Solid oak drawer front prep

[Rick Herrick]

Getting closer to finishing a set of base cabinets for my wife's sewing room. I need drawer fronts now (3 fronts, 29" x 7"). I have a nice 8' piece of red oak that is 8" wide. I could get all three fronts out of it and keep the grain in line across all three.

My question is how to prep these to minimize cupping/bowing, etc. I live in the plywood world right now so only experience with hardwood is face frames, trim, etc. The board is 4/4 so I will need to plane it. Should I bring it into the house for a while to acclimate and then plane it, or vice-versa? Looking for tips on the sequence. Thank you.

[Jamie Buxton]

What is your drawer construction? Is it an applied drawer front? That is, will there be a complete drawer box behind the drawer front? Or will the sides of the drawer connect directly to the drawer front, likely with dovetails?

[Rick Herrick]

No dovetails yet.. Had to go simple for the first time knowing I can replace them later once I pick up more skills.

Drawer boxes (all four sides) are made from 3/4" birch plywood with bottom also being 3/4" birch ply. I have the drawer box flush with outside of face frame so these front rest on the face frame, not in-set.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Make certain that the wood is acclimated before you prepare it.

After the wood is acclimated, I would do some initial prep and then watch it another day or two to see if it moves again. Much depends on what you know about the wood. Is the wood kiln dried at a known to be good moisture content?

Most of my wood is purchased from my local Woodcraft or similar. I have had very good luck with the wood not moving. There have been some exceptions, but that seems to be the exception for the wood that I use. My wood usually comes rough, so I will usually do an initial prep. I do not own a jointer, but I do own a surface planer, so, I do the following:

I might do a straight line rip with a track saw to get one straight edge, but usually not because this edge is not expected to be square to the final face, just straight. I do not always do this, only sometimes.

My next step is to joint one face. Without a jointer, I use a sled with my surface planer. After I have one face flat, I can run the board through the planer to make the other side flat and parallel to the first side. if the board has significant bow or twist in the middle I might cut the board down before making one face flat so that I can remove less wood.

I usually run a straight line rip using my track saw or straight edge with my table saw. I might also just use a hand plane to make one straight edge. Sometimes, when the board is much wider at one end, I might cutup the board before creating the straight edge so that I have more usable wood.

I use the table saw to rip an edge that is parallel to the first straight edge.

At this point, I usually let the boards sit for a day or two to see if they "move". If they do not move, then I usually take it to either final size, or close to final size (then wait again).

Depending on how you use your drawer fronts, the drawer might help to hold the front flat.

You can also orient the wood so that movement will be less likely to affect how the drawer operates.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

No dovetails yet.. Had to go simple for the first time knowing I can replace them later once I pick up more skills.

Drawer boxes (all four sides) are made from 3/4" birch plywood with bottom also being 3/4" birch ply. I have the drawer box flush with outside of face frame so these front rest on the face frame, not in-set.

How are you building it? I am a big fan of pocket hole screws. When I first started, it was terrifying to simply make a board flat and square. I then started by cutting dovetails and it took me days to create a single drawer.

I took a class at a local woodcraft where we built a simple bookshelf. We used a Kreg jig to create pocket holes and things went together very quickly. So, sometimes I use pocket holes and sometimes I use dovetails. For drawers, it is almost always dovetails. When I use plywood for a case, I usually use pocket holes.

[Rick Herrick]

I have a Klingspor shop very close by and they have really bumped up their wood supply. So far their wood (red oak at least) is gorgeous. Surface planed on both sides. Its measuring 8.5-9.0% so I think that is ok.

The acclimation is the issue. Its been in my 58 degree garage for a month. Should I bring it into the house for a while before planing? The dimensioning isn't an issue right now, have that worked out so far. I have a DW735 planar.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I have a Klingspor shop very close by and they have really bumped up their wood supply. So far their wood (red oak at least) is gorgeous. Surface planed on both sides. Its measuring 8.5-9.0% so I think that is ok.

The acclimation is the issue. Its been in my 58 degree garage for a month. Should I bring it into the house for a while before planing? The dimensioning isn't an issue right now, have that worked out so far. I have a DW735 planar.

Yes, bring it in, let it acclimate for a bit. Verify that the surface is still flat. Depending on the length of the drawer front, it might not be noticeable on the drawer front.

Same planar I have.

[Bryan Lisowski]

I would bring inside for a bit, but I would rough cut into parts. Hopefully this will help remove internal stress if any. So cut your parts at 30" X 8".

[Doug Garson]

Make sure you sticker it when you bring it in.

[Rick Herrick]

Thanks folks. Will crosscut it in 3 equal pieces, roughly 33" and bring it in. Had not thought about stickering it but thats a good idea too.

[Lee Schierer]

As others have mentioned make sure you wood is properly acclimated to your house before you do anything. This can take a month or more. Then remove equal amounts from both faces when you do the planing. When you get to the finishing stage, I like to apply equal amounts of finish to all sides to equalize the moisture change potential, this reduces the tendency to cup.


Thanks folks. Will crosscut it in 3 equal pieces, roughly 33" and bring it in. Had not thought about stickering it but thats a good idea too.

Make sure you place weight on the top using stickers as well.