Thread: Drawer construction

Originally Posted by Firewalker

I am going to build my drawers for the night stands today and wonder how to make the runners........

Scott as a night stand drawer would not get all that much use unless that's where you keep your Viagra it wouldn't really matter what you make your runners from. When I just made a pair I just used radiata pine for my runners.

I am thinking about just making some maple sliders for them to run on and wonder if I need anything against the top of the drawer to stabilize them and prevent them from tipping. Is this needed or just something to support the bottom?

Depending how high you make your drawer sides in comparison to the opening and if it was me I would keep the clearance to a minimum say about 3mm max.

Also, I have some maple stock that is 1"(24mm) thick that will have to be planed down for the drawer sides/back. I think the standard thickness is 1/2"(12mm). I was thinking about just planing to 3/4(19mm) instead to save my knives for something more important unless there is a known problem with having the drawer material this thick.

A lot of furniture manufactures here in Australia make there drawer side and backs out of 19mm stock so I consider it to bee quite acceptable to do this.

I will be cutting dovetails for the first time today to this may also be an issue if it won't fit in the jig.

I thinke you will find most dovetail jigs will take 19mm stock. The other alternative is to go to the darkside and cut them by hand.

Any help is appreciated........will be starting construction within the hour.

Hope this is of some help.

Hope everyone is having a great day.

That's all I ever have is great days and to me after bypass surgery every day is a bonus.

Scott

Yes I am trying to make my post easier to follow by doing a conversion to metric when using measurements. If each of you would do the same that will help a lot.

Don't worry to much about conversion, all the old pharts on this forum where raised on imperial measurements. It's just that it is easier to work with mm as every thing is divisable by 10.

BTW the correct conversion for MM to INCHES is if you convert your inches to decimal e.g. .125" for every 1/8" and multiply it by 25.4 it will give you the most accurate conversion to metric.

(waiting to see the rate of compliance......but not holding breath)
hehe

You also have a great day.

By the way how are you coping with wind over there.

Barry.......thanks a million for the reply. That maple gave my planer a run for the money........had to take off 1/64th at a time........took 45minutes to get down to 5/8ths and called it good. The dovetails went pretty good except for the first one ....... It slipped........I cussed.........then I really cussed after thinking I was back to the planer as the timber was gonna be very close and not much room for error. the joint was offset by 1/8th but don't you worry....the jointer and I made a deal........all straight......rebates cut.....bottoms cut.......I am about to sand and glue em up. I have seen better dovetails but not too bad for a rookie.......the last ones lined up perfectly.......

I came back inside to cool off and check the board for replies. I am glad you are doing well after your bypass.......and yes, any day the sun comes up is a good one. We are all on borrowed time.

The wind was pretty intense yesterday which was not too bad to work in. I bought a trailer for cheap and did some welding on it. No fires/explosions so that was a good day. I would say we got around 50mph gusts with around 30 mph sustained.

I moved here from West Texas where it really blows so that was nothing to write home about.

Thanks again.......your reply means a lot to me.

Scott