Felt on the bottom of a drawer

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I have some drawers that are roughly 16" deep and 18" wide.

The drawers are not deep, from 3/4" to 3".

Some of the drawers will contain things such as pocket knives.

The drawers do not have partitions.

The drawer bottoms are slick so I was thinking about putting felt down on the bottoms since that will add a bit of friction to keep things from sliding around too much.

I have never done anything like this, but, especially with the shallow drawers, i really don't want to try and add dividers inside the drawers.

Any advice? I assume that I can just go to a fabric store and purchase felt and then I should use some kind of spray adhesive before putting down the felt.

Any other suggestions if I want to just not have things sliding around as much.

When I did something for fountain pens, I purchased an insert that I could cut with scissors that holds each pen in place. Don't think I want to be that precise with these drawers. Pens are very uniform in size, knives, not so much.

[Bert McMahan]

I would try out your solutions before you glue them in place (glue some felt to a scrap board).

In my experience a single piece of felt made it feel cheap and kind of crappy. I doubled it up a time or two to give it some "pad" and it felt a LOT nicer. You may be able to find better/nicer felt than I did though, so one piece may be good enough, or you might want to find a thin (1/8"? 1/16"?) piece of foam to put under the felt.

[Lisa Starr]

Not felt. But I've lined some drawers with pieces of cheap yoga/exercise mats. It does help keep things from moving around, but it will still shift some.

[David Kreuzberg]

Roll cork. It comes as thin as 1/8 inch. Apply as-is or with spray adhesive (or glue?)

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I would try out your solutions before you glue them in place (glue some felt to a scrap board).

In my experience a single piece of felt made it feel cheap and kind of crappy. I doubled it up a time or two to give it some "pad" and it felt a LOT nicer. You may be able to find better/nicer felt than I did though, so one piece may be good enough, or you might want to find a thin (1/8"? 1/16"?) piece of foam to put under the felt.

Smart, had not considered that.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Roll cork. It comes as thin as 1/8 inch. Apply as-is or with spray adhesive (or glue?)

OK, now that is pretty smart. The primary drawers of interest are not that deep, but, I should be able to get away with 1/8".

[Ray Newman]

How about a non-slick router mat? https://www.rockler.com/non-slip-router-mat

[Edwin Santos]

There is a non-adhesive product called Gorilla Grip drawer liner that comes in rolls. You can find it on Amazon in different colors and patterns here: https://www.amazon.com/Gorilla-Grip-Original-Non-Adhesive-Cabinets/dp/B07DQB1Z2R/ref=asc_df_B07DQB1Z2R/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=288879357798&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13180932044207053209&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030077&hvtargid=pla-573931910285&psc=1

Hope this helps you.

[scott boyd]

You can purchase rolls of felt liner in various colors with a peel-off glue backing at Woodcraft. You can use Suede-tex, although it is not as "neat" looking a product as felt. You can purchase the type of woven, rubber liner often used in mechanic's tool boxes. All of it works. It depends on the look you want as well as the contents of the drawer. With felt, or leather for that matter, you can cut a piece of hardboard or thin plywood the size of the drawer, glue the material to the substrate and place that into the drawer. That may be easier than applying it directly to the drawer bottom. Just use your imagination.

[Stan Calow]

I've done that using the self-stick felt - I think Rockler and/or Lee Valley sells those rolls in various colors. But I have had trouble getting it cut straight to fit the bottom exactly. So I've used 1/4" quarter-round pinned around the inside to cover any gaps or mis-cuts. Makes it much neater and keeps the felt from curling up at the edges. I got the small quarter-round from Rockler in birch, oak or walnut.

[Jamie Buxton]

Use non-skid shelf liner. It is grippy but not adhesive. Buy it anywhere they sell shelf liner.

[Carl Beckett]

+1 on the roll cork. Have used it on a number of projects.

[Mike Henderson]

If you use felt, glue it to some cardboard and then cut the cardboard to fit. It'll be a lot easier fitting to the drawer that way and the felt will stay flat. Plain felt has a habit of sliding and bunching up on one end or the other.

Mike

[Thomas McCurnin]

I've had good luck with flock for boxes. I'm not sure it would wear very well in a drawer though.

https://www.rockler.com/mini-flocker-applicator-for-suede-tex-fibers

[Bill Boehme]

I agree with Jamie Buxton. The drawer liner is a thin soft grippy rubber-like material that is used in kitchen drawers and in roll-around tool chests. You can find it in various colors anywhere kitchen stuff is sold as well as in basic black at Harbor freight, Sears tool department, big box stores, hardware stores, etc.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-18-in-x-100-in-Black-Premium-Solid-Drawer-Liner-DTC130001/306136147

[Osvaldo Cristo]

How about a non-slick router mat? https://www.rockler.com/non-slip-router-mat

One more for that. No glue, no mess...

