drawer slips

[Bill Carey]

OK - I think I know what they are after googling and I did have a small chest a long time ago that had slips with beveled edges. At the time I thought is was a "feature", IYKWIM. So far I've built 4 pieces with drawers. The first was like fitting the drawers into a canyon, the second and third were better, and the one I'm working on now only needed some planing on 1 drawer, and shimming of the runners on one side. For some reason drawers are more intimidating to me than building chairs, cutting dovetails, etc.

So do you use drawer slips?
How do they help with drawer construction? Or don't they - just a structural issue?
If you have done them, have any pics?
Why should I use them? Or why not?

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Christopher Schwarz is a fan: https://www.popularwoodworking.com/chris-schwarz-blog/about-drawer-slips/

Derek Cohen also likes them. I do not know if I can link to his blog, bug, he can..... And he has a nice write-up on his site under furniture and drawer design and drawer bottoms.

I think that their main advantages for me is




Do not need to worry about cutting the groove for the dovetails and then worry about that showing.
Can use thinner walls because you are not weakening the wood by cutting a groove in it.
I do not need to worry about the size of my dovetails to force the groove to be between a specific tail or pin, which then specifies the size of the first tail.


The only disadvantage is that in general, you will have what looks like a bit of molding between the bottom and the sides. If I want to set something like a box in there, that will push it away from the side. This is not a problem if you are putting cloths in a drawer. With that said, I have seen slips attached to the bottom of the drawer, but I have never done that, but it would take care of this specific problem.

[Andrew Hughes]

I like them because they are way more challenging the regular drawer bottoms.
Sometimes a regular bottom is just not good enough.
Heres my work with Claro walnut and Cedar of Lebanon bottoms.

[glenn bradley]

I use slips when the drawer construction creates a challenge or when dimensions get a little too light for my longevity comfort level. There are also NK style drawers which always seemed like a variation on the slip to me.

[David Eisenhauer]

I use drawer slips when I use thin (3/8" or less) drawer sides that I am not comfortable in plowing drawer bottom grooves in. I have a couple of different designs I use for the top of the slide as it transitions to the flat bottom panel and have been saving $ to get a H&R combo to create the design I really want to do. I have attached a photo of one of the ways I do the transition of the top of the slip.

[Bill Carey]

Thanks gents.

Andrew P: I hope Derek chimes in because I couldn't view the pics from CS's article in Popular WW. And I don't mind the molding look in the drawer. I kinda like it. And yes, the groove for the bottom has messed up a few dovetails on me.

Andrew H: not sure I need more of a challenge on drawers yet. LOL. So how did that beautiful drawer go together? Is the bottom fully captured within the drawer?

Glen: NK style drawers? You lost me.

Appreciate the comments. Gonna take some research before I try it. When I first started dovetails, I made DT's just to make them. I may just make a box or 3 for the purpose of trying slips on a drawer.

[Derek Cohen]

OK - I think I know what they are after googling and I did have a small chest a long time ago that had slips with beveled edges. At the time I thought is was a "feature", IYKWIM. So far I've built 4 pieces with drawers. The first was like fitting the drawers into a canyon, the second and third were better, and the one I'm working on now only needed some planing on 1 drawer, and shimming of the runners on one side. For some reason drawers are more intimidating to me than building chairs, cutting dovetails, etc.

So do you use drawer slips?
How do they help with drawer construction? Or don't they - just a structural issue?
If you have done them, have any pics?
Why should I use them? Or why not?

Bill, I use slips most of the time for drawers other than utilitarian. Essentially, drawer slips are needed when the drawer sides are too thin to be grooved. It appears to me that the USA have tended to make drawer sides twice the thickness of those in the UK (and Australia, which has a history of many UK-trained furniture makers). On average, the drawer sides I built tend to be ariynd 6-7mm thick.

The second reason for slips is to add a wider bearing surface to thin sides. I generally laminate a layer of harder wood as well (I have not seen others do this). The common wood for drawer sides I use is Tasmanian Oak, which is quite similar to White Oak in looks and hardness, but is an Eucalyptus. It has the advantage of being quarter sawn. Still, the timbers of Oz are harder, and so I believe a laminate is beneficial.

There are a number of designs for slips. They can end up plain, raised, flush, molded. Here is the first article I wrote, which has significant contributions from Richard Jones and others ...

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/DrawerDesignandDrawerBottoms.html

Here is a more recent illustration of their making ..

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/HarlequinTablePreparingThe%20Drawers.html

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/DrawerBottomsIntoSlips.html

https://i.postimg.cc/RZ053hH1/DrawerB7.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/kghrWCQ0/DrawerB8.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/DzW9gN58/DrawerB9.jpg

The are many other example among the builds I’ve posted on my website, on this page: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/index.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Brian Tymchak]

Thanks Bill for starting the thread. Had not heard of slips before so I certainly learned something tonight.

[Don Stephan]

I like the added visual interest of drawer slips in a drawer, as well as the slightly thinner drawer side which makes the drawer look less heavy. Of the traditional drawer slip styles, my personal preference is a small bead made with a scratch beader, so there is some variation in the shape. Richard Jones is my source, decades ago, on drawer slips. Can't remember where his excellent article appeared, but it was extremely well written and illustrated.

[Bill Carey]

Thanks Derek - so using slips allows you to build the drawer box (if you will) with the dovetails as you desire, front and back, with out having to route a grove in the sides, which can then be thinner. This picture reduced the mystery considerably:
434743

The slips get glued to the sides of the drawer. I was confused how the whole thing went together. The increased wear surface appeals to me as well - I made several drawers - my first attempt - a couple of years ago with poplar sides and they have sustained some abuse from my grandson' constant use of them. I used some adhesive backed UHMW on the runners and it helped. But slips are intriguing, and definitely worth a go.

(And I like the little washer trick for scribbling the fronts of the drawers to the bottom.)