Large drawers

putttn · Post by **putttn** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:26 am

New to all this and am making a tool chest/cabinet with two 12" deep drawers and three 10" deep drawers. My dilema is that the drawers may end up 28" wide and I wondered if this was too big for 1/2 plywood drawer construction. Any suggestions on how to accomplish this will be greatly appreciated. The cabinet will be 62"x32x22. I'm not sure if it's right but I'll be using 1.5" face trim on the sides and allowing .5" opening space for the slides on the side of the drawers. So the way I'm figuring the width is 1.5+1.5+.5+.5=4.0. 32 width overall minus the 4.0 would mean a 28" drawer. Hope I have this figured correctly. Never have I built anything like this so need help.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 2:44 am

putttn wrote:New to all this and am making a tool chest/cabinet with two 12" deep drawers and three 10" deep drawers. My dilema is that the drawers may end up 28" wide and I wondered if this was too big for 1/2 plywood drawer construction.
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Any suggestions on how to accomplish this will be greatly appreciated. The cabinet will be 62"x32x22. I'm not sure if it's right but I'll be using 1.5" face trim on the sides and allowing .5" opening space for the slides on the side of the drawers. So the way I'm figuring the width is 1.5+1.5+.5+.5=4.0. 32 width overall minus the 4.0 would mean a 28" drawer. Hope I have this figured correctly. Never have I built anything like this so need help.

The quick answer to your first question is NO! 1/2" plywood drawer sides, back, front and bottom. Should be sufficient. This is assuming you will have a locking joint at all 4 corners.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:24 am

putttn wrote:New to all this and am making a tool chest/cabinet with two 12" deep drawers and three 10" deep drawers. My dilemma is that the drawers may end up 28" wide and I wondered if this was too big for 1/2 plywood drawer construction.
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Any suggestions on how to accomplish this will be greatly appreciated. The cabinet will be 62"x32x22. I'm not sure if it's right but I'll be using 1.5" face trim on the sides and allowing .5" opening space for the slides on the side of the drawers. So the way I'm figuring the width is 1.5+1.5+.5+.5=4.0. 32 width overall minus the 4.0 would mean a 28" drawer. Hope I have this figured correctly. Never have I built anything like this so need help.

In answer to your first question, 1/2" plywood should be sufficient. This is assuming you will be making interlocking joints at all 4 corners and have a 1/4" deep groove to hold the drawer bottom. These grooves should be about 1/4" up from the bottom edge of the sides, back and front.

Sound like these drawers would be too large to use 1/4" plywood for the bottoms. If your depth figures mean 10" and 12" high. They will probably be holding quite a bit of weight. If this is true, 3/8" plywood would make a better bottom. I would think of these drawers as being 31x21x10.

Concerning your second paragraph - I don't understand the 1.5" face trim. The face trim should be the same width as the sides (and the spacers/top). If you use 3/4" stock for the carcase shouldn't the trim also be 3/4" wide. At any rate I can't figure how face trim that is wider than the case would allow a drawer to open.

It sounds like you are going to use slides like strong rolling ones by Blum, so the 1/2" allowance for the slides on each side sounds good. If you got these from Rockler, I would recommend you also buy their guide for drilling holes.

By interlocking joints I mean something simple like this drawing. In the drawing, the horizontal piece represents the front and back. This way as you assemble - you would slide the bottom into place from one of the sides, while the other three sides are together. Then attach the last side.
[ATTACH]3991[/ATTACH]

horologist · Post by **horologist** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 8:53 am

What do you plan to keep in the drawers?
It is a good idea to size the drawers for the tools, a 12" deep drawer filled with small items will likely be very heavy and you will invariably have to dig down to the bottom every time you try to find something. I've been there and it's not fun.
In general for most tools a drawer sized to the contents will not present a weight problem.

Troy

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:12 am

I'm confused. Is this cabinet 62x32x22 or is it 32x62x22.