[Frederick Skelly]

Google "fastcap kaizen foam". It's a thick foam you cut to custom fit the tools that go in that drawer. It's very nice in some applications. Woodcraft and others have it. LINK (https://www.woodcraft.com/products/fastcap-kaizen-foam-30mm-1-1-8-black)

[Bill Dufour]

They sell under carpet anti-slip mats which are the same as router non-slip pads but cheaper and bigger. With the cheap powder coat guns out now I wonder if they make spray felt for them. 15 years ago they made special spray felt static charge guns.
Flocking is what they call spray felt.
Bill D.

[Jim Morgan]

I keep a number of my marking and measuring tools in a cabinet that has snap-close drawers. Whenever I let a drawer close on it's own, all the contents of the cabinet would shift; ultimately, everything would end up jumbled toward the front of the drawers. I couldn't stand it anymore and got some Kaisen foam. When I showed my wife, she thought I had gone completely around the bend. But nothing budges anymore, and it's easy to see at a glance if anything is missing.
417400

If you go with felt, Mike Henderson's suggestion is the way to go.

[Jim Tobias]

I would use heavy grade self adhesive felt(you can buy it in large rolls, even pool table quality) and cut it to size and apply to either:! Framing matboard(like the one used for picture frames) or foam core board or 1/8" BB ply. As Mike Henderson said, it is much easier to fit this way and best of all, when/if it ever gets worn or damaged, you just pull it out and recover and reinsert.
I do this on numerous drawer bottoms and box bottoms all the time.

Jim

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Based on all of the suggestions, and because I will have lots of drawers I can do this to since I am also building a bunch of drawers for my shop, I ordered:



Some 2 mm (5/64") thick adhesive backed cork squares. If I use these, I will first fit poster board to the drawer and then put the cork onto the poster board so that it can be easily removed.
Drawer liner stuff that looks like carpet stuff that you simply cut to size.


This will allow me to test, without committing by gluing something in place. This should also provide sufficient friction to hold the small stuff generally in place.

I might eventually give some of the Kaizen foam a try, but not for this application.

[Tom Bender]

I had poor results with flocking.

[Bill McNiel]

Use non-skid shelf liner. It is grippy but not adhesive. Buy it anywhere they sell shelf liner.

This works really well

[Jim Barstow]

I line the drawers of jewelry boxes with felt. I buy felt from a fabric store by the yard and lightweight cardboard from an art store. I carefully fit the cardboard to the drawer then use spray adhesive to attach the felt. I carefully cut the felt to the exact size of the cardboard with a razor blade then anchor the cardboard to the drawer bottom with a small piece of double faced carpet tape. It’s ends up being very heat and tidy.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Thanks to all who responded. I used cork on half of the drawers and Gorilla Grip Drawer Liners on the other half.

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?277575-(almost)-Finished-my-knife-cabinet&p=2960440#post2960440

I am very happy with the results, and it was a much better choice (I think) than the felt that I was going to try.

Andrew Pitonyak

[tom lucas]

I've used flock, felt, and rubber. The flock is best suited for jewelry and other fine light things. Too much trouble in general, but can be quite luxurious, if done right.

Felt is super easy and cheap. You can buy it by the yard and Walmart or JoAnn's Fabrics. My wife bought several yards from Walmart for $2.00/yd and I took some of it from her :). Just use wood or white glue on bottom of drawer. Cut felt to size and drop in. Works great for fine tools that don't see dirt, oils, or grease. Felt comes in dozens of colors and various textures. Way nicer than rubber or cork, IMO, but not suited for greasy dirty stuff. You can do the same with upholstery scraps, which can be really luxurious and usually free if you ask an upholsterer.

[David Buchhauser]

I keep a number of my marking and measuring tools in a cabinet that has snap-close drawers. Whenever I let a drawer close on it's own, all the contents of the cabinet would shift; ultimately, everything would end up jumbled toward the front of the drawers. I couldn't stand it anymore and got some Kaisen foam. When I showed my wife, she thought I had gone completely around the bend. But nothing budges anymore, and it's easy to see at a glance if anything is missing.
417400

If you go with felt, Mike Henderson's suggestion is the way to go.

Hi James,
I like alot!! Nice and compact with no chance for sliding around in the drawer. Do the cuts for the tools go all the way thru the foam? Or did you use another method to pocket it to fit the tools? Very Nice!!
David

[Jim Morgan]

Hi James,
I like alot!! Nice and compact with no chance for sliding around in the drawer. Do the cuts for the tools go all the way thru the foam? Or did you use another method to pocket it to fit the tools? Very Nice!!
David

Thanks David! I used the snap-blade knife with the blade extended pretty far to cut around each tool. The Kaizen foam is layered - you can dig down with a couple fingers and pull out enough to fit the tool. Not deep enough the first time? Dig out another layer (they are about 3/16"). The foam layers don't separate super neatly, but that doesn't matter once the tools are laid to bed.

Jim

[roger wiegand]

If you use felt in this sort of application what you want is woven wool felt rather than the more common amorphous stuff. (you won't get it for $2 a yard, but it will last decades longer.) I attach it with hot hide glue so it can easily be replaced when needed.