Replies

1. 
   WayneL5 | Jul 24, 2004 09:56pm | #1

   Half inch veneer plywood.  You can buy special void-free plywood made especially for drawer sides, too.  Try the various woodworking supply catalogs.

1. 
   JHall | Jul 24, 2004 10:26pm | #3

   Well, at first I was not going to "lower my standards" and revert to the use of plywood for my drawers.  However, as my options narrow and the costs go upward I guess I will put my pride on hold and consider the plywood solution.  Actually, it does sound like a reasonable solution and if it is gap free it should look OK as an inner piece.  Thanks for the tip

1. 
   Mackwood | Jul 26, 2004 11:40pm | #20

   jack,

   You can always edge the plywood if it bugs you and don't forget the stability issue.  A 9" wide piece of wood 1/2" thick had better be very carefully selected and dried.  I totally support the plywood option! LOL

   Good luck on the project!

   Regards,

   Mack"WISH IN ONE HAND, #### IN THE OTHER AND SEE WHICH FILLS UP FIRST"

1. 
   JHall | Jul 28, 2004 06:39am | #21

   Actually its not the need for edging the plywood that bothers me.  In fact I've seen nicely finished, rounded drawer sides in lots of good kitchen cabinet work.  I am just having trouble finding the 1/2" stuff.  All I can find in the catalogs are pieces that are too small (and too expensive) for my intended use.

1. 
   nikkiwood | Jul 28, 2004 05:34pm | #22

   There are some mail order sources for Baltic Birch, but as you indicated, they are expensive.

   I don't know where you are located, but your best bet is to find a full service lumber yard that caters to the cabinetmaker crowd. Full sheets are 5' X 5' which makes transporting it in anything but a truck or van difficult. Some yards, however, will do one cut for you -- but most won't.

   I have never seen BB in a home center.

2. 
   BG | Jul 24, 2004 10:10pm | #2

   Jack,

   I like Wayne's idea. You could also bandsaw 4.5" wide pieces and make panels that are 9" wide...but without a planer its a lot of work.
1. 
   JHall | Jul 25, 2004 06:45am | #8

   I had thought about glueing up narrower pieces.  Do you thing a simple edge-to-edge butt joint would be strong enough for 1/2" thicknesses?  I suppose biscuit wafers would be a no-go.

1. 
   BG | Jul 25, 2004 12:33pm | #11

   Jack,

   As Nikkiwood indicated, glueing up 1/2" wide stock is plenty strong...I would not waste the biscuits for draw sides...and in your case, the draw sides would be dovetailed which would provide additional support....but it is a lot of work without a planer.

   I get a pretty good joint right off my TS, but as the boards get longer I need to plane a bit each end for a tight seam (I don't have a jointer).  Recently I did a ten board glue up and ran the boards on edge through the planer four at a time clamped together...or I could have hand planed them that way also (clamped together).  Good luck with your decision 

3. 
   RickL | Jul 24, 2004 11:42pm | #4

   You risk a lot of warped stock if you plane 4/4 down to 1/2" which would be even more wateful in the long run. I'd leave it heavy before I did that. Plywood is your most cost effective thing in the long run as others have suggested.

4. 
   SEBDESN | Jul 24, 2004 11:51pm | #5

   1/2" balatic birch ply wood makes great drawers, and I think you can even dovetail it.

5. 
   nikkiwood | Jul 25, 2004 12:29am | #6

   I will also throw in my vote for Baltic birch.

   I tried dovetailing it once, but there was too much tear-out for my taste. I use a locked rabbet instead.

   To disguise the plys, you can easily edge band it with 1/8" birch strips.

   Ooops -- forgot you don't have a planer. Maybe you should move that up on your list of tools to buy!! It really is a pretty indipensible tool.......

1. 
   JHall | Jul 25, 2004 06:39am | #7

   Re "Ooops -- forgot you don't have a planer."    You are right of course.  After 35 years of putting it off "til next time" I am convinced I need one.  Any recommendations?  What are the minimum features I should look for in selecting a planer for non-commercial home workshop use?  Brand? Horsepower/Voltage?  Cut width? Etc?

1. 
   nikkiwood | Jul 25, 2004 09:19am | #9

   You can certainly get a strong enough joint by simply edge gluing 1/2" boards, but it is pretty difficult to get decent edges without a jointer.

   RE: Planers to consider. Do a search and you will find many recent threads arguing the respective merits of various planers.

   Assuming you don't want to spend the $$ for a stationary planer, any of the portables will probably do the job for you. People around here seem to be satisfied with the Ridgid, and I have a friend who bought one a year ago and likes it a lot.

   I can't say for certain, but I think Delta probably leads the pack. I have their new 13 1/2" model, which works fine -- but I think some of the new bells and whistles are of dubious value, and they are heavy to lug around. I would urge you to check the earlier Delta models, all of which are still available. They are lighter, have the essential features, and are much cheaper.

   The new Dewalt is also a fine machine, but there have been scattered complaints about some mechanical problems, which perhaps they have remedied by now.

