Need help with drawer spacing question.

[Adam Brownstein]

439658

Posted a picture but I'm not sure if people will be able to see it.

I am making a rolling outfeed table with drawers for all my small parts (nuts, bolts, screws, switches, etc. I have been 3ds printing 100's of small boxes to hold all the misc stuff.

I am using full extension slides (thus the 1/2" gap on either side of the drawers"). The drawers are set back 3/4" and the false fronts (which have been removed in the picture) will be attached to make the front of drawers flush with the cabinet. I plan to leave about an 1/8" gap all the way around when I put on the false fronts.

My question is, "If I only have a 1/4" gap between the drawers (not the false fronts but the actual drawers), will it cause headaches when installing the drawers." It does not leave me with a whole lot of wiggle room for error. I am trying to maximize space and since all the parts in the drawers are small parts, I don't have to work about drawers jamming others drawers when opening/closing. Thanks!

(Had to type this all twice, since my cat decided to hit the backspace key!!!)

Thanks!

[Thomas McCurnin]

I like about 1.5 inches. That gives me about .25 for the bottom of the drawer and about 1.25 for the top. Use false fronts to make the joints appear tight. You can put just as much stuff in. The spacing does not effect the height of the stuff you are going to put in the drawer. If they were super small drawers, say under two inches, I would shrink that to and inch, maybe .75, but no less.

[Jim Matthews]

Mock up two drawers and overload them.

My guess is that you have more capacity than you imagine.

[Frank Drackman]

In my experience, if you figure out all of the math in advance & cut spacers to make the math work, you don't need any wiggle room.

I also find that this is a task where metric is far superior than imperial.

[Bruce King]

I made a similar cabinet but went the simple route, didn’t bother with the alignment and cost of slides. The drawers are very long with the drawer sides 4 inches longer so the drawer can’t be pulled out too far. Just slide on waxed shelves. The big drawers probably need slides if heavy items in there. I’ll post a pic later.
I wish I had used metric, great idea.

[Tom Bender]

Have used the extended sides like Bruce suggests. It costs some capacity in a normal cabinet but if you have room for the long tails they work well.

Making the drawers just plain boxes saves a lot of work and cost.

Maybe use some more substantial pulls.

[glenn bradley]

I tend to pack my drawers in pretty tight for shop fixtures to maximize the storage. I have had no trouble with 1/4" spacing of drawer boxes on quality 100# slides. I'm having trouble envisioning how slides spaced 4" apart versus 1" apart would cause headaches during installation. Could you expand on your concerns?

[Robert Engel]

1/4" is too tight IMO.

Save yourself a lot of aggravation with inset fronts and just do overlay false drawer fronts.

A simple way to go with very little math is to start with the top few shallow drawers, get them installed, then build the deeper ones.

You might want to consider making one very deep for storing saw blades.