drawer manufacturer in bay area

[David Zaret]

i am doing a custom casework job heading for california - everything will be flat-packed for shipping, assembling onsite by the homeowner. i don't want to ship the drawer boxes. can somebody recommend a reputable shop local to palo alto to make basic maple drawer boxes to my specifications?

thanks!

[Jamie Buxton]

Western Dovetail. www.drawer.com. Good outfit. They can make darn near any drawer you can imagine. Dunno about now in covid times, but they used to make regular delivery trips around the Bay Area, so you could land drawer boxes in Palo Alto entirely by remote control.

[Dave Sabo]

Why not ship the drawers flat too ? If they can assemble carcasses, drawer boxes should be no trouble either.

[David Zaret]

i thought about that... this is a pretty high-end job, and i want solid maple, dovetailed boxes. figured it would be easier to just work with a local shop for the bulky items, rather than ship them. plus, it's less labor for him.

for the cases, i'm using the lamello P2 system so they are relatively easy to assemble. proper dovetail, solid wood boxes would take clamps and glue and such....

thanks for the feedback guys, sincerely appreciate it.

--- dz

Why not ship the drawers flat too ? If they can assemble carcasses, drawer boxes should be no trouble either.

[Richard Coers]

Before I retired, I got a couple of phone calls like that. "We built some work and shipped it to your city, would you go to that retail store and help us out with an issue the owner has?" I did it once and had to stand there and listen to the owner rant for a half hour. My final comment before going out the door, "I suppose you might have had a better experience if you would have bought local." Pointing of course to his shop local sign in the window. Irritated the hell out of me that the store owner went shopping by price, and then the low quality shop wanted to hire me to fix their issue. A no win for the local woodworker since both other parties are after cost savings and the local shop just gets some crumbs.

[Jim Becker]

Almost any of the many drawer manufacturers out there will create to your specification and ship directly to your desired location. Since they send a lot of stuff all over, they probably have the shipping cost thing pretty well setup, too, because of their volume.

[Dave Sabo]

i thought about that... this is a pretty high-end job, and i want solid maple, dovetailed boxes. figured it would be easier to just work with a local shop for the bulky items, rather than ship them. plus, it's less labor for him.

This is rather incongruous.

You want solid maple DT, what does the customer want ? Everyone does high end. And for drawers , that could mean lots of different stuff. European metal sides in stainless steel , walnut, glass, or when you really get to the high end - servo driven drawers. How are un-built drawers any bulkier than a cabinet carcasses ? Just flat pack them on the same pallets with the rest of the parts.

Less labor He's already assembling carcasses. And installing hinges and mounts. And drawer runners. A few dozen drawer bodies really isn't adding much time. He's going to have to install the catches on the bottom of the drawers you have made by a local drawer co. anyway. Presumably the savings for his providing labor are worth discount you're extending ? I can't imagine it's any less on the drawer assembly.

I question the strength of P2 connectors in shear for carcasses, but that's just me. Especially Tenso. And your fella is going to need to glue the joint with that too. Which is more labor.

Not exactly SanFran, but DBS is a big player south of L.A. , if Western isn't your cup of tea.