Drawer sizes

[Cary Wheeler]

I'm looking for a formula - or website - that can help me calculate drawer heights in a given space in the carcass. That is to say, I don't want all the drawer heights to be the same, but rather stepped by an amount I want. So say the stepping amount is 2". And the carcass space I have to work with is 60" - and I wish there to be 5 drawers - how much space between the drawers will this leave, etc. etc. Difficult to explain I guess.

[Richard Coers]

https://www.finewoodworking.com/FWNPDFfree/011168048.pdf

[David Eisenhauer]

I typed in the following in Google:

- figuring out the sizes of drawers in a graduated drawer chest-

and came up with at least four articles before coming back here.

[Ron Citerone]

One way, if you want a certain height, is to just start with the total height and then decide on front frame or not. I am working on a chest on chest dresser presently. No front frame so there is one more rail than the number of drawers. I then just started throwing numbers at it till you like what you have.

The other way, if your height is not chosen yet, is to choose your drawer sizes first, and add in the # of rails X the thickness and add up all the numbers. Again, throw numbers.

You can also make a full scale drawing on a white board or large cardboard and see what it looks like. This works great IMO.

Hope that makes sense and helps a little.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I use either graph paper or mental arithmetic to do that for drawers or shelves.
Zach

[David Buchhauser]

Here is a handy drawer size calculator.

https://www.woodbin.com/calcs/drawer-sizer/

407429
(https://www.woodbin.com/calcs/drawer-sizer/)

[Lee Schierer]

With five drawers and a 2" difference between each drawer your minimum drawer sizes will be 10, 8, 6, 4, 2. That totals to 36". If your total height is to be sixty inches then 60-36= 24. Subtract any spacers between drawers plus any spacer above the base from 24 and divide the remainder by 5. So if you allow 1" between drawers and top and bottom you would subtract 6 from 24 leaving 18. Dividing 18 by 5 gives you 3.6" to add to each drawer, less an amount of clearance above and below each drawer opening to allow for fit. So you should arrive at about 3-3/8" to add to the minimum drawer heights we started with. Your five drawers would end up measuring 13-3/8, 11-3/8", 9-3/8", 7-3/8", 5-3/8".

[Bill Dufour]

In try to not make any drawer taller then 8" since that is how wide my jointer is.
Bill D

[Robert Engel]

I usually draw out the space to scale and start playing with drawer heights, starting with the bottom (deepest) and going up taking into account drawer dividers, if any.

If there is a known desired height for the top or bottom drawer, start there.

In your example, knowing 5 equal drawers = 12", I would start with a 15" drawer at the bottom.

This leaves 45" for 4 drawers (11 1/4" each).

Making the next drawer 14, leaves 31 for 3 drawers.

Next drawer 12, leaves 19 for 2 drawers.

The top two would be 10 & 9, 10 1/2 & 8 1/2, etc..

So the drawers would be 15, 14, 12, 10 1/2, 8 1/2.

All that said, less than a minute playing around on the calculator I came up with the following for 2" steps:

16, 14, 12, 10, 8. :-)

[Alan Lightstone]

Here is a handy drawer size calculator.

https://www.woodbin.com/calcs/drawer-sizer/

407429
(https://www.woodbin.com/calcs/drawer-sizer/)

I just get an error message when I try to use this.