Thread: Best way to fit hardwood runners in chest of drawers

My plan is to attach the runners to the side of the box with double sided tape until I get the spacing correct then fix to the walls. The runner will in the same direction as the grain of the wall so there are no expansion issues as there would be if it were across the grain.

The drawer will probably be box jointed all round and have a false front - haven’t firmed on that yet but it may make it easier to veneer.

This will be a complex box for a number of reasons so I doubt it will see the light of day for some months!

Brian

Originally Posted by botesmj1

No veneered particle board in those boxes Ian [emoji53]....

Woops, sorry about that! I'll look at a full-size pic before shooting my mouth off, next time......

You obviously get away with glueing your runners across the grain, I guess the humidity doesn't go through such extreme cycles where you are as it does in many places this side of the ditch. Anywhere you get big swings, I'd recommend using fixing methods like screws or sliding dovetails for those sorts of joints.....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Woops, sorry about that! I'll look at a full-size pic before shooting my mouth off, next time......

You obviously get away with glueing your runners across the grain, I guess the humidity doesn't go through such extreme cycles where you are as it does in many places this side of the ditch. Anywhere you get big swings, I'd recommend using fixing methods like screws or sliding dovetails for those sorts of joints.....

Cheers,

Good advice. It's probably because the carcass on those is so thin, about 9mm, that it didn't show up as an issue yet.

The drawer runner is effectively a tongue and groove with the tongue fitting into a groove in the box wall.

Hi Brian, looking at your design, won't there be a slot visible on the upright case walls for each drawer? Unless you are having a false front for the drawer of course, one that goes to the outside edge of the vertical wall

Hi Joe,

Good point! I should have said that it will have separate inner walls that stop short of the front by the thickness of the false front. These walls will allow me to make the false front sit inside the ‘real’ box sides and will act as a stop for the box front. On the other hand I might rethink the whole thing!

Brian

hi Brian, I like the way that it was done in the FWW article above. The runners were made to fit flush in the dado in the drawer sides, and were then screwed on to the side of the carcase. I liked that the screw hole was elongated to allow sideways expansion of the carcase timber, being fixed at a central point.
I am interested so see what you eventually come up with, Brian

I was wondering just how much of a vertical gap to leave between the adjacent drawers to allow for expansion of the drawer front. The fronts will be only 50mm high and 15mm thick, so I don't imagine it will expand much with the humidity and moisture in the air during our wet season. I will probably allow 0.5mm between them, which is the thickness of some of the tradies business cards you see on display in the various hardware stores. They come in handy as spacers. I only keep the 0.5mm ones

Hi Joe,

I agree - a 50mm drawer front is not going to expand much at all. 0.5mm business cards - I like that idea!

The FWW method makes lots of sense if you are using solid timber for the build and the grain is running vertically.

My box will be perhaps 135mm tall, made of high quality Baltic Birch ply in a layered approach. Solid timber at the bottom for 10-12mm then ply then solid timber at the lid cut-off point and probably for the whole of the lid as it will not be more than 30-35mm. I’ve used this ‘sandwich’ technique before. The box will be fully veneered, covering both the ply and the solid timber.

I sometimes help a friend who makes drawers endlessly. He’s a former engineer and used to very precise measurements, but he never uses a ruler. He cuts a spacer, sets it against the inside of the box, puts the runner on the top edge, screws in the runner, puts the spacer on top of the runner and so on. Procided your carcass is square and your spacer piece has parallel edges you should get exact spacing and exactly horizontal runners both sides of the carcass. I’ve tried it and it works for me.

Looking forward to seeing your project, Joe!

Brian

Bloody Engineers ! ( I were one, 15 yrs ago) I was going to do exactly the same using a spacer, Brian
Out of interest, what type of joint does this guy use for each drawer front, Brian?
Also, does he assemble the carcase first and then fit the runners, or does he fit the runners to the sides first and then assemble?

Here is a neat and very traditional joint for the drawer fronts. Easily done on the tablesaw. Cheers Jacques

Thanks Jacques, looks good, plenty of surface area to glue too. How wide did you make the slots - 6mm?

Originally Posted by Dengue

Of course the ultimate would be half blind dovetail joints for the drawers, but that is a bit beyond my skill level

Dengue, as someone who is very new to being able to do dovetails, let me encourage you to have a go. It was my view that you had to be pretty advanced before trying them (which I am not).

About three months ago Stratman who had only recently started woodworking showed a project in which he had done through and half blind dovetails. That shattered my pre-conceived ideas about who should be capable of dovetailing. I decided I should learn too, and after a dozen or so practice joints, I could dovetail. My success rate isn’t 100 %, but by George, I can dovetail.

Like most things in woodworking, it’s a skill which most can achieve through deliberate learning and practice. I followed Paul Sellers’ approach as his instruction was very clear for me, but there are plenty of others too like Rob Cosman and David Barron on YouTube to follow.

If half blind dovetails are what you want to do, give it a whirl!

Lance

Originally Posted by Dengue

Thanks Jacques, looks good, plenty of surface area to glue too. How wide did you make the slots - 6mm?

That's all 3mm cuts with a standard blade.

Originally Posted by botesmj1

Here is a neat and very traditional joint for the drawer fronts. Easily done on the tablesaw.

Hmmm, Jacques, I guess that corner T&G joint has been around long enough to call a 'tradition'!

I think they are ok on small drawers where they are unlikely to suffer any wracking stress, but they wouldn't be my choice on larger stuff. The thin cross-grain inner tongue on the sides has virtually no mechanical strength, and although there is certainly lots of 'glueing area', it is entirely cross-rain to side-grain, which usually results in a much weaker bond than side to side joints.

When I hear 'tradition' I think dovetails, they've been around a few centuries longer than that 'box joint', and although they too can have their problems, they mostly stand the test of time if done well. As Lance indicated, beginners tend to think of dovetailing as a high skill, & I'll admit I found them a bit of a challenge when I first got into serious w'working, mostly because of impatience & poor technique. But to any newbies out there who may be thinking about them, I say just give 'em a go. If you follow a logical sequence & work carefully, you'll be banging water-tight D/Ts together in no time, & wondering what the fuss was all about....

Of course I'm blabbing on as a hand-tool tragic, and I accept plenty of folk feel they have neither the time nor the inclination to get involved in that arcane world. I also accept there are many ways to achieve any end, and whatever works for you, works...

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Dengue

Out of interest, what type of joint does this guy use for each drawer front, Brian?
Also, does he assemble the carcase first and then fit the runners, or does he fit the runners to the sides first and then assemble?

He uses a drawer lock mitre bit in the router table. Good result but botesmj1’s method is just as good without a special router bit.
My friend builds the carcass first then fits the runners. A bit more fiddly but he can test fit each drawer as he goes along. You know those engineers, Joe. Precision in everything

Brian