+1 on buying good drawer slides. That’s the thing that impresses most people.
+1 on buying good drawer slides. That’s the thing that impresses most people.
Y’know, when I’m looking for craftsmanship in kitchen cabinets, the big red flag is PVC iron-on edgebanding. The stuff does not look like wood. It looks cheap when it is brand new. And in a couple of years it starts to fray off. Yes, it is way less expensive than real wood. That’s an earmark of bad craftsmanship: do it cheap not good.
I've got an automatic dovetailer. Makes generic dovetail drawers pretty easy to make.
We use solid birch for drawer stock, and Baltic Birch plywood for the bottoms.
We have about five drawer heights that we use on the regular. We'll sort a unit of birch by width next to the rip saw and cut up most of the unit. Then we size full length rips either to size of the finished drawer, or prepare the rips by getting them to the size we need as a glued up part, plus 1/16". After that the rips just go into inventory. We do a final sizing after machining the pins and tails have been cut to remove any tear out. So a 8-1/8" drawer side is machined at 8-3/16", then cut down to final size.
We do our best to make the glue up parts as good looking as possible, but not as much time is put into them as it would be for a door panel
Sometimes if we've got time we'll glue up 100 drawer sides for standard base cabinet sides, so when we're in a bind for time we can just grab and go. It's good to get ahead when you can.
I'm just a hobby guy but hated using a dowtail jig due to the time spent and mess made. I found a fairly cheap used Omec 650, single bit machine with four size dovetail choices and pneumatic clamps. I use mainly one size that allows for 9mm ply bottoms to be hidden and seldom change the settings. The four drawer sides take 3-4 minutes. Makes drawers as much fun as they can be- which still isn't a thrill. Dave
My advice, sub them out if you can. Soooooo much cheaper than making them yourself. I still make them for projects that call for it, but most stuff I just buy them. They're clean and ready to install, just makes life a little bit easier. I won't use ply or mdf for a drawer box for a client though, cabinets for my garage or shop, sure, but not for a job. Everyone has to set their own standards of what's acceptable and what's not, and while many guys use them I personally won't.
good luck,
JeffD
Buy them.
$40 a piece on average for -refinished maple.
Downside 5/8” from the width and 1’’ from your height from face frame opening for Blum soft close. Figure on 21” glides for standard 24” carcass.
If I was to hand dovetail a whole kitchen. And I will my own I would not put a plied face on. I would make them half blind and inset.
For what it’s worth I make high end custom kitchen cabinets. I hate the idea of machine made dovetails and applied drawer faces but it’s the industry standard and what the average consumer and general public expect and desire from a custom kitchen.
I don’t much admire buying pre made drawer boxes but would prefer them over making my own drawer lock boxes.
I don't see the appeal of the front being the front of the drawer.
The finishing would be a nightmare on painted cabinets.
I also like the entire drawer interior being the same color. I run birch interiors on my cabinets, having a white oak front with the rest of the drawer being birch would make my OCD bleed. Making the whole drawer white oak would make account hurt.
Bill, I like that Domino method...secure and quite attractive. Different, too.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Once you're moderately set up, and have a good system, you can make good money on drawers, and there's peace of mind controlling another part of the process.
It does require a healthy capital investment though.
Victor, if I tried that Domino method, I'd probably create shop-made dominos that are normal, solid stock that somehow ties into the project since they would be exposed. It would also insure that the mortise was fully filled. The commercial dominos have edges that are "less than pretty", IMHO, and I'm not sure I'd want to expose them. But I'm also intersted in Bill's input on that.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...