Shop Cabinet Drawers

[tim walker]

I know there are a zillion ways for making drawers. The holy grail would be all 3/4" baltic birch for the boxes, but $$$ wise, sometimes not practical depending on the number needed. Regardless, I am considering 3/4" drawer sides and 1/2" bottoms. Is there an argument for 1/2" boxes all around? And for bottoms, a 1/2" dado or 1/2" nailed or 1/2" grooved with a slide bottom? Opinions welcomed.

[Brian Tymchak]

Kinda depends on what you want to store in them. I haven't used 3/4" ply yet for any drawer in my shop. It's all 1/2" ply. 8 of those are 24x24x16 deep to catch all the non-stationary power tools.

[derek labian]

I know there are a zillion ways for making drawers. The holy grail would be all 3/4" baltic birch for the boxes, but $$$ wise, sometimes not practical depending on the number needed. Regardless, I am considering 3/4" drawer sides and 1/2" bottoms. Is there an argument for 1/2" boxes all around? And for bottoms, a 1/2" dado or 1/2" nailed or 1/2" grooved with a slide bottom? Opinions welcomed.

I'm about to start building new drawers myself. I think the real question is what are the sizes of the drawer. The larger the span, you might want to consider beefier bases.

The last set of drawers I built were 18"x18". For short drawers (height) I used 1/4" birch and 1/2" sides. For taller drawers I used 3/4" birch sides, and 1/2" bottoms. I have had no problems. In some of those drawers I stored shaper tooling, so I expect the drawer weighed about 25lbs. If the drawer had been larger, it may not have been as stable.

The drawers I'm building are 2'x2.5'. I plan to build them all with 3/4" birch sides and 1/2" birch bottoms. The only reason I am not using 1/4" bottoms is because they were just a bit flimsier "feeling", but again, I had no issues.

All of my drawers were assembled with pocket screws and grooves/dados for the bottoms. I plan to do the same to cut down on time to build.

I hope that helps!

[tim walker]

Some will be up to 30" wide and 24:" deep. Max 15" tall

[Jim Becker]

Tim, using all .5" material will still be uber strong and the material is a lot less heavy to work with. BB or other reasonably good quality material with glued and screwed butt joints is NOT going to break without significant abuse and it's really easy to get a square box, too. I use #7 trim head screws for this application and Titebond.

And for the record the drawers I was making for the tack trunks I used to build for equestrian folks were nearly 36" wide and 28" deep on full extension slides. No problem.

[Andrew Seemann]

Some will be up to 30" wide and 24:" deep. Max 15" tall

Unless you are storing exceptionally heavy items 1/2" Baltic sides with 1/4" Baltic dadoed in are fine. If you anticipate putting more than a hundred or so pounds in, then you could go with a 1/2" bottom. I have a set of 24" x 30" with 1/2" sides and bottoms that I can stand in.

[Ron Selzer]

1/2" Baltic birch with 3/8" bottoms with dado cut in sides if plywood,
myself would be 3/4" popular, cherry, or white oak sides, thru dovetails and 3/8" BB bottoms
good luck

[Bill Cuthbertson]

Wife wanted all wide and deep drawers in the guest house lowers I made instead of doors. They were 36" wide by 20" deep and I used 5/8" baltic birch for the sides and 3/4 bottoms, overkill probably but they are rock solid. Dadoo glued and screwed.

One thin to remember is if you use the blum bottom mount slides, 5/8" sides is the thickest you can use.

[George Yetka]

I like the sides to be 3/4 so i can put a decent screw in the sliders. I did however make my 1st 1/2" boxes yesterday(glued and nailed) for drill press cabinet. My shop go to is 3/4 box with 1/2" bottom, Glued and screwed.

Check Craigslist for ply. There is a guy around me that sells birch 3/4 in ply 2.5'x5' for cheap. He gets them as packaging from whatever he does. You may find something similar.

[jack duren]

Shop drawers.... I just used contraction plywood and 1/2 bottoms glued on 20 years later, still working. Full extension drawer guides.

Don't get carried away on expensive drawers for a home shop.

[Tom Bain]

Wife wanted all wide and deep drawers in the guest house lowers I made instead of doors. They were 36" wide by 20" deep and I used 5/8" baltic birch for the sides and 3/4 bottoms, overkill probably but they are rock solid. Dadoo glued and screwed.

One thin to remember is if you use the blum bottom mount slides, 5/8" sides is the thickest you can use.

FYI … 5/8 is the max for the 563H Blum slides, but the 563F series will let you go to 3/4” sides. That said, 1/2” BB ply is plenty strong and what I use for my shop drawers.

[Dave Zellers]

Don't get carried away on expensive drawers for a home shop.

Preaching to the choir bro. Hows 'bout a heavy duty shipping box with a 1/4" ply bottom and a white porcelain knob? This is my measuring tools drawer. I did this years ago when I was in the middle of finally finishing our kitchen. When my wife came down to see the progress, she saw it and said- "Oh, so YOU get drawers before I do!"

It's still there and works just fine. Someday I will make 1/2" UL ply drawers. Will probably use the porcelain knob for nostalgic reasons.

IMG_1433.jpg

[Jim Becker]

THAT is a classic, Dave!!! Seems to have held up well and paid for itself quickly, too!

[Ray Newman]

Maybe one of these two links will work:

https://www.finewoodworking.com/2021...-shop-cabinets

https://www.finewoodworking.com/memb.../011293028.pdf

If not, look for Fine Woodworking, #293 Tools & Shopp 2022, when it is on the news/magazine stands.

[Jim Dwight]

I don't have any drawers on ball bearing slides in my shop but I did put a couple banks of them in a storage room off my garage. I admit I find them nicer.

I have dovetailed (half blind router cut), brad nailed and glued, and pocket hole screw + glue drawers in my shop. All work well. All slide on wooden glides. They need a little more effort to move than a drawer with a ball bearing glide but the fit-up to the cabinet is not as fussy and I think they still move easy enough. The only ones in 3/4 (construction grade plywood) are the pocket hole ones. Those have bottoms of whatever I had handy. Little ones have 5mm luan plywood bottoms. Bigger ones have 7/16 waferboard bottoms. Dovetailed ones typically have 5mm luan plywood in a dado. Solid wood dovetails best but I've used good grade plywood in dovetailed drawers before. I have not used glue + through screws but I'm sure it would work fine if you drill pilot holes to avoid splitting. Glue and staples would make strong joints too.