Drawer Question

Re: Drawer Question

Barry Irby

I would be inclined to avoid the cross grained connection. Either Baltic Birch all the way around or a maple front. Why not veneer a Maple front?

Wood movement *LINK*

Lee Schierer in McKean, PA

According to Nick Engler's wood companion:

"The rule of thumb is that if the board shows mostly flat grain on its face, allow for 1⁄4 inch total wood movement for every 12 inches across the grain. If it shows mostly quarter grain, allow for 1⁄8 inch movement. This will accommodate an annual change of 8 percent moisture content — much more than is common in most areas."

Since your drawer sides are 7-1/2" you should see no more than 5/32" dimension change with an 8% moisture change. This is for unfinished wood. Several coats of finish on all sides will significantly slow the wood, so I would expect that you would see less than 5/64" dimension change if your maple is flat sawed. Obviously quarter sawed wood would see even less dimensional change.

Lee


Workshop Companion

Re: Drawer Question

Howie

Hi Barry,

I have always veneered over a ply substrate out of habit. I was never quite sure if going over solid wood at some point might create a contact issue as the solid wood substrate wants to move and the veneer/glue line combo is fairly rigid.

Re: Drawer Question

John Jardin

Howie, I urge you to look at FWW #252 Jan/Feb 2016 Solid Method For Curved Drawers. By adding a solid wood block to the ends of either plywood or a laminated draw front, it allows you to cut your half blind dovetails into solid wood-as it should be. Also, Garrett Hack has some excellent articles on drawer construction especially drawer bottoms and sliding dovetail back joints.

Re: Drawer Question

Dick Coers

Definitely cross grain. Personally I hate cutting dovetails in plywood with a router. Lots of chip out, even had veneer peel on a couple of occasions. Also if you use quartersawn maple, you’ll have no issues with movement.

Re: Drawer Question

David Yoho

Didn't want to do an applied front because I felt that was not "professional" looking

Yes and no. If done poorly it would look unprofessional. If done well, most folks won't spot it.

I learned a tip from a professional furniture maker years ago that made a difference in the look of an applied drawer front and it simplified the dovetails too. You can get the appearance of a 3/4" solid front that's rabbeted and has half blind dovetails. Whether the drawer back and sides and the front are the same wood or the front is different from the rest, the trick for an applied front is to use the same wood for the front of the drawer box as the false front at the same thickness of the other three parts. Then, cut your dovetails for the front and rear of the box using through dovetails for both (one setup on a DT jig instead of two). Assuming drawer box parts are 1/2", make the false front 1/4" thick. If the mating front pieces are dead flat, they will go together and look like one.

I have done this with drawer boxes where the back and sides were quartersawn sycamore and the fronts were curly maple. Done it for drawers of other woods too. If you didn't know what was done you probably would not notice the applied front.

Re: Drawer Question

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

If you go visit the WC gallery you will see that I have made dressers and the bottom drawers are usually as tall as 7". I just finished one with an 8" bottom drawer, but it is solid wood. I would have no hesitation dovetailing a drawer side into a veneered front where the veneer substrate is plywood. This statement presumes the lumber for the drawer sides was properly kiln dried and stored where it did not get unusually wet or dry.

I do not like dovetailing plywood, even the better "Baltic Birch" product. I would probably use poplar for the veneer substrate and veneer it front and back. If possible I would try to use the least "flat grain" wood I could find for tall drawers, perhaps even gluing up edges of wide boards to get at least rift grain.

I do have a question about using maple for the sides. I use maple for runners and something soft for sides. Runners are hard to fix when they wear. A worn drawer side is trivial to fix. Traditionally poplar or pine was used for drawer sides. I finish my drawers with shellac, then wax the outsides as well as the runners. They glide smoothly.

Guessing dimension changes from data tabulated in the literature is unreliable for many reasons. In most cases the tables overstate dimension changes of KD wood.