Dovetails in plywood?

[Tom Jones III]

I've got 3 chests of drawers that I am working on that will contain a total of 21 drawers. I need to decide what to use for the sides and back of the drawers. Initially I was going to use poplar, but when I calculated the price I asked the guy at the lumber yard what he suggested. He pointed me to very nice 1/2" baltic birch plywood. He said that as long as you are not using very small dovetails that it should work fine and be very cost effective.

Has anyone tried this? What would you do for the sides and back of inexpensive drawers? FWIW, I'll be doing the DTs with a router on a Leigh jig.

[Cecil Arnold]

Yes I have using a Leigh D4 and unless you have a backer you will get more tearout than you want.

[John Lucas]

It's possible. I did a page or two under the heading: "How to make great dovetails in inexpensive ply." http://www.woodshopdemos.com/sstat-21.htm
http://www.woodshopdemos.com/sstat-206.jpg

[Jim Hager]

I do dovetails on baltic birch with good luck. You will get a bit of blow out on the inside of the pins but that will be hidden on the inside of the joint. http://sawmillcreek.org/images/smilies/biggrin.gif I was always told that the difference in a good cabinetmaker and a bad one was that a good one could hide mistakes. Also you will need to make a surface pass with the dovetail bit to shear the outside veneer without cutting through so that your outside veneer doesn't blow out too. My PC jig and I think your jig will cut the dovetails with the inside of the drawer towards the operator. A bit of practice on technique and you'll be making drawers to be proud of with baltic birch plywood in no time at all.http://sawmillcreek.org/images/smilies/cool.gif The baltic birch that I get around here comes in a 60 x 60 sheet. I don't remember the cost right now but it usually works out with little waste. I like it.

This nightstand and it's mate have dovetailed drawers of baltic birch.

http://www.hagerwoodworks.com/nightstand2lg.jpg

[Don Baer]

Tom,
As an alternative you might think about doing lock miter joints. The look real good and are very strong in plywood. Here's a link as to how to do them.

http://www.americanfurnituredsgn.com/Lock%20Miter%20&%20finger%20joionts.htm

[Jamie Buxton]

Well, I don't try to do dovetails in plywood any more. In my experience, some sheets of plywood don't chip out from the router, but some do. The chipout is unsightly, so it used to mean another trip to the lumber yard hoping for better luck on the next sheet. Even when the cutting goes right, you're still looking at plywood plies in the dovetails, which IMHO don't look real good. Nowadays when I do dovetails, it is only with solid lumber.

When plywood drawer sides are called for, there are several non-dovetail joints which work well. A good one is often called "tongue and rabbet". You can make it on a tablesaw, and do it very quickly. In plywood, it is structurally sound. (In solid lumber, it is not so good. There's no face-grain glue surface, and there's short cross-grain sections. But in plywood, those problems go away.)

This joint, like many others, fastens the drawer box together. Then you add a visible drawer front to the box.

If you're edgebanding your plywood, do that first, then cut the tongue and the groove.

This may be more advanced than you want to take on, but when I'm making drawer boxes like this, I generally edgeband first, then varnish the blanks, then cut the tongues and rabbets, then glue the boxes together. I find that varnishing is easiest when the parts are flat. Also, glue squeeze-out is easy to clean off a varnished surface. Cutting the joints after the varnishing ensures that the glue surfaces will be nice bare wood, without varnish on them.

[Steve Rowe]

Tom - I have done this several times on 1/2" baltic birch ply. Like some of the other posters, expect a lot of chipout on the pins. I believe that this reduces glue area and reduces the joint strength. I have not had any come apart so far so it must not be too severe. I have sworn off doing this for all future furniture projects and use either poplar or maple for drawer interiors. It is more expensive but, to me it is worth it since the cost of the materials is relatively insignificant compared to the amount of time I put into a project.

Steve

[Mark Singer]

It is a bad mix pf details and materials....I would use a Kreg drawer...


http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=15940&highlight=kreg+drawer

scroll down

[Alan Turner]

For some shop drawers, I hand cut some DT's in BB 12mm ply, and it worked out fine. Very tidy, for the purpose. Can't comment ont he router approach.

[Charles McKinley]

I second Mark's suggestion for pocket hole screws. They are way faster than dove tails, strong and simple.

[Jim Becker]

I don't prefer the look of dovetails in plywood unless it's a specific design element to be highlighted. Solid stock is a better choice. Poplar is what I normally use, but you can use just about any species you can get economically. Buy thicker stock and resaw for the best cost.

That said, if plywood is the right choice for you for whatever reason, Jamie's and Mark's suggestions are great. They allow you to build clean looking drawers while still hiding the plywood "endgrain". (Other than on the tops of the drawer elements)