Drawer side question

[Justin Leiwig]

I'm looking at making quite a few drawers/pull out shelves for my upcoming laundry room remodel. My question is I see that woodcraft offers precut prefinished drawer side material. http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?ProductID=146706&FamilyID=5438

I'm thinking it would be easier for me to just use a product like this. I see that states industries sells it in 8' lengths, but I don't know of a local distributor. Is woodcraft my only option?

Or should I just buy the baltic birch ply and cut/finish it myself?

[glenn bradley]

I would make it yourself. I don't see much labor saving in buying that stuff unless you just needed one drawer and had no where to put the scrap BB ply(?). If you have a table saw and a router table you could make those 'almost' as fast as you could load them into your trunk. Ok, slight exaggeration; but not much of one :D.

[Lee Schierer]

I make drawer sides out of 1/2" poplar. Cutting the slot and rounding the top edge is no big chore. I can get 1/2" poplar in 3, 4, 5 and 6" widths and lengths to 10 feet at $2.10 per foot for 1/2 x 6 ($10.50 for 60"). I would think that with 60" lengths you could have a lot of waste depending on your drawer dimensions. Be careful cutting dovetails in plywood as chip out happens rather easily.

[frank shic]

justin, the answer is yes: buying prefinished, dadoed baltic birch drawer blanks will definitely save you a few hours of time if you're in a time crunch.

[John Thompson]

I'm thinking it would be easier for me to just use a product like this. I see that states industries sells it in 8' lengths... Justin

Easier... yeah! Cheaper.. probably not? If you have a planer that is. I use poplar.. occasionally pine but not like I did in the 70's and 80's and even did a 5 drawer chest with Basswood recently which is cheaper than both the poplar and clear pine.

Good luck...

Sarge..

[Mike Thomas]

I make all my drawer boxes out of 5/8 maple with through dovetails front and back. This may be overkill to some but when someone comes over and sees my cabinet work .... well you know what I mean. I am just about through with my back bath and laundry room and all the drawers were done this way.

[John Thompson]

I make all my drawer boxes out of 5/8 maple with through dovetails front and back. This may be overkill to some but when someone comes over and sees my cabinet work .... well you know what I mean. I am just about through with my back bath and laundry room and all the drawers were done this way.

Are the front and back DT's machine cut using a jig?

Sarge..

[Jamie Buxton]

Yes, prefinished drawer plywood drawer sides save you time. They also save material cost over poplar if your drawer sides are tall. I do have dealers which sell 8' lengths, at considerable savings over Woodcraft.

If you use prefinished plywood, a good corner joint is the lock tenon.

[Mike Thomas]

I have an Incra TSLS set up on my table saw/router table and use that for cutting most of my dovetails.

[John Thompson]

I have an Incra TSLS set up on my table saw/router table and use that for cutting most of my dovetails.

That is probably as quick as you can cut box joints using that method, Mike.. and a very substantial joint for a drawer. I have been hand cutting them for many years but within the last ten I only hand cut the fronts and use box joints on the rear. I was taught in the 70's to hand cut them all the way around but.. I came to a conclussion that nobody needs to be messing in my drawers to the point they see the rear of them... even on furniture which is what I do. :D

Nice job on your set-up...

Sarge..

[Chip Lindley]

Prefinished drawer side material saves TIME! But what will you do for those days after you order, and wait for delivery? In that time you could have bought a sheet of ply, cut your parts and made all the drawers you need. IMHO everything is *relative* isn't it?......

[Paul Demetropoulos]

Trying to save money or time? Left over short cuts of the prefinished stuff become scrap, greatly increasing your cost. The drawers are so fast and easy to make and any left over BB always finds a use in the shop.

I know guys who'll build the cabinet boxes and drawers on site and buy prefinished doors, draw fronts and face frame stock. I think it's a matter of why you're doing it.

I'd come down on side of those who suggest making them yourself.

[Joe Chritz]

I'll jump in and add that you can cut up a sheet of BB ply (either 4x8 or 5x5) into about 6" strips in 20 minutes. Another 10 or so to cross cut to rough lengths for all the drawer projects. A quick sanding with 120 on a ROS is about 30 minutes.

The only real wild card is finish time but if you spray and have a door rack it is very quick. Since I nearly always 1/2 blind drawers for kitchen projects and the like I don't finish until after assembly anyway. If I was going to use a method that supported pre-finished I would take an hour or two and make up a bunch of material myself.

If you don't have cutlist I strongly recommend getting it. It has saved me the purchase price many times over, it is great when cutting drawer pieces.

Joe

[Justin Leiwig]

I make all my drawer boxes out of 5/8 maple with through dovetails front and back. This may be overkill to some but when someone comes over and sees my cabinet work .... well you know what I mean. I am just about through with my back bath and laundry room and all the drawers were done this way.

Any more pics of the laundry area? These will be for cabinets in the laundry area.

As to everyone else, thank you I value your opinions. As of this moment I have no planer, jointer, or bandsaw to resaw or plane anything to size. I have to purchase whatever I use in readily available sizes. That is why these seemed like a good idea. I am not sure I could get soft maple in the right size in something like an s4s ready for putting dadoes and then finishing.