Building Drawers - Finish one side before cutting stock to length and joints?

[George Bokros]

I have some drawers to build which will be built from soft maple with Baltic Birch bottoms. The drawers will be finished with tinted shellac inside and out.

Should I finish one side before I cut the joints, may be half blind dovetails or drawer lock, not sure yet.

Should I finish what would be the inside then cut joints and assemble then finish the edges and outside? I have in the past cut all the stock to length, cut the joints and masked the areas where glue would be used and applied finish to the inside and want to save the effort of masking the joint areas.

Your thoughts?

[Peter Quinn]

I would not finish one side of a piece of maple I plan to use for drawers. Thats the recipe for warped maple, which makes the drawer making process more difficult. I do all assembly, then finish as a unit, its not that hard to spray or brush the insides post constriction. We make thousands of dovetail drawers at work, always finish post construction. I would sand the insides to your desired finished grit and watch the glue squeeze out. sanding post construction is not an easy thing on the insides. Outside is easier post construction.

[johnny means]

Why not just finish both sides first? Machining dovetails will expose plenty of raw wood for gluing?

[Marty Schlosser]

Build them first then apply finish. That way the bottoms will also be shellac'd.

[George Bokros]

Build them first then apply finish. That way the bottoms will also be shellac'd.


I plan to shellac the bottoms before assembly too.

[George Bokros]

Why not just finish both sides first? Machining dovetails will expose plenty of raw wood for gluing?


If the outside is finished prior to machining and assembly you cannot sand the dovetails flush without removing the finish.

[Larry Frank]

I prefinish sides and bottoms. If I have to touch up the corners a bit that is easier for me than trying to finish the inside after assembly. So many different ways to do something and they will all work.

[Robert Engel]

IMO not necessary to prefinish parts for a drawer. Seems like an unneeded step unless you seek to achieve some effect.

My question is why finish the drawers at all?

[George Bokros]

The real root of my original question is will shellac hold up during the process of cutting the joints.

[Peter Quinn]

The real root of my original question is will shellac hold up during the process of cutting the joints.

Not likely. It's not known as the most durable finish. We often prefinish case interiors because they can be a real challenge to spray adequately post construction with some designs, but drawer boxes are wide open. I could see sealing plus one or two coats on the bottoms to expedite that part. I know companies that use prefinished 2 side material for their drawers, and they all have a tell that these things were prefinished. Usually the backs and fronts are slightly radiused on top and 1/8" proud of the sides as things almost never allign perfectly even with CNC machining centers. If you are making 50,000 drawers at a low cost this probably makes sense, but at the end of the business I'm in it's not accepted. We make them, we sand them flush and smooth, we finish them. You could pad out a drawer of average size in under 5 minutes, I don't see much advantage in prefinishing, lots of drawer backs aesthetically. Touch up the corners? How will that look?

[Robert Engel]

The real root of my original question is will shellac hold up during the process of cutting the joints.
That easy: get some scrap, shellac it and cut some joints!!

[Joe Calhoon]

Not likely. It's not known as the most durable finish. We often prefinish case interiors because they can be a real challenge to spray adequately post construction with some designs, but drawer boxes are wide open. I could see sealing plus one or two coats on the bottoms to expedite that part. I know companies that use prefinished 2 side material for their drawers, and they all have a tell that these things were prefinished. Usually the backs and fronts are slightly radiused on top and 1/8" proud of the sides as things almost never allign perfectly even with CNC machining centers. If you are making 50,000 drawers at a low cost this probably makes sense, but at the end of the business I'm in it's not accepted. We make them, we sand them flush and smooth, we finish them. You could pad out a drawer of average size in under 5 minutes, I don't see much advantage in prefinishing, lots of drawer backs aesthetically. Touch up the corners? How will that look?

I am with Peter on this. We used to do a lot of case work. We tried once doing the radiused edges and 1/8" difference in height. Sprayed with precat the insides and bottoms, cut the dovetails, assemble, sand flush and spray outsides with drawer laying upside down. With 2 trips to the finish room and more size parts to keep track of we did not save any time and it was less of a handcrafted look. Only advantage to this might be on deep narrow drawers. If you are hand finishing I see no advantage.

[John T Barker]

My personal experience in professional shops doing 18th century repoductions has been to make everything completely and then finish it. I've never understood the advantage of finishing before glue up.

[Frank Drew]

I definitely wouldn't finish the outsides of drawer material before assembly since the finish would most likely get dinged or scratched somewhere along the process, but finishing only one side could lead to the problems that Peter notes.

I agree with Robert that not finishing the drawers at all is sometimes appropriate, especially if you're using an aromatic wood such as one of the cedars.