drawer bottom dado placement

[stephen wood]

I'm looking to place the drawer bottom dado to maximize inside drawer space. I know 1/2 from the bottom is standard. Wondering if I can get away with any less than that.

Drawers are constructed with 4/8 baltic birch for sides and front/back. Drawer bottoms are 3/8 BB. Drawers are 4 inch height, 6 inch and then some large bottom drawers, to be determined. Side mount slides.
Pocket screw joinery.

Also how deep should I make the dado in the 5/8?

thanks!

[liam c murphy]

If you’re using side mount slides, I don’t see why not. Undermount slides require particular clearances. Side mounts don’t have the same needs. The other consideration is joinery. Will the placement of the groove interfere with that?

You can also also conserve space by using 1/4” drawer bottoms. I usually make the grooves somewhere between 1/4” to 3/8” deep.

[glenn bradley]

I use 5/16" which works for me with 1/4" ply bottoms as well as "raised" 1/2" solid bottoms.

[Lee Schierer]

A lot depends on how much weight will be in the drawer and whether your drawer bottom is free floating or glued in. The more weight the greater support you need under the bottom panel.

[Bert McMahan]

Matthias Wandel has a good write up of some tests he did:

https://woodgears.ca/joint_strength/drawer.html

He doesn't do much "fine furniture" work, but his utility drawers apparently all have the bottoms just glued on flat and they seem to work for him. It wasn't as strong as the dado but it was strong enough for what he was doing.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Matthias Wandel has a good write up of some tests he did:

https://woodgears.ca/joint_strength/drawer.html

He doesn't do much "fine furniture" work, but his utility drawers apparently all have the bottoms just glued on flat and they seem to work for him. It wasn't as strong as the dado but it was strong enough for what he was doing.

I have read a lot of stuff from Mathias but I had missed that one. Thanks for share it.

[stephen wood]

Matthias Wandel has a good write up of some tests he did:

https://woodgears.ca/joint_strength/drawer.html

He doesn't do much "fine furniture" work, but his utility drawers apparently all have the bottoms just glued on flat and they seem to work for him. It wasn't as strong as the dado but it was strong enough for what he was doing.

Thanks for this link. I've heard of this and it sounds reasonable, especially if you use slides that wrap around the bottom. Alas, I have trouble picking the easy way to do things.

[stephen wood]

I think I'll go with 5/16 from the bottom edge. Thanks everyone!