I started to sketch it and then couldn't make the drawer descriptions fit. If I rotate 90* maybe.

putttn · Post by **putttn** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:22 am

62" height, 32" width, 22" deep. Carcass of the cabinet is 3/4 plywood and the "face" will be 1 1/2" running along the sides and 2.5" top and bottom. That's where I came up with the 3" total for the facing/trim on the sides that needs to be deducted from the opening for the drawers to slide into. That in addition to the 1/2" on each side would mean the drawers could be no wider than 28". Hope this helps, I'm just learning this stuff the hard way I'm sure and appreciate your guys help.

dicksterp · Post by **dicksterp** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 11:10 am

I am in the process of building Norm's Workshop Hutch. The large drawers are 28"w x 30"d x 11.5"tall. The plans call for 1/2" ply for all parts including the bottom. The bottom dado is 1/4" deep and located 3/8" up from bottom.

If you are using slides (Blum) you don't want a face frame on the carcass as the slides will not work. You want 1/2" clearance between the carcass side and the draw side (this on each side of drawer). This 1/2" clearance needs to be held within 1/16" for the slides to work correctly. So if the outside width of your cabinet is 32", the width of your drawers would be 32"-1/2"-1/2"-2 times the thickness of the 3/4" ply. The ply will be undersize so you will have to measure it for thickness. The drawers will be approximately 29.5" wide.

Hope this helps. Check my math. Which ever slides you use check the manufacturer's recomendations for clearance.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 2:08 pm

OK, now I have it standing up correctly.

I tried to do a drawer but I still haven't got this Sketchup thing working for me that well.

putttn · Post by **putttn** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:59 pm

Yes Dusty that's it perfectly. The little face frame is 1 1/2" on each side and the outside dimension is 32" so your 29" is perfect. That would be the opening between the two face frame sides. The "inside the carcass" width woudl be 30 1/2" if I'm using 3/4" plywood? I'm trying to figure out if the 28" width is correct. I'll be mounting the slides to the side of the drawers and carcass for each drawer, but can't figure out how thick the boards that attach to the sides of the carcass (which will hold the slide) need to be. I'm sure this is probably a simple math calculation but I'm not getting it. I was going to use slides from grizzly.com. By the way that sketch you did is fantastic, how'd you ever do it and get it here? Also, since I have a face frame what slides would I use, I don't want a fortune wrapped up in slides. I've seen some that are in excess of $35. I will be putting some small drills, Ryobi small skill saw, and just measuring tools and other items I have in a shelf system now. It's one of those HD plastic put together shelves and I'd like everything in drawers. Most of my tools are on plastic pegboard so the next cabinet will house some of the heavier items like wrenches etc.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 4:49 pm

putttn wrote:Yes Dusty that's it perfectly. The little face frame is 1 1/2" on each side and the outside dimension is 32" so your 29" is perfect. That would be the opening between the two face frame sides. The "inside the carcass" width woudl be 30 1/2" if I'm using 3/4" plywood? I'm trying to figure out if the 28" width is correct. I'll be mounting the slides to the side of the drawers and carcass for each drawer, but can't figure out how thick the boards that attach to the sides of the carcass (which will hold the slide) need to be. I'm sure this is probably a simple math calculation but I'm not getting it. I was going to use slides from grizzly.com. By the way that sketch you did is fantastic, how'd you ever do it and get it here? Also, since I have a face frame what slides would I use, I don't want a fortune wrapped up in slides. I've seen some that are in excess of $35. I will be putting some small drills, Ryobi small skill saw, and just measuring tools and other items I have in a shelf system now. It's one of those HD plastic put together shelves and I'd like everything in drawers. Most of my tools are on plastic pegboard so the next cabinet will house some of the heavier items like wrenches etc.

I've done a working sketch that is intended to add in envisioning that layout of draw and drawer slide between the two carcass sides.

I assume the drawer is 28" wide and the carcass sides are separated by 30 1/2" (inside).

This leaves 2 1/2" to be occupied by the slides and spacers to which the slides will attach. This 2 1/2" is split equally on the two sides therefore 1 1/4" on each side.

Without knowing the thickness of the slides, exact measurements are not possible. For this drawing I assumed the slides would be 1/2" thick leaving 3/4" to be filled by the spacers on each side. However, I depict the spacers to be 47/64" thick which may be too tight. If so, make the spacers thinner.

Note: The 20" dimension indicated on the right side is meaningless. The 20" piece is there only to indicate the sides of the carcass for purpose of determining spacer thickness after actually slide dimensions are known.

This entire exercise emphasizes how important it is to have made certain decisions early in a design process. What hardware is going to be used must be known in the beginning in order to determine final dimensions.

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Large drawers

Large drawers

Large Drawers