Grain Direction Question

[cabinetman]

How about some discussion about which way you run grain on cabinet backs, end panels, drawer fronts, and drawer bottoms. What's your choices, and why?
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[SARGE..g-47]

Cabinet backs and end panels.... Vertical

Drawer fronts.. Horizonal

Drawer bottoms.. vertical with exception of some very wide drawers and availability of stock on hand.

Why?... Three reasons.....

I was taught to do it that way... I have always done it that way... and after trying it the other way I found what I was taught and have always done was the most pleasing to my eye.

[Alex Franke]

What Sarge said.

You want to join end grain to end grain all the way around a box (drawer box, dresser, etc), and you want the grain expansion (for the backs/drawer bottoms/etc) along the shortest dimension. If you make a box joining the edges, they joints won't be very strong -- dovetails, for example, will just snap right off along the grain.

Plus I think it just looks better that way.

Edit: I think if I saw vertical grain on a drawer front or horizontal on the side of a cabinet, I'd think "that doesn't look right" -- probably because I've seen so much of it the other way. Even though you can get away with it and still have strong joints with materials like plywood, it doesn't look to me like how furniture was made back in the day, so it would probably look wrong.

[crokett]

Funny thing - I built a box once with the grain running the wrong direction because I thought it would look interesting. It didn't, and it fell apart. So what Sarge said. There are reasons cabinets are built like they are.

[pelligrini]

I agree on the backs, panels & drawer fronts.

Drawer bottoms- If it is not a ply bottom I will run the grain side to side, usually across the shortest span for longer drawers. If the drawer is small enough, wichever direction a single piece bottom will fit. Sometimes that doesn't work with movement though.

For ply, I like running the grain parallel to the longest edge. That just seems to look good to me.

[Alex Franke]

Drawer bottoms- If it is not a ply bottom I will run the grain side to side, usually across the shortest span for longer drawers. If the drawer is small enough, wichever direction a single piece bottom will fit. Sometimes that doesn't work with movement though.

I've also seen some large drawers where the grain runs the same direction as the drawer front (and expansion is front to back) glued at the front, and open to expand beyond the back of the drawer.

I put plywood in drawer bottoms diagonally once. It looked pretty trippy.

[SARGE..g-47]

"I put plywood in drawer bottoms diagonally once. It looked pretty trippy"..

I considered that once but after a cup of coffee and some careful thought... I decided it would look kinda well.... "trippy".. ha.. ha... ha..ha..ha..

Thanks... I got a chuckle out of that. I needed a chuckle as I just wasted an hour in an attempt to get 5 pictures taken of a computer desk-hutch I brought up-stairs last night. All of them on my camera shows up with bright glare regardless of flash on or off. I deleted about 25 pics as what shows in the computer is not what I built. The pictures were that bad.

Ya'll have a good day...

[gsmittle]

I usually don't think of paying attention to the grain direction until the project's beyond the point of no return…

g.

[drumpriest]

If the drawer bottom is solid wood (not likely, but you never know) I would put the grain from left to right, rather than front to back. By doing this I could fasten the bottom to the back with screws in elongated holes, and not have to sweat movement.

Having said that I always use ply for bottoms, and it doesn't much matter which way it goes. I do as stated above, I do left to right if the drawer is wider than deep, and front to back for narrow drawers.

Sides go top to bottom, backs are top to bottom as well.

[atgcpaul]

Desk drawers grain horizontal unless you're trying to go for a certain look as I
was with this desk. In this case I used veneer. I think the final product
would have looked really strange if the grain wasn't running vertical. All
veneers on this desk went vertical.

[cabinetman]

Desk drawers grain horizontal unless you're trying to go for a certain look as I
was with this desk. In this case I used veneer. I think the final product
would have looked really strange if the grain wasn't running vertical. All
veneers on this desk went vertical.

I agree, it definitely can be a visual appeal. Traditionally, drawer fronts ran horizontally. In using veneers, veneered plywood, or laminates, with woodgrains, they would be laid out as if it was solid wood. But there is an appeal to lining up the grain for continuity. It is less noticeable if the grain does line up.

The same holds true if there is no grain, as in a laminate or a burl veneer. If the pattern is large enough, laying out the faces will have its own appeal, as in this cabinet layout in laminate that just has a free form pattern.
.

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[pelligrini]

So far, it seems like the physical properties of the material make the rules. Natural wood gets used according to traditional methods and the manufactured materials get used according to appearance.

That's a pretty cool looking cabinet for a doctors exam room. The symmetrical layout of the base patterns works well.

[SARGE..g-47]

I agree on vertica on the cabinet atgcpaul posted. The actual main carcass showing is nothing more than a frame 3/4" thick so.. the drawers become the majority of the showing main carcass and vertical would be more visually correct. As far as burl.. I look at it as having no grain direction and simply a pattern formed by grain. A simple visual of the pattern would tell the user what is the best way to drirect it.

[Bruce Cohen]

If you only work in MDF, you have no problem.

Bruce

[RodKirby]

If you only work in MDF, you have no problem.

Bruce

Correct - BUT - when I apply (with a brush), even a clear finish, I go with the original comments