Drawer bottoms into slips

[Derek Cohen]

I am in the process of completing the Harlequin Table. I will post the finished piece in a couple of days. Here are a few pictures of making the drawer bottoms for the slips, which may interest a few.


Bill was not enamoured with the slips as they has this ruddy great groove down one side. That was a too-wide quirk from the beading blade. Not to worry Bill, I cut that section away, leaving just the bead.

Here are the slips being glued in ...








The drawer slips and bottoms are Tasmanian Blue Gum. The drawer sides are Tasmanian Oak. Both are 1/4" thick.


The groove in the slip is 1/8" (3mm). The slip requires a matching 1/8" rebate. This was planed with a skew rebate plane on a sticking board ...





Although the plane has a nicker, I always scribe the line as well ...





It is worth the effort to set up the rebate plane for a precise cut ...





Once the one side is done, slide the tongue into the groove of the slip, and mark off the width of the drawer bottom ...





Then saw to width ...





Any fine tuning is done with a shoulder plane ...





The drawer fronts are all curved, and the drawer bottom must be scribed to match this ...





Here is the fit behind the front of the drawer, and the match with the beaded slips ...





The rear of the drawer, with the added bearing surface from the slips ...





The profile of the drawer sides ...








Until the final pics ...


Regards from Perth


Derek

[William Fretwell]

Like your scribing method with the thick washer!
Looks like the slip profile was modified at the end for the drawer front but not the back. The top curved profile seems to create a gap above the drawer bottom at the back. If this had been cut back at the end, the back of the drawer could have been a little deeper and left no gap. Perhaps you have a moulding to cover the gap?
Hard to see the front equivalent as the clamps are in the way.

[Jim Matthews]

I let drawer bottoms "settle" if made from solid wood - at least overnight. Cutting a board shorter isn't challenging.

Adding depth is a lot like getting Spam back into the can...

[lowell holmes]

Tasmanian oak appears to be similar to pin oak found here in Texas. I use a a lot of white oak. We have fifteen oak trees in our yard. I would not think about cutting one down. They are very tall mature trees.

[ken hatch]

Tasmanian oak appears to be similar to pin oak found here in Texas. I use a a lot of white oak. We have fifteen oak trees in our yard. I would not think about cutting one down. They are very tall mature trees.

Lowell,

When you say tall Oak I assume your trees are Willow Oak. If so there is no need to cut 'em down, sooner or later they will fall on their own. I was lucky all mine missed the house when they fell.

ken

[lowell holmes]

They are not willow oak. I think my trees are known locally as Pin Oaks.
I live on Oak Hollow Drive and the street one block to the North is Pin Oak street.
These trees are at least 100 years old.

[Mike Allen1010]

Derek thanks for sharing your pictures and experience with Drawer slips – excellent tutorial . A lot of the case work I do is smaller scale with smaller scale drawers where slips are the best way to maximize drawer volume.

I definitely plan to use slips on my next project and appreciate you sharing your ideas and expertise.

Best, Mike

[Tom Bender]

Derek thanks for sharing your pictures and experience with Drawer slips – excellent tutorial . A lot of the case work I do is smaller scale with smaller scale drawers where slips are the best way to maximize drawer volume.

I definitely plan to use slips on my next project and appreciate you sharing your ideas and expertise.

Best, Mike

Agree with Mike. Though I glue in plywood bottoms, slips will work just as well.