Replies

1. 
   Samson | May 19, 2009 11:54pm | #1

   Purist may love the old time answer - solid wood.

   I think baltic birch ply.  Thickness varies depending upon whether we are talking jewlery box drawers or huge rollouty bed size drawers, but most commonly for dressers and such; between 1/4" and 1/2"  depending upon the size of the drawer.  

2. 
   webted | May 20, 2009 02:34am | #2

   It depends on the use. For hand built drawers, I like 1/4" - 3/8" aromatic cedar fit into drawer slips. With drawer slips (runners glued to the inside of the drawer sides) you can pretty much use whatever thickness of bottom you like - you're no longer limited by the thickness of the drawer sides. I prefer using 1/4" quartersawn white oak for my drawer sides, so I'm always using drawer slips.

   For less "classic" type furniture with small spans (ie. <14" wide drawers) 1/4" or 3/32" plywood is usually adequate. For larger drawers or heavy loads you need to beef up the bottom thickness and/or add a center support.

   If you're hammering boxes together for a garage/garden shed unit, I'd say 5/8" CDX plywood with 6d nails ought to do!

1. 
   jeff100 | May 20, 2009 08:51am | #3

   Thanks everyone. I was interested in drawer bottoms for dresser drawers, desk drawers, furniture. I was curious if people primarily used plywood or some other sheet material, or hardwood/softwood boards edge glued and planed to thickness. Sheet material like plywood seems made to order, 1/4 thickness seems adequate for a desk drawer and commercial drawers I see in dressers don't seem any thicker than /14". 3/8" drawer bottoms would seem to me to be about as thick as I'd need to go for furniture, unless I'm missing something.As for the shop drawers, different matter all together.

1. 
   dkellernc | May 25, 2009 10:50pm | #9

   "I was interested in drawer bottoms for dresser drawers, desk drawers, furniture. I was curious if people primarily used plywood or some other sheet material, or hardwood/softwood boards edge glued and planed to thickness."

   Depends.  To me, plywood says "kitchen cabinets" not "fine furniture", so I use solid wood for drawer bottoms.  Generally speaking, solid wood is plenty strong for a couple of hundred years of use, and there's lots of pieces out there with 200 year old drawers that are still intact.  And, in some applications, solid wood doesn't sag under load the way plywood does.

   However, I have used plywood before for a desk in the "modern" style, and the reason was that the rest of the desk was veneered plywood.  But I don't build too many pieces like that, so a plywood drawer bottom is rare in my shop.

1. 
   Samson | May 26, 2009 01:39am | #10

   To me, plywood says "kitchen cabinets" not "fine furniture"To whom? The Keno brothers?? Most people who look at furniture we build are barely aware of the implication of dovetails or mortises. How many are examining the bottom of drawers? For most purposes the bottom of a drawer is very rarely seen. As such, the use of the more stable material (and one that adds significant strength if you glue it n place) makes a lot of sense. Same for back panels that are not seen except when you move the piece.But each to their own.

2. 
   Lataxe | May 26, 2009 08:32pm | #11

   David,

   "Generally speaking, solid wood is plenty strong for a couple of hundred years of use, and there's lots of pieces out there with 200 year old drawers that are still intact.  And, in some applications, solid wood doesn't sag under load the way plywood does".

   Your predelictions are showing.  :-)

   Perhaps you've forgotten the thousands (millions?) of pieces that are not out there because they disintegrated in the last 200 years?  By definition, the ones that have survived were either very well build, well-preserved by their owners or both.  But it's a tiny percentage of what was made.

   Plywood can sag if not integrated into the design of a piece, just as solid wood will if it is not the right thickness, type etcetera for the application.  When integrated into the design and construction (e.g, when glued to the drawer sides in an NK drawer, or to a cabinet back-rabbet/frame) plywood may become very unsaggy.  It's ply nature also preserves it from expand/shrink damage and heavy knocks, which might crack or hole solid wood if it is not well-installed.

   ****

   But solid wood drawer bottoms certainly have their appeal and qualities.  One might well wish to have those qualities rather than the admittedly man-made quality of plywood; and not just in traditional pieces from yesteryear.

   However, a well-veneerd plywood or blockboard can have a lot going for it in the right place, especially a drawer bottom, which is generally unseen once the drawer is getting used.  I rather like that veneer on my hayrake drawer-bums.  Maybe Mr Gimson would have turned up his nose though. :-)

   Lataxe

1. 
   dkellernc | May 28, 2009 10:06pm | #12

   "Perhaps you've forgotten the thousands (millions?) of pieces that are not out there because they disintegrated in the last 200 years?  By definition, the ones that have survived were either very well build, well-preserved by their owners or both.  But it's a tiny percentage of what was made.

   Plywood can sag if not integrated into the design of a piece, just as solid wood will if it is not the right thickness, type etcetera for the application."

   David - what I'm referring to here is the mechanical properties of plywood versus solid wood.  In general plywood will sag to a greater degree than will solid wood in the direction of the long grain for the same load.  This is partly why plywood shelves are generally recommended to be edge-reinforced (not just edge banded).

