What wood for large drawers (24x30)

[Brian Elfert]

I am building some really large drawers for a cabinet in an RV. 24" wide by 30" deep. This is most definitely not furniture grade and I will use pocket screws to assemble the drawer boxes. What type and thickness of wood should I use?

I was thinking about Baltic Birch plywood for this, but I did some searching on the forum and read a number of comments about BB plywood quality going down. ApplePly would be a bit difficult to get for me. I saw the ApplePly folks sell drawer sides already finished, but the shipping doubles the cost. I've thought about just ordering the BB plywood from Menards, but no idea how good that stuff is.

[Bradley Gray]

More important than the sides on big drawers is to use thicker bottoms.

[Lisa Starr]

I have some 36" x 30" drawers in my shop built from 1/2" Baltic Birch with pocket screws corners. The bottoms are also 1/2" BB in a dado groove. They've held up well.

[Jim Becker]

Half-inch quality plywood with the same half-inch material used for the bottoms. Those drawers are similar in size to those I use in my high-end tack trunk commissions and they take a beating no problem

[Brian Elfert]

More important than the sides on big drawers is to use thicker bottoms.

I am planning on at least 1/2” thick bottoms.

[Brian Elfert]

Half-inch quality plywood with the same half-inch material used for the bottoms. Those drawers are similar in size to those I use in my high-end tack trunk commissions and they take a beating no problem

What do you consider good quality plywood? Is Baltic Birch plywood still considered a good product? I found posts here on Sawmill Creek going back a decade stating that BB plywood has gone to crap and not recommending it for drawer sides.

[Jamie Buxton]

Are you using side mount slides? If so, the drawer sides have be thick enough that the mounting screws don’t penetrate through. Real half-inch screws are in danger of going through 12mm Baltic birch. I’d step up to thicker plywood, or use undermount slides.

[Brian Elfert]

Yes, side mount slides. I bought 1/2" drawer slide screws from Rockler. I purchased the slides months ago so no sending them back to switch to undermount.

It sounds like I might need to make the boxes from 3/4" plywood then due to the screws.

[Mike Cutler]

Brian
I have drawer of approximately the same dimensions 32" wide, 24" deep, 12" tall. It spans the area under our Microwave.
The drawer itself is 4/4 maple sides and back and the front is 5/4" cherry. The drawer bottom is 1/2" baltic birch and it is supported by a pair of Gras, undermount, heavy duty, soft close, drawer slides.

[roger wiegand]

I'd use BB if you have a source for the real thing. A lock rabbet joint for the corners is quick and easy to cut and way, way stronger than pocket screws. If you use plywood you can glue the bottom into its rabbet which increases strength and rigidity tremendously.

If you choose to go with solid wood sides I'd haul out the dovetail jig and bang out quick and dirty dovetails. Even a badly fitting dovetail will be stronger than almost any other way of putting drawers together. With a jig simple, evenly spaced through dovetails take only marginally longer than screwing them together.

[Brian Elfert]

I'd use BB if you have a source for the real thing. A lock rabbet joint for the corners is quick and easy to cut and way, way stronger than pocket screws. If you use plywood you can glue the bottom into its rabbet which increases strength and rigidity tremendously.

If you choose to go with solid wood sides I'd haul out the dovetail jig and bang out quick and dirty dovetails. Even a badly fitting dovetail will be stronger than almost any other way of putting drawers together. With a jig simple, evenly spaced through dovetails take only marginally longer than screwing them together.

I don’t have a dovetail jig. I’ll look into doing lock rabbet joints.

[Jim Becker]

What do you consider good quality plywood? Is Baltic Birch plywood still considered a good product? I found posts here on Sawmill Creek going back a decade stating that BB plywood has gone to crap and not recommending it for drawer sides.

Your source can certainly make a difference. BB or similar, is desirable for this job because it looks better and typically has no voids. I generally use the same veneer plywood I use for the project I mentioned so it's not multi-ply like BB, but even shop grade is pretty good. Occasionally, there is a void, so I have to remake a component if it's not going to be hidden. I purchase sheet goods from a sheet goods supplier, not retail.

[Dave Sabo]

I would use a metal drawer box system like BLUM Tandembox or Legrabox with a 5/8" thick bottom.

Grass's Vionaro is also a good, quality choice.

[Rick Potter]

I picked up some 'Baltic Birch' somewhere that was made of fir plies. It is nowhere near as good as real Baltic Birch made of birch plies all the way through. I just had them load it in the truck without checking it.....my fault.

The real stuff weighs much more than the phony's, and the surface layer on the real stuff is MUCH thicker.

[Jamie Buxton]

Yes, side mount slides. I bought 1/2" drawer slide screws from Rockler. I purchased the slides months ago so no sending them back to switch to undermount.

It sounds like I might need to make the boxes from 3/4" plywood then due to the screws.

My hardwood dealer sells 18mm baltic birch plywood for a perfectly reasonable price -- $75 or so for a 4'x8' sheet. It is real baltic birch, so it is 100% birch -- strong, and with great screw-holding power.