New guy with a couple questions:

New guy with a couple questions: · 09-01-2009, 02:07 AM

I have been here from time to time lurking around and am nowhere near the skill or investment as most of you guys, but appreciate all the inspiration and techniques I am able to pick up.

I am considering a project and thought I should ask the more knowledgeable before I make an expensive and time consuming mistake.

I will likely be beginning a machinist's toolbox type projext soon, but have a couple variations I have considered. The majority of the drawers will only be 1 to 1.5 inches deep, and I have considered making each from one solid piece of wood, with the inside "milled" out with a router. I would router the insides of 2-3 drawers at a time from one board and then cut down the sides into individual drawers. In this design do I sacrifice strength anywhere in the drawer. My concern is that there is no way to not have the grain working against me in either the front/back or the sides. I am looking for any suggestions or ideas of how to best do this. Would fitting at a 45 degree angle solve this issue, or would it introduce it at each surface? Is it even an issue? Thought there will be no serious force in opening the drawer or heavy load in them, I would want it to last for decades to come. Thanks for any and all input.

tdkask
tdkask@cox.net

tom hintz · 09-01-2009, 05:04 AM

I think you would be better off making small drawers from plywood. No matter how you orient solid wood, you are going to have a serious strength problem at some point because of the grain. Get the drawers thin enough to be functional and that strength issue gets bigger very fast.
Of course, I still think that Heather Locklear is a babe so what do I know!

tdkask · 09-01-2009, 05:29 AM

Thanks, tom hintz.

I found a good example on Woodsmith Magazine #183 to use as a guide to adjust to my needs. I appleciate the advice.

froglips · 09-01-2009, 07:49 AM

Solid wood drawers sure do sound cool.

I fear you'd find they would not remain stable inside the body of the chest.

If you wanted to go with a wild design, maybe make the body oversized to accommodate the sold wood movement. You could put a solid wood runner under the center of the drawer and attach the pull to the runner. That would overcome much of the strength concerns.

It would not be an efficient storage option, but might be something really interesting.

But, following up on some recent discussion, you could try using a man made board. LVL, Glulam, microlam etc. I bet they'd hold up and not move to the extent a routed out nature made board would. Some folks here have been turning it with some very interesting results.

Could be a really unique looking drawer too.

Good luck!

Jim

dkeller_nc · 09-01-2009, 07:15 PM

TDKask (btw - I think site requires that you put your real first name in your profile) -

Making shallow drawers the traditional way is actually fairly easy, but you will need to cut the dovetails by hand. That's OK - it's a skill most of us conclude at one point or another that we need to learn to get out of the "router world", and by the time you finish your chest, you will have it down pat.

One possibility if you want to consider man-made materials (I wouldn't, but that's just me) would be to make the drawer sides, front and back out of solid wood with dovetail construction, but use a plywood bottom that has a rabbet cut around its perimeter and is glued in. That gives you maximum depth in a shallow drawer, but still takes wood movement into account so that the drawers don't self-destruct with changes in humidity, or lock themselves into the case.