Curved Drawer Fronts

[Scott Welty]

Have a client who is looking for a large drawer to go under a little window seat. Seat is to be curved and then so is the drawer front under it. Drawer will probably be large...maybe 30-35 inches wide and bulging outward maybe 3-4 inches in the center. We're probably working in cherry. Just getting started with ideas and no detailed drawings yet but I've never made a curved drawer front so I thought I'd start the discussion.

[Brett Luna]

Drawer will probably be large...maybe 30-35 inches wide and bulging outward maybe 3-4 inches in the center.

I just wrapped up construction on a bow-front hall table, using bent lamination to make the front apron: 4" h x 32½" w (not incl. tenons) and a ~1½" bow out at the center. It was my first attempt at bent lamination...thus the "~" variance on the bow out. I was resawing on the table saw and made the strips a little thick to get the yield I needed. So, they were a little on the stiff side, resulting in ~⅛" of spring back when I took it out of the MDF clamping form. No big deal for me but since you're matching a curve, I think you'll want your strips nice and pliable if you go that route.

Even with the slight variance, I was quite pleased with my first effort:

http://www.brettluna.com/img/s8/v15/p1421316938-2.jpg (http://www.brettluna.com/img/s8/v15/p1421316938-5.jpg) http://www.brettluna.com/img/s8/v82/p1429698420-2.jpg (http://www.brettluna.com/img/s8/v82/p1429698420-5.jpg)

[william watts]

Sounds like you will be making the seat. Make the drawer front first, then make the seat to match the curve. No worry about spring back or not quite getting the drawer curve right.

[Kevin Jenness]

Traditional bowfront drawers would typically have a flat surface on the back of the drawer front as wide as the drawer side thickness with half-blind dovetails connecting the two.

Our shop recently built a serpentine settee with large drawers underneath. The sides met the front with angled butt joints and dowels. The dowel joints can be made with a hand-held drill and a wooden jig with the appropriate bevels cut on the edges. The drawers were supported with Blum undermount slides.

[Peter Quinn]

I made a bow front vanity about 1 1/2 years ago in walnut, first project at a new job, guess they wanted to test me? Fronts were square edge cope and stick, two fronts and a false panel for the sink all in one curved line, and a door below it in the same radius. The fronts and doors were not so bad to make, bent lamination from solids for the rails, I did the stiles as flats but had to put a slight bevel on the sticking to get them to follow the radius, not very wide so they looked fine. The panels were an 1/8" MDF sandwich with walnut veneers front and rear. The curved drawers were the real kicker. They were on blum slides....but the curve was significant enough that I had to use two different slide lengths, and IIR getting the curved drawer box fronts to meet the sides smoothly was tricky. Our dovetail machine can apparently do curved front dovetails, but nobody had any idea how to make it do them, and the manual was not much help. So we did a tongue and groove with some little tiny trim head screws though the blind part in front for reinforcement. Maybe cheating, we would have probably subbed the drawer box out but they too were in walnut. They were small drawers and looked pretty decent all done. I have a pretty good description from another site, a pictorial on how to do bow front raised panel work, I could PM you that if you like. My suggestion from a business perspective is do it time and materials or take your best guess and triple it. Lots of time, lots of forms/jigs/materials. I also did 9 pair of bow front entries just behind the walnut vanity, and its amazing how much time goes into making jigs, fixtures and parts for composite curved work. If its a slab front things are greatly simplified, full inset is probably easier than overlay because everything is all one radius, but then it has to not spring back.

The particulars are really hammered out based on the design. I second the suggestion to make any doors/drawer fronts/frame parts first, then make the drawer boxes/cases/bench seat to the actual finished curves. I like epoxy for good stable laminations, tite bond III actually works pretty well too, plastic resin glue is good too if your shop is warm enough at time of construction. Love to chat specifics if you come to more solid conclusions.