Is this poor dresser design?

[Jason Ryan]

Recently my wife and I took a look around a local furniture store (proclaimed to be amish). We came across a bedroom suite that looked very nice and appeared to be a more suitable for our home than a design that I was nearly ready to start building previous design, and the responses were great.

While we were there, I decided to pull out a couple drawers and poke my head around . I was shocked to find that behind the elegant face frame, there was no internal support beyond a couple of diagonal plywood braces in the back two corners (see images below). The only items in the dresser that attached the front to the back were the top (of course) and the 12 blum tandem undermount slides that were attached to individual blocks of wood which were glued to the back of the dresser.

We would like to build a bedroom set with the same look, but I'm not sure what would be the best way to add structural integrity to the design. I intend to use the same blum tandems on the design. Should I add web frames between each set of drawers or is this over kill, and could I get by with one or two? Should I do more? I intend to construct the face frame using loose tenons.

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!


mission dresser.JPG mission dresser - inside.jpg

[Jamie Buxton]

What's the top -- plywood, or solid lumber? If it is plywood, you can fasten it firmly to the rest of the carcass, adding a lot of rigidity. If it is solid, I'd be inclined to include a plywood sub-top that ties everything together. I'd also be inclined to include a bottom. It can be just 1/4" ply, again fastened around all four sides. With the sub-top, bottom, back, two sides, and a face-frame on the front, you'll have almost a complete six-sided box, and that's unlikely to rack or distort.

[Jason Ryan]

I'm not sure, it appeared to be solid or at least well veneered :-). I may plan another visit

Excellent advice on adding structure to the top and bottom!

[Travis Porter]

I would add a divider down the middle for additional support of the face frame and that way you can side mount your slides.

JMTCW

[Jason Ryan]

I like the idea of adding a divider but have a couple questions. since the top couple rows have three drawers, would I cap off the divider just below them? Attaching the inside drawer slide wouldn't be a problem but how would I attach the outside slide to the paneled side? Thanks!

[Travis Porter]

Sure, stop it below the three drawer sets works. Since you are doing a panel on the sides, say a solid cross member thick enough to bring it out to where you need it that attaches to the stiles and not to the panels.

[Jason Ryan]

Great advice, I'm drawing it up now. As far as attaching it to the face frame, would I need to rabbit it, or would a glue joint suffice?

[Lee Schierer]

When I make dressers, I like to make internal frames from poplar that are 2" wide, 3/4 thick and lap joints at the corners. I make a frame for the bottom, top and between each set of drawers. If drawers are two or three across, I put the corresponding number of cross pieces in the center area of the frames other wise it gets just the one on each side. Wide dressers would get a cross piece in the center of each frame. I spend time making sure these parts are straight and cut square. Then I insure they stay square on glue up. This gives me a perfectly square foundation for the carcass. The face frame gets assembled with lap joints as well and I rabbet the outside vertical edges to join the side panels. The frames get screwed and glued to the inside of the face frame, but screwed into the sides. These frames also help support the back of the dresser. I can mount poplar runners to the cross pieces on the internal frames to support the drawer hardware.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I agree with Lee's method.

[Jason Ryan]

Thanks Lee! I appologize for my novice questions, but the dresser design that I'm working on has 2" corner posts which extend beyond the face frame and side panels (see 1st picture). How would I accomodate this with the poplar web frames?

You also mentioned that you rabbit the outside vertical edge to join the side panel. Do you mean that you rabbit the outside vertical peice of the face frame? In my case, should I rabbit both sides of the corner post (see 2nd picture)?

Thanks!

corner post.JPG corner post - rabbited.JPG

[Lee Schierer]

Pretty simple, notch the internal frame to go around the inset corner.

[Jason Ryan]

Plans revised, does this look about right for the webframes?

webframe.jpg inside webframe.JPG

Edit - I see that you recommned screws and glue when attaching the webframe to the face frame.

[Jason Ryan]

Initially I had been planning on using loose tenon joinery to join the horizon and vertical members of the face frame. The otherday it hit me that the horizontal rails are more than 60" long... I'm gonna need a ladder and platform to use a mortising jig .

That being said, what joinery methods would be acceptable? At the moment, I'm too intimidated to use actual moritise and tenons (loose tenon seemed to be more forgiving). I don't think that dovetail joinery would be acceptable as the two grains run parallel to each other. You continued advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Glen J. Peterson]

The design you're proposing looks very similar to that used in a pair of dressers I built for my daughter a few years ago. I got the design from a book called "Chests of Drawers" by Taunton Press. I used the contemporary design. Like your sketch-up design above they have 2" square posts/legs and panels between them. It might be worth a look.
Cheers,
Glen

[Jeff Monson]

The webframe you have added to the design will eliminate the need for mechanical slides. Your webframe is the traditional way of making a chest of drawers. I have constructed them both ways, a chest with mechanical slides (blum unermounts) that I built
weighs a TON, that is the major drawback when using them. Construction is also very different, if you plan mechanical slides your first drawing is alot closer to what you will need. I see where it would be difficult to add a divider panel on the upper drawers, but not impossible. That design with divider panels, a bottom and some upper stretchers to attach the top would be fine also. Nowdays I use domino's for joinery on this type of project, they are strong, and quick to setup. I'd use a sliding dovetail on the rail dividers to provide a stong, good looking joint.