Building drawer slides for my coffee table?

[Michael Yadfar]

I'm building a coffee table, and essentially the whole table is built minus the drawers. My whole table is wood and glue, with no metal except for the clips that will hold the top to the aprons, so I'm looking to build some out of my poplar. The drawers will be light duty, and will be 12" wide, 10" lone, and 3" deep. I've built slides years ago, in which I believe is a version of the sliding dovetail, with picture below, but I used a router table and don't even remember completely how I made it. I don't have a router table, but I do have a plunge router with an edge guide and assorted bits.

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[Doug Hepler]

Michael,

Just to be clear -- what is your question?

Doug

[Michael Yadfar]

Michael,

Just to be clear -- what is your question?

Doug

How to make something that will hold my drawers in the table, allowing them to slide in and out as normal drawers do, without buying something. Also, without using a router table

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Can you clarify where you want these slides? Your picture shows slides on the bottom of the drawer, yes?

I can think of a couple of options:

First, what I usually do myself is to simply screw a strip of wood to the sides of the cabinet (inside). Next, I run a dado into the side of the drawer. You should be able to do that on the table saw. If you have inset drawers, that is more difficult with the table saw since you want a stopped Dado. In that case, I have finished it with a chisel since I do not own a router plane. If these are not inset drawers, then I just plow the dado into the entire length and then the face handles it. Also, if you run the dado before you assemble the drawers, then it is not an issue. To deal with tipping, I will sometimes add another strip into the side of the case that sits between drawers that prevents the drawer the tipping down (if I feel that is needed).

You can still do the sliding dovetail by hand, but it is more difficult. I would avoid it personally since it seems time consuming without special tools (like a dovetail plane).

You could try a bottom track that does not use dovetails.

[Michael Yadfar]

It doesn't really matter whether it's bottom or side. If it did the bottom, I was thinking the same thing but it would tilt. I don't see tilting as an issue if I do two sides with a dado sliding on a piece of wood on each side

[glenn bradley]

It doesn't really matter whether it's bottom or side. If it did the bottom, I was thinking the same thing but it would tilt. I don't see tilting as an issue if I do two sides with a dado sliding on a piece of wood on each side

The dovetail is a slick detail but, not really required. A runner on the case and a dado in the drawer side should do you. A guide clamped to the drawer to help guide the router is what I would do in lieu of a router table.

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I use a couple of oversize holes in the runners with counterbores and washers to allow alignment. Once aligned I use properly sized holes for a couple additional screws to fix the runner in place.

[Doug Hepler]

Michael

Glen and Andrew have given you good suggestions. Here are two more: If you are using overlay drawers, you can simply attach lath (say 1/4" thick x 1/2" wide) on each drawer side. Then attach two more laths on the side of the case. The lath on the drawer will run between the laths on the case. The width of the drawer keeps the guides from slipping apart. What I am calling a lath should be a hard species of wood like maple birch or oak, or you could use high molecular weight plastic.

You can install drawer guides that will support the bottom of the drawer (say 1/2" x 3/4") and a "kicker" above the drawer to keep it from tilting. If there is just one drawer under the top of the table, this is just a piece of wood that runs the length of the drawer.

Regarding sliding dovetails, I have found that sliding dovetails are difficult to fit well initially and that they tend to stick with changes in humidity

My wooden drawer guides slide well after I finish them with shellac or maybe acrylic varnish and then sand and wax them.

This article from woodgears should give you some ideas. https://woodgears.ca/drawers/

Hope this helps

Doug

[Michael Yadfar]

I got four drawers total, two side by side on each side of the table. It's not a cabinet so I don't have the sides to stably mount side laths on one side of the drawer, but I can still probably do it. Since the drawers run parallel to each other, I can just run a whole strip the length of the table for each side. It's hard to explain without drawing it out, but the space between the two drawers on each side is 3", and it's . I can probably run a 3/4" x 3 1/2" piece right down the middle, 3/4" x 1" pieces on each side. The sides of the drawers are like 6" from the side apron, so the 1" pieces would be run similar to the center one