You may have seen the threads on the cabinet project I am working on. This thread is for the drawers. All 42 of them.
Normally, I like to dovetail all my drawers. Historically, I have used my Leigh jig, but when you have a lot of drawers to do, it is SLOW as you have to do each part individually. So, me being the tool junkie I am, I bought a Porter Cable 4212 jig a year or so ago as you can do a half blind dovetail on a side and front simultaneously.
For this project, I am not doing that. This is a freebie, and he wants to get done, so I am using a drawer lock joint.
A drawer lock really is pretty easy once you get your cutter set up to the right height and your fence placed correctly. For 1/2 inch sides I found approximately 3/8" height to be correct and tuned it for a good fit from there. If you are using plywood as I did, a zero clearance fence is a MUST otherwise you will have horrendous tear out. Believe me, I know.
Picture is a bit blurry, but I think it is visible showing the joint.
Instead of just gluing and clamping, I glue and staple using a narrow crown stapler with 7/8" staples. The suggestions on reducing air pressue have made a world of difference in this category for me. :confused_:embaresse Amazing.
Then we have slides. I am using two types. Blum 3/4 extension nylon roller slides. For these slides, the drawer has to be 1" less in width to allow for the size of the slide. I personally prefer the under mount blu-motion slides with soft self close, but cost is a factor here. These slides run less than $5 a pair. blu-motion runs over $30.
The other style of slide I am using is full extension ball bearing slides rated for 100 pounds. I used these on the pull out trays in the kitchen (white) and the drawers in the office (silver/chrome). These are very smooth, but take a bit to get used to installing. Not bad though. You can also see that this particular set of drawers isn't very deep. That is because they are actually pull out trays. In the cabinets in the kitchen, every lower cabinet has 2 pull out trays to make it easier to get to stuff. It is a nice touch on kitchen cabinets, but does add a bit more work. To be exact, it adds 8 tray units, 4 of which are pretty darn large.
Lets see, let me give some perspectives here.
There are 42 drawer/tray units. So that makes for 42 drawer bottoms, and 168 drawer sides/fronts/backs (not including the false fronts) so that is 210 parts for 42 drawers/trays.
For these 168 parts each requires a 1/4" dado for the drawer bottom.
The tray unit sides/fronts/backs require a 1/8" round over on all 4 edges and the remaining 104 parts require a 1/8" round over on the top two edges so that is 464 round overs.
Each side/front/back needs a drawer lock on 2 edges so that is 336 passes on the router table for drawer lock joints.
Then you have to sand all the parts. I will say, the wide belt sander makes this sweet. In 45 minutes I sand all the parts front and back to 120 grit.
Then you have organizing all the parts and assembly. Of course I cut a couple of parts wrong and had to redo some, but a major lesson here is ALWAYS MAKE SOME EXTRA PARTS! I heard a little flak about why did you make so much extra, well, no one is perfect and we all screw up.
Next comes finishing. I spray 3 coats of water based lacquer lightly sanding after the first coat to knock of the raised grain.
After all that, you still have to install all the slides. 2 parts are installed per drawer.
Finally, you have drawers. Here are 25 of them ready to go. The other 17 got finished early yesterday evening and taken to the house. Do note the wide belt sander :gar-Bi and the 16 inch jointer :gar-Bi in the background.
Do not note the bent/broken air pipe by the jointer. :BangHead: Haven't had a chance to fix that.
Normally, I like to dovetail all my drawers. Historically, I have used my Leigh jig, but when you have a lot of drawers to do, it is SLOW as you have to do each part individually. So, me being the tool junkie I am, I bought a Porter Cable 4212 jig a year or so ago as you can do a half blind dovetail on a side and front simultaneously.
For this project, I am not doing that. This is a freebie, and he wants to get done, so I am using a drawer lock joint.
A drawer lock really is pretty easy once you get your cutter set up to the right height and your fence placed correctly. For 1/2 inch sides I found approximately 3/8" height to be correct and tuned it for a good fit from there. If you are using plywood as I did, a zero clearance fence is a MUST otherwise you will have horrendous tear out. Believe me, I know.
Picture is a bit blurry, but I think it is visible showing the joint.
Instead of just gluing and clamping, I glue and staple using a narrow crown stapler with 7/8" staples. The suggestions on reducing air pressue have made a world of difference in this category for me. :confused_:embaresse Amazing.
Then we have slides. I am using two types. Blum 3/4 extension nylon roller slides. For these slides, the drawer has to be 1" less in width to allow for the size of the slide. I personally prefer the under mount blu-motion slides with soft self close, but cost is a factor here. These slides run less than $5 a pair. blu-motion runs over $30.
The other style of slide I am using is full extension ball bearing slides rated for 100 pounds. I used these on the pull out trays in the kitchen (white) and the drawers in the office (silver/chrome). These are very smooth, but take a bit to get used to installing. Not bad though. You can also see that this particular set of drawers isn't very deep. That is because they are actually pull out trays. In the cabinets in the kitchen, every lower cabinet has 2 pull out trays to make it easier to get to stuff. It is a nice touch on kitchen cabinets, but does add a bit more work. To be exact, it adds 8 tray units, 4 of which are pretty darn large.
Lets see, let me give some perspectives here.
There are 42 drawer/tray units. So that makes for 42 drawer bottoms, and 168 drawer sides/fronts/backs (not including the false fronts) so that is 210 parts for 42 drawers/trays.
For these 168 parts each requires a 1/4" dado for the drawer bottom.
The tray unit sides/fronts/backs require a 1/8" round over on all 4 edges and the remaining 104 parts require a 1/8" round over on the top two edges so that is 464 round overs.
Each side/front/back needs a drawer lock on 2 edges so that is 336 passes on the router table for drawer lock joints.
Then you have to sand all the parts. I will say, the wide belt sander makes this sweet. In 45 minutes I sand all the parts front and back to 120 grit.
Then you have organizing all the parts and assembly. Of course I cut a couple of parts wrong and had to redo some, but a major lesson here is ALWAYS MAKE SOME EXTRA PARTS! I heard a little flak about why did you make so much extra, well, no one is perfect and we all screw up.
Next comes finishing. I spray 3 coats of water based lacquer lightly sanding after the first coat to knock of the raised grain.
After all that, you still have to install all the slides. 2 parts are installed per drawer.
Finally, you have drawers. Here are 25 of them ready to go. The other 17 got finished early yesterday evening and taken to the house. Do note the wide belt sander :gar-Bi and the 16 inch jointer :gar-Bi in the background.
Do not note the bent/broken air pipe by the jointer. :BangHead: Haven't had a chance to fix that.