   All I can say about the antiques are the ones I've examined and repaired.  In general, the dovetails fail, not the drawer bottoms.  Not saying it's impossible, just that I've never seen it in a couple of hundred or so antiques.  I'm afraid it also isn't true that only the best-built pieces are the ones that survive.  Much of the destruction of antiques in this country (the US) had little to do with their construction or their owner's care, it was random destruction by fire, flood or other natural disaster.  Crappily-built and finely-built pieces alike were consumed, unfortunately.

   To Sean - You asked "To Whom?".  Well, what I wrote:  "to me, plywood backs and bottoms say "kitchen cabinets" not "fine furniture".  The average luddite, as you note, doesn't know or care whether the backs, drawer bottoms, tops, or any other part of the furniture is plywood, veneered melamine, or some other man-made material.  But then again, most of these folks won't even consider paying the price that it costs for well-made custom furniture - they shop at the unfinished furniture places.

2. 
   jeff100 | May 28, 2009 11:29pm | #13

   Great discussion, I appreciate everyone's input. At this point, I'm inclined to make my drawer bottoms from veneered plywood made from hardwood. Best of all worlds and most unsaggy....;-)In all seriousness, perhaps part of the selection process would be a consideration of the project itself, intended usage and the intended user, e.g. I would not use plywood for drawer bottoms in a historical repro of a late 18th century sideboard, yet for a computer desk, it would be entirely appropriate...Regards....Jeff

3. 
   dkellernc | May 29, 2009 01:15am | #14

   "In all seriousness, perhaps part of the selection process would be a consideration of the project itself, intended usage and the intended user, e.g. I would not use plywood for drawer bottoms in a historical repro of a late 18th century sideboard, yet for a computer desk, it would be entirely appropriate..."

   Hmm - That's a point that I should've made but didn't.  I (usually) make 18th century reproductions, where plywood, melamine, or modern finishes of any type are wildly inappropriate.  That said, it'd be plain goofy to insist on cutting all of the mortises for a Morris chair by hand - they were factory made.

   Edited 5/28/2009 6:16 pm ET by dkellernc

3. 
   James R. | May 20, 2009 09:27am | #4

   Sometimes, just because I like the look of it, on desk drawers or other utility drawers i use black melamine. The thickness, as others have said, depends on the size and use of the drawer.

   jim

4. 
   Lataxe | May 20, 2009 11:14am | #5

   Jeff,

   If you're building a replica, or entirely within some traditional style, you need to follow the methods and materials of the original makers.  Otherwise ....

   Have you considered using the NK drawer-making approach?  Here is a good FWW article about the process:

   http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesPDF.aspx?id=2730

   The method uses plywood for the bottoms, although the writer mentions that he often laminates his home-made veneer (to match the rest of the timber used in the drawer) onto thin multiply. The bottom is glued to the drawer sides/front/back.

   An NK drawer bottom is much stronger than a conventional drawer bottom-panel of solid wood (that is retained only by the groove in the drawer-sides and maybe some slips) because the NK bottom is glued to the sides all-round; and ply is inherently stronger than the equivalent thickness of solid wood.

   I use around 1/4" (6 - 8mm) birch-ply for drawers of large volume such as the big ones at the bottom of a chest; also for those that will bear a lot of weight, such as a largr desk drawer filled with magazines. For smaller drawers (eg 3 - 5" deep and up to 2 sq ft bottom-area) I use 3/16" (5mm) ply.  I generally go for something that has good-quality show-side veneer with a reasonable but not exact match to the drawer-side timber. 

   In a day or 5 I'll make a post-with-pics showing the construction of the drawers used in a hayrake table, which drawers are made in one variety of the NK style.  Those drawers are 3 inches deep and just over 1 sq ft in area, so use 5mm ply bottoms. They are topped with through-dovetailed Q/S 3/8" oak sides and faced with a glued-on oak front.  They could have been made as in the article linked-to above - sides blind-DTd into the front - just as easily; but I made a mistake when cutting the drawer-sides to length.   :-/

   Lataxe

5. 
   philip | May 20, 2009 01:07pm | #6

   Depends. (;)

   Philip Marcou
6. 
   Curteshelman | May 23, 2009 05:08am | #7

   Plywood is right. It allows you to glue the bottom into both sides, front and back. I still cut the back short so it ends flush with the top of the plywood. This allows me to assemble the dovetails and slide the bottom in last.

   Being able to glue the plywood in is a huge advantage over the traditional solid wood bottom that must be allowed to expand and contract out the back of the drawer.

   Racking if the drawer puts huge forces on the corner joints. Plywood takes that pressure.

7. 
   cowtown | May 24, 2009 06:10am | #8

   Best material? who knows....

   I make my drawers out of 1/2" baltic birch ply, sides, fronts, backs and bottoms.

   One simple material. One simple saw set up.

   (I use rabbets on the sides and on the bottoms.)

   Cost effective.

   No recalls when the 1/4" bottom sags under the weight of whatever folks put in em

   No recalls period.

   Ever have to fix drawers with the dadoed 1/4" bottoms?

   Ever have to fix drawers fabricated of melamine? Even with the additional sanding and finishing great stuff to withstand abuse., and probably no more effort than edgebanding melamine drawer sides.

   Might not be the most traditional, but if you want to stock two different materials make multiple saw set ups, please feel free to do so.

    

   Eric