaborated by stating that it has no fasteners. It was an interesting distinction to ponder.

I'd like to build some drawers in this fashion -- just for the experience -- but I'd like to wait until I acquire a rabbet plane of some type. I've made drawer backs that are rabbeted and pinned in the past, so the technique is not totally foreign to me, but that was done with power tools.

[Mark Stutz]

Several years ago. Chris Schwarz wrote about using nails in carcass constructions and the historical evidence. Can't find the link now. Of course this was with cut nails, which do have some unique characteristics. I tried it in a project and so far haven't heard of an issue from the owner, my brother.

[Kees Heiden]

A rabbet plane doesn't need to be expensive or difficult to get. Wooden ones are perfect tools. When the edges of the sole are still pretty square, you can follow a marking gauge line with just a corner of the sole and slowly drop the plane to a more vertical position as you get deeper. When the rabbet reached the required depth you probably need to touch up the side wall a bit with the rabbet plane on its side. Making rabbets this way is a lot of fun.