Wood for drawer

[Jim Guy]

I'm still pretty new at this and have not made many drawers. I need to build a rather large drawer - about 30W x 24L x 8H - so it needs to be somewhat strong. It will be dovetailed. I know what to use for the bottom but am uncertain about what kind of wood to use for the sides and back.
Is 1/2in pine OK.
Thanks,
Jim Guy

[Lee Schierer]

You can use any number of woods for drawer sides. Typically I use poplar. I've also seen drawers made from walnut, cherry, oak, pine, maple, and plywood. Selection depends on what you are making and personal taste. Most people use less costly wood for drawers as they don't show the majority of the time.

[Jim Becker]

In addition to Lee's sage advise, I'll add that there is no "rule" that says your drawer stock needs to be 1/12" thick. If 9/16" or 5/8" looks more appropriate for the larger drawers you are making, use that, although some fixed format dovetail jigs may have a problem adapting to more flexible stock dimensions. Very large drawers can benefit from slightly thicker stock through added strength and stiffness.

BTW, I also use poplar for my drawers.

[Alan Turner]

If I am making a serious piece of furniture, with drawers, then I figure about 8 hours per drawer for labor, + any veneering time, cockbeading time, etc. Therefore, the cost of the wood is not terribly relevant. My preference is hard or soft maple. I make drawer sides anywhere form 3/8" thick, for a smaller drawer, to 9/16 or 5/8 for larger drawers such as you describe, but the thickness turns on what the drawer will likely contain. Silver and candles, in the dining room? Sweaters - bottom drawer for a chest for the bedroom?
Making drawers is one of favorite shop activities. The bottom can be plywood, but my preference is solid wood, 1/4" maple, resawn, then glued up. Note that a 24" deep drawer is quite deep. A normal chast is usuall about 19-21" deep, with the drawer a bit shallower. Have fun with your handplane and it will fit nicely.
Alan

[Todd Burch]

I'll make drawers out of both solid wood and 1/2" Baltic birch plywood. Depends on the size, and the look the client wants. I typically will box-joint my drawer corners, but I've been known to rabbet them too.

Shown are big Baltic Birch plywood drawers and click here (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=7393) for a previous post with solid wood (stained & lacquered) cherry drawers. I will usually make drawer boxes 1/2" thick or thicker. Solid wood drawer boxes sure look good! Yes, they are not normally seen, but imagine the surprise people get when they open a drawer and see just as fine work inside the case as is outside.

[Earl Kelly]

Jim, I like to use White Oak almost exclusively for my drawers. A drawer that big I would go 9/16-5/8" on the material. I would also put a bottom center support in that size of drawer. This will help tie the front and back together at the center of the drawer adding even more support. I like Oak ply for the bottoms.

[Mark Singer]

For hand dovetailed drawers I use solid wood....maple is very good . Softer woods are actually more difficult to make nice dovetails. For production drawers with metal drawer slides, I use the Kreg jig and a prefinished appleply. It is like Baltic birch , but comes finished with a laquer type finish. I use Roo melamine glue on these and a white melamine bottom. They are great for closet systems and are very easy to clean.

[Chris Padilla]

I hope Mr. Burch doesn't mind but I took inspiration from a recent job he did (or is still doing) and picked up some Blum Tandem Plus (http://www.blum.com/group/en/03/03/04/index.jsp;jsessionid=0000LdPCHmBx1xumRNCT-TsuXf5:-1) slides.

http://burchwoodusa.com/miscpix/Remodel/rp_study.html (scroll towards the end to see the sliders and boxes he built...all solid cherry)

These are pricey but very nice sliders as they are completely hidden from view and allow one to SEE the full drawer. I have two file cabinets going into a cabinet so I got the 110 lb (50 kg) units.

I originally thought to use 3/4" maple plywood for the boxes (and edge-band it in maple) and dovetail or box joint the joints. However, these sliders are a bit unusual in that the box fits into the slider. In other words, the maximum thickness of wood I can use for the sides of the drawer box is 5/8" and my maple ply is just shy of 3/4" so this coupled with the recent "Ply vs. Hardwood" thread convinced me to make the box from solid maple and use the 3/4" maple ply for the bottom (I have a lot of 3/4" maple ply so what the heck). The fronts will be some figure maple panel of some kind.

So my long-winded point? I think it is plain to see...all sorts of a factors can affect your choice of how to build your drawer boxes. For me, the sliders I chose changed my direction and I really want the boxes to look nice when they are opened. Further, since they are file drawers, they need to be beefy and strong.

[Tim Sproul]

drawer mechanism is also a big determining factor. Will you use metal slides? Will you do runners and kickers? Or groove for a wooden slide? Those are the 3 major choices for drawer mechanism and will affect your choice for drawer stock...imo.

Metal slides - you can get away with using jusy about any type of wood (solid - any species - or use engineered material).

runner/kicker system - generally want a well-wearing material, but not too well-wearing. I prefer to have the drawer wear out rather than the carcass...drawers are easier for the great grandkids to replace rather than rebuilding the carcass. Slips can also be used to decrease the wear. Be sure to wax the wear surfaces to promote better "action" and make for longer-lasting mechanism.

groove/wooden slide. The drawer sides for this mechanism should be a bit thicker than the other two, as you cut a groove in the side.

For the wood-on-wood mechanisms, pine is generally thought to be a poor choice in material. It can be soft (depends on the species of pine), such as white pine or relatively dense such as ponderosa pine. The biggest problem with softwoods and use in drawers, imo, is that the earlywood of almost all softwoods is extremely soft. The latewood can be very dense -such as with douglas fir - but the very soft earlywood won't wear well and is likely to cause slop in the drawer mechanism quickly when softwood is used for wood-on-wood drawer mechanism.

Lastly, fit of the drawer has a big determination in how long the drawer mechanism will last. If you start out with too much slop, then the drawer is likely to wear out quickly. Too little slop is obviously unacceptable as you'll never the get drawer in or if you do, you'll not get it back out. Getting the right amount of slop is much more critical for traditional (wood-on-wood) drawer mechanisms than metal slides.