I recently remodeled my kitchen and I built all the cabinetry myself. All the lower cabinets are drawers. I used 1/2″ baltic birch for the drawer material, all the joinery is half-blind dovetails. I will be using a full overlay drawer front (maple).
The question I have is regarding the attachment of the drawer front to the drawer. I think I will be screwing the fronts to the drawer from the inside of the drawer. The question is, should I use glue or no glue? I am going under the premise that these drawers are going to take years of hard use, but I am concerned about expansion and contraction and the impact of this on the drawer front. Should this be a big concern? Not sure if this important but, most of the drawers are are around 24″ wide and some are up to 13″ high. Most are 7-9″ high.
Just thinking of the (ab)use these drawers are going to take over the years, I don’t know if screwing the fronts on the drawer will be enough….Any thoughts?
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On my kitchen, built about 10 years ago, I attached the drawer fronts from the insde with screws only. None of mine were as wide as 24" but I haven't experienced any problems. One of the tricks is to position the front on the drawer with equal spacing all around and hold it in that position while you are screwing from the insde. As it turned out, the drawer pulls I was using had two screws which I could use to hold the front in place while I screwed from the inside. If I remember correctly, others on this site came up with a different solution if you're not using attached hardware.
PKURCON,
..."are going to take years of hard use"...so wouldn't you want to be able to replace the draw and just reattach the front? really asking here...
Good point. Is that the only downside?
Thanks
I definately wouldn't glue them. Making the fronts one with the drawers eliminates the ability to adjust the reveals without moving the slide. I always install my drawers into the cabinets, and then use small wooden wedges to shim the front tightly into the opening, adjusting up and down, left and right until the margins are perfect. Then I tack the front with a short screw placed in the hardware hole location which I lay out beforehand. Pull the drawer out, run four screws in from the inside of the drawer and I'm done. I have tried various methods and found this way to be by far the fastest for me.
Edit; I just realized you are doing overlay. In that case I would use drawerfront screws from McFeelys. They have a 5/8 washerhead, that gives you the ability to adjust the front easily when you drill a 5/16 through hole in your drawer. Actually they are what I use for inset too.
I glue and fasten all my kitchen drawer fronts to the drawer box's. Whether you use 4 screws or however many , you will still limit the movement of the wood face. Of the thousands of drawers I have made in the last 25 years a few faces have had some warpage but not after they were fastened.I want and expect them to be used hard and withstand the rigors of a kitchen that gets worked in .It's true that after they are glued on it is permanent .Careful measuring is the key to acuracy .I dont attach the face until I have made sure the size is correct . The kitchen drawers are generally overlay faces. On inset I like some of the others make sure it fits in the opening before I screw them on from the inside, also I usually don't glue the flush inset ones.I can honestly say I have never had had a drawer box or face fail,drawer slides on the other hand are a different story.
good luck
I worked in a furniture factory 10 years as a drawer fitter and we never glued the front on and screwed them on from the inside and never had any come back by moving, over the years. I still use the same way the factory did. I also use baltic birch for my drawer sides and melamine for the bottom. Full time custom furniture builder. Grand Rapids,MI
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