Drawer/Door Gap, What’s Acceptable?

[Bruce Page]

I’m building a bookcase/cabinet that has both drawers and doors. What is the norm when fitting? Is it relative to size? The doors are going to be ~ 25”w X 36” tall and the drawer faces ~ 25” X 5”. I was going to fit to a 1/16” gap but wonder if that might be too much. I’m at the point that I can fit the pieces very tight but I worry about wood movement. The wood is QS white oak.

Thanks

[Jay Knepper]

I think that you would be very pleased with a 1/16" gap all around. I know I would. But slip a dime between a couple of pieces of wood, take a step back, and decide for yourself--that's what really matters.

On the practical side, going less than 1/16" on the gap is starting to flirt with danger on solid drawer fronts. There are online wood movement calculators that can give you a more precise answer.

[Jim Becker]

If 1/16" is pleasing that's not a problem, but it also depends upon the typical seasonal movement for the species in the area where it will be located. Here in the NE, for example, it's really necessary to consider what season it is when you build the piece. If it is summer, hot and humid, you build with the intended "closest" gap...it will get wider in the winter when it's cooler and drier. If you are building in the winter, you need to leave a wider gap, 'cause it's going to get tighter when the hot, sticky summer rolls around. (I know this from experience, too...I built my kitchen cabinets when it was "more temperate" and once the hot-stickies arrived, I ended up having to remove doors and hardware and cut said doors down a little as they moved a lot on me)

[Phil Maddox]

You didn't specify the construction of the door. If is is a raised panel, then your 1/16" number is good, especially for QS Oak. If the door is solid wood, you will have problems.

At this time of the year around here it is humid so a small gap will work but it will get larger in the winter.

Good luck.

Phil

[Hoa Dinh]

Drawer/Door Gap, What’s Acceptable?

About a penny thick.

Sometimes I feed rich, I try for a dime thick. :)

[Mike Wilkins]

Hey Bruce. Next time you are surfing through one on the local big box stores(Lowes or HD) go over to the cabinet section. Grab a couple of laminate samples in whatever color pleases your senses at the time. Makes great spacers for drawers/doors. And the cost is good too.

[Tom Jones III]

More important than the size of the gap is that the gap is consistant all the way around and consistant through every door/drawer. I recently completed a large cabinet for my anniversary present to LOML. I made a mistake and had to make the gap on the doors larger than I had planned. It ended up looking just fine because they were all the same.

[John Stevens]

We're talking about inset doors and drawers, right? How do you use the laminate-sample spacers to fit the doors and drawers? Some kind of trial-and-error process similar to Andy Rae's method in his book on furniture making?

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

As mentioned wood movement with humidity is the limiting factor. Other than that one issue, you can make the gaps as big or as close as you please.
It's really a choice the designer makes based on taste.