Drawers for my waterbed base. I needed five on each side. I installed the drawer slides during the assembly process for the bed because it would be very difficult to do it after the fact. So the slides were ready.
Not a very exciting post, this, so unless you're actually thinking about building some drawers and are not too clear about the process, I suggest clicking through the photos and moving on to something more interesting. (Next post — kitchen countertop — much better.)
I call this a "bonus" project because the work was done ad hoc in bits a pieces while working on other more "substantial" projects. And not in an organized fashion. For example, I cut out pieces from plywood remnants that were lying around that happened to be a size that matched what I was making. So if the drawer fronts were 7" wide and there was a piece of 3/4" plywood sitting there that was 7.5 inches wide, I would rip it to the proper width, and then cut as many drawer fronts as I could make from that one piece.
For the sides, I ended up with enough for all ten drawers. For another part, enough for three, and others, enough for four, or five. Rather haphazard.
And the whole assembly process was an experiment, a development process — a test.
And so it came to pass that I ended up with three drawers. Three imperfect drawers, but nobody will know except me.
So I started with the sides. 22" deep sides (front to back). Twenty identical pieces, and they sat in a pile for awhile:
After awhile I measured the width of the openings for all ten drawers (five on each side of the bed). They were not all precisely the same, which is important, because for the drawer slides to work properly (or at all), the drawer width had to be exact. The width of the drawer had to match the distance between the right and left slides. A little play allowed. No wider at all, but perhaps as much as a sixteenth less, so little slop. Better to be exact. Drawers slides are a half-inch thick, so the drawer width should be exactly one inch less that the opening.
I measured the openings, and they were very close to nominal (and each other), but slightly different. So the fronts and backs for the drawer carcass had to be individually measured and cut. (If you're mass producing drawers, the furniture and drawers are likely machine cut (CNC), and can be made all the same.)
I'm making the drawers for the bed base from 1/2" cabinet-grade plywood, because it's straight and doesn't tend to warp or cup. It's also affordable compared to solid half-inch thick maple or similar wood, especially for wider widths. These drawers are 7" high.
I'm also not using dovetail joints for these drawers. Cutting dovetail joints (with a router) in plywood would not likely be as clean as with solid wood, and for these drawers (holding clothes), the glued tongue and groove/dado joints I use for cabinet building will be plenty strong. I cover the edges of the plywood with maple trim where they could be seen. Not on the bottom, though — which shows how the drawers are assembled:
I initially intended to make the bottoms out of quarter-inch plywood, but saw a masonite-type material at Home Depot that was covered on one side by a white acrylic membrane. It makes for a nice drawer interior finish, and it's strong enough for clothing. I cut a quarter-inch slot in the sides, front, and back of the drawer to hold the bottom and glued it in place when I assembled the drawer. You can see the end of the groove in the photo above.
You can also see the part of the drawer slide that is screwed to the drawer. Three screws. The slide is positioned using a jig — just a piece of wood ripped to a width that positions the bottom of the drawer just above the bottom of the drawer opening. Clamp it to the drawer and hold the metal slide against it while screwing it in. I actually used a awl to mark the holes, then drilled, then screwed.
The drawer box is glued with clamps, making sure it's square. The bottom helps it keep it square, assuming minimal slop, but it pays to check anyway. Then I glued maple trim to cover the unsightly plywood edges (also to stiffen the sides).
I like inset drawers (as opposed to drawer where the front overlaps the cabinet edges). Inset drawer fronts have to be precise, with an even gap around their edges. This is easier to do if a separate "front" is made and fastened to the drawer after it is installed. Wait for it.
For the purposes of my bed drawers, I'm making pretty ordinary fronts. Basically, a piece of painted plywood, with maple edges — to wit:
These are put together with biscuits to keep the edges even with the 3/4" plywood, then glued together.
I like wire pulls, and use mostly the 3" wide variety.
A jig is really required to drill the holes in the front of the drawer to fasten the pulls. The simple jig ensures that the two holes are exactly 3" apart, and will place the pull in the center of the drawer (right-left), and in this case, the same distance down from the top edge of the front. If you're doing a lot of drawers, you NEED a jig.
I used 3/4' plywood for the jig, thick enough to ensure the drill bit will be guided perpendicular to the drawer front (I drilled the guide holes in the jig using a drill press). The centerline of the jig is marked and matched to the center of the drawer (marked in pencil). You can also just glue on an end-stop instead of measuring the center, but I wanted to use this jig on drawers of different widths. Clamp the jig to the drawer front.
And drill the two holes in the drawer front using the guide holes in the jig.
Remembering that my drawer openings were not precisely the same width, and that the pieces of plywood for the fronts were measured and cut individually for each drawer opening, it's now time to fasten each drawer front to its matching drawer. First, position the drawer front in the opening, holding it against the drawer (already installed on its slides). Then for these inset drawers, shim the front so there is an equal gap all around the edges. I used pieces of cereal box cardboard for shims.
The photo above also shows one of the drawer carcasses (on the right) installed on its slides. You can see the maple edging—thin on the top of the front and the back, and a thicker wrap-over piece for the top of the sides — looks nice and makes the half-inch sides a lot stiffer.
I had initially intended to use hot glue to temporarily fasten the front to its drawer until screws could be put in, but tried a quicker method that worked for me. Once shimmed, I held the front against the drawer and then drilled into the drawer through the holes in the drawer front (holes sized for the screws for the pulls). I then removed the front and opened the drawer, and inserted the screws for the pull through the holes on the inside of the drawer, and screwed them into the pull, held on the outside of the drawer front. Then I rechecked to make sure the gaps were good. Then I drilled and fastened four screws from the inside of the drawer into the drawer front. From the inside:
One drawer partly open (these have 22" full-extension drawer slides):
And the three test drawers. Done.
Now just another seven side drawers to go, and a long one for the foot of the bed. And drawers for the kitchen, laundry room, pottery studio, workshop, two bathrooms, . . . Another 150 drawers, more or less. Some of them basic, and many of them fancy with dovetail joints, solid sides, and very nice fronts (spalted maple, mahogany, birdseye maple, cherry).
Planning to build drawers this winter. Lots.
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