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I definitely don't need any shop cabinets but I had to order the book just to get some fresh ideas. Tom's efficiency is inspiring.
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drawer heresy
gjat,
Time to get in trouble with the perfectionists! Especially since my first woodworking club was the (Tampa Bay Woodcrafters. I lived in Sarasota then.)
I used to use all kinds of router bits to cut rabits and put the 1/4" bottoms into routed slots. The drawers never came out square and took way longer to make.
Now I use butt joints, and staple the bottoms right on the bottom. By cutting the bottom exactly the right size, the drawers come out perfectly square every time, and as an added benefit, each drawer is 1/2" deeper than it would have been otherwise. I use 1.5" 18 gage nails, and 1/4" crown staples. I have 20 year old drawers that are as good as the day I built them, and they will last far longer than my life and the life of whoever inherits them. The only reason to make shop cabinet drawers any differently is to soothe your ego. I enjoy building drawers almost instantly, and when you can make them so fast, you can get a lot done. Go check out how the drawers in your own kitchen are made. Chances are that they are far inferior to my method, using far cheaper materials, yet you never give them a thought.
When building furniture for the house, I may or may not use fancier techniques. I have a dovetail jig but have never used it.
OK, you can now post hate mail.Comment
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How do I get put on the list of potential inheritors?
I bought Tom's book and because I needed shop storage in a bad way, and I wanted easy and in a hurry. I was able to quickly build two stands one for my drill press and one for my belt/disk sander (4 drawers). I didn't follow exact dimensions (18" drawers) but was able to follow along and compensate easily. I plan on building one for my out feed table next. This will be significantly bigger (two columns of drawers) and now that I have a brad nailer it will go even quicker. Using his techniques and the inexpensive, but substantial, door glides from www.gliderite.com (no affiliation) I won't spend a fortune or insane amount of time putting it together.
Thanks Tom!
John
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. ~ EdisonComment
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I recently bought a old Wards Radial Arm Saw and stand for $40. Cleaned it up, bought a new blade, lubed and adjusted it. From Scraps I was able to put a new table on it and using Tom Clarks methods I built an insert with 4 drawers for the base. The insert took 1 day to build and finish. As I had everyting needed execpt for blade, so the total spent for the Saw was $89, $40 for Saw and $49 for the blade. The saw works perfect. I also added the mobile base as I had and extra one stashed. When the weather gets warmer I am going to the auto paint shop and get a quart of paint to match the color and repaint the base as it is scratched and has rusty areas. The saw is nice as it is all metal.
TomComment
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My kitchen cabinets have drawers of softwood stapled together with bottoms stapled to the bottom. The cheap drawer slides are screwed to the bottom hiding the edge of the plywood bottom. They work. I want to change them but my wife has not agreed yet.
In my shop, many of my drawers are softwood screwed and glued together with bottoms staped to the bottom. They are side hung on wooden runners. The bottoms like to sag and interfere with the drawer below. This doesn't happen in our kitchen because they are face frame cabinets and have sloppy gaps all around.
I do not like drawers nailed or stapled together but I agree they work. One of the advantages of putting the bottom in a dado is it is less likely to sag enough to interfere with a drawer below it, however.
For my cabinets in my shop that I built after getting the shop functional, I went ahead and dovetailed them - all 4 corners. Once you get the jig setup, it doesn't take long. Most are 1/2 baltic birch so the material is pretty inexpensive. I don't think they work a lot better, they are just more attractive.
JimComment
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Well as luck would have it, I just finished making 34 drawers for my shop. I used a combination of good vs bad technique. I used a drawer lock bit in combination with a pin nailer for the joinery of all sides, which goes a long way to making them square up automatically. I didn't dado for the bottoms though. I just glued and bradded directly on the bottom. Jim brings up a good point I should have thought about though about sagging interfering with the drawers below. I left minimal gaps between drawers since I didn't use face frames. Looks good right now, but I hope I don't have to replace the bottoms in the future. Maybe 1/2" ply bottoms would have been a better idea. Food for thought for those still planning.
ToddComment
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Excellent suggestion, I think as soon as I get Tom's book in the mail (hopefully any day now!) I will end up planning extra time for dado'ing the bottoms. I am sure I will stuff heavy stuff in most of them! Really can't wait to read through it a few times.
I think in straight lines, but dream in curves
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more on drawers
I never worry about sagging bottoms, at least in my wood drawers. When using metal slides, you have to leave the drawer sides about 3/4" shorter than the opening so you can take the drawers in and out. So there is nothing for the drawer above to drag on below it, unless you are talking about the bottom drawer. I tend to keep the bottom drawer at least 1/4" above the bottom face frame so that can't happen.
In my first drawer unit I built, I had a couple of drawers drag when they were heavily loaded, but it was only the false fronts touching. I fixed the problem with a belt sander in a second or two.
Of course if you have endless time on your hands and need something to fill it, it is always easy to turn a half-hour project into an 8 hour project. However, if you have many projects to build and not a lot of free time, then sometimes the simplest methods are the best - at least for shop cabinets. The best part about the hobby of woodworking is that we can all do what suits us best.
As always, happy to have visitors to my shop if you live in the area. It's a lot easier to show the construction techniques in person than to write about them.Comment
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Thinking some more on the topic of shelves sagging...Tom has a good point. Does dadoing in the shelf give it that much more rigidity? The wood guides are wider than the dado's are deep, so one would expect that you would have more weight bearing surface on the wood guides than whats being carried via the shallow dado. Anyone else care to comment on this? Thanks, Tom. Good food for thought - will end up saving time for other projects!
I think in straight lines, but dream in curvesComment
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Dados do not resist sagging. Nailed on bottoms might even be less prone to sagging since dados are not typically glued and nailed on bottoms usually are. Dados look better and help thin plywood bottoms not sag enough to be below the bottom of the drawer sides. With enough clearance around the drawer, sagging bottoms may not be a problem but for my drawers, it is sometimes an issue (wood slides and fairly tight spaces top and bottom).
There was an article in FWW where the guy was making mission style kitchen cabinets out of quarter sawn oak. He used mortise and tenons for face frames but nailed drawers together including nailing on the bottoms. I would rather use pocket screws for face frames and dovetail drawers together (with dado'd bottoms).
I agree that it's nice we all get to do it the way we want.
JimComment
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Really interesting Jim. Thanks for info. Always thought the purpose behind dado'ed bottoms was for added strength for the bottom! For shop purposes glued and nailed would be even stronger? That's great! This site is just a wealth of knowledge. Keep up the great work all!
I think in straight lines, but dream in curvesComment
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too many drawers
Chop, I agree with Jim that when the bottom is glued and stapled on to the bottom of the drawer, it has little chance of sagging as much as one in a dado. I use glue and 1/4 crown staples all around, and the drawer sides themselves would have to bend to allow the bottom to sag a visable amount.Really interesting Jim. Thanks for info. Always thought the purpose behind dado'ed bottoms was for added strength for the bottom! For shop purposes glued and nailed would be even stronger? That's great! This site is just a wealth of knowledge. Keep up the great work all!
As you can see in the photo below, I have way over 100 drawers in my shop to accomodate my many hobbies. I use bottom mount metal slides and they cover the edges of the bottoms from view. The reason for metal slides is that they carry heavy loads while still working nearly like the ball-bearing slides now popular in tool cabinets. I have one 15 drawer cabinet with wooden slides, but the drawers all carry light loads so they work very nicely too. Beware of large drawers with wood slides and heavy loads. You will not like them!Comment
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Tom,
What size is your shop?
GregComment
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