   When shopping, you should look to see what kind of blades are used; I believe even the new Dewalt uses blades that can be resharpened (preferred by some), whereas most of the others use 2-sided disposable blades (preferred by me).

1. 
   JHall | Jul 25, 2004 08:35pm | #12

   Re "You can certainly get a strong enough joint by simply edge gluing 1/2" boards".

   Well I do have a jointer so maybe the glue-up approach is the best option.  There will not be much of a lateral load against the sides or back from the drawer weigh and I am still a believer in the old maxim that a good glue joint is stronger than the wood itself.  Also, thanks for the infor on the planers.

6. 
   Splintie | Jul 25, 2004 10:55am | #10

   If you want to go upscale from BBP, there's a product using thin maple veneers for both sides of a 7- or 9-layer sandwich--one of the brand names is MaplePly, but there are others. It's expensive, but a real treat to use--absolutely no voids and very nice both sides.

   After the breakup of the Soviet Union, they started cutting trees like mad to get capital, so the quality of the BBP has gone down considerably. One of my orders was so bad, i shipped five panels back that were full of footballs (patches) and very roughly sanded and was converted to this maple plywood.

   I had some large dresser drawers to make for the customer's sweater collection, 12" deep, so i used sliding dovetails to avoid the tear-out problem with machine-cut dovetails. That was a little short-sighted bec the end-grain swelling of every other ply layer made a tight fit into an almost un-doable assembly once they were wet with PVA glue. If i did it now, i would use poly glue to keep the wood from swelling while i assembled the drawer.    

1. 
   nikkiwood | Jul 25, 2004 09:34pm | #13

   Never heard of MaplePly, but it sounds interesting.

   Do you have any info you can send along about the product -- mfg, sheet sizes, cost, availability, etc. Is MaplePly the brand name?

   Thanks....

   EDIT: I just Googled on MaplePly and came up dry.

   Edited 7/25/2004 2:37 pm ET by nikkiwood

1. 
   Splintie | Jul 25, 2004 10:59pm | #15

   Sorry for the misinformation i gave last night on the name, but the correct name of the product is Appleply.

   It was sort of a fluke that i found multiple sheets locally at one lumber wholesaler in town (Missoula) bec even BBP was not generally available here at that time, about 5 years ago.

   You have to be extra careful with measurements; you can't cheat by shaving a bit off the sides to fit the carcass, as the outside veneers are even thinner than with BBP. No sanding required at all, though, on the flat surfaces, and it joints beautifully (sharp knives, off course). The veneer edge is rather attractive and can even be bullnosed without the splintering associated with BBP. 

   Another advantage is that the sheets i bought were in the 4x8 size, which offset the increased cost over BBP with a more efficient cutting layout.

   Edited 7/25/2004 4:03 pm ET by SPLINTIE

1. 
   nikkiwood | Jul 26, 2004 07:06am | #18

   Thanks for the clarification; Appleply is around here (MN), but not as widely available at the wholesale yards as BB.

   There has been some decline in the quality of BB I see, but nothing too drastic. You will now see an occasional small void in the plys, and there will always be one or two boat patches on the "good" side, and maybe 6-8 on the other side. The price has stayed fairly consistent over the past 10 years at about $22-23 per 5 x 5 sheet for 1/2".

   How does that price compare to what you pay for Appleply?

1. 
   AlanTurner | Jul 26, 2004 10:28pm | #19

   I am able to buy BB at a wholesale price thorugh my wife (I don't buy enough to have my own account) and it is about $15 for a 5x5 in 12mm, whereas the appleply (really maple, of course) is nearer $200 for a 4x8 sheet of 3/4".  Never priced 1/2"

   I just made some drawers for the shop out of 12mm BBP, and hand dovetailed them, without incident.  Worked pretty easy.  No tearout.  I  didn't bother to edge tehm, but that sure could be done.

   Alan

   http://www.alanturnerfurnituremaker.com

7. 
   robkelly | Jul 25, 2004 10:17pm | #14

    I am typing this on a desk I built 20+ yrs ago, with 2 file drawers 10"H x 14"W x 22"D made of 1/2" maple glued up edge to edge w/o biscuits. They are still as tight as the day it they were made.  I resawed 5/4, face jointed then edge jointed on a 6" Sears jointer, glued up while clamped in a homemade panel press (waxed 2x4's on edge with long bolts to tighten), sanded, cut to size and dovetailed.

   In large drawers, much of the rigidity comes from the bottom. While french bottoms are trick, they don't add strength and waste 3/4" of storage depth. For large drawers I rabbet the bottoms of the drawer sides about 3/8" and glue in and 1" airnail a piece of 3/8" Luan plywood.

1. 
   JHall | Jul 26, 2004 04:09am | #16

   Rob.   Thanks for the encouraging testimony.  Sounds like that's the way to go.

8. 
   Dave10 | Jul 26, 2004 04:46am | #17

   Baltic (Russian) birch plywood is the way to go-no warpage. Use maple edge-tape (pre-glued) on visual edges. I've made drawer boxes with this material for twenty years. No one has complained. The baltic birch ply can be dove-tailed. It's the next best thing to real wood.