I have just finished putting together the casing of a seven drawer chest of drawers and am ready to begin working on the drawers. My plan is to have the drawers fit flushly in the openings with an even reveal around the edges. To do this though, I was planning on using “glide” tape on the internal drawer supports. This would both lift the drawer off the bottom as well as ease the operation of opening and closing.
Last night I was at a family members house and was noticing how this was done on a custom piece built for them where the internal drawer support was actually raised up about a 1/16 above the front divide to provide that necessary reveal.
I suppose my question is will the “glide” tape work for me or should I plan on scrapping the idea of flush mount drawers and go with overlapping fronts (not what I want, but the design would support it)? Is having the internal drawer support slightly offset the appropriate way to do this (for future work)?
Many Thanks
Replies
Since you haven't begun on the drawers yet, you could go a different route entirely and side hang them. That eliminates tape. I've done several dressers this way. Am happy thus far. For a very large drawer, you can double that up with a center glide at the bottom. I work it in as a rail which splits the bottom into two panels. Then your drawers are carried by the sides, guided by the middle, the dovetail at the bottom is set such that if the drawer sags at all, the bottom supports it.
When you say sidehang the drawers, what you do you mean?
The drawers are hung on glides that run front to back of the case. The glides engage the sides of the drawer via what amounts to a dado in the drawer side. On a half blind dovetail layout, space the pins so you have solid material in the face intersecting the groove in the side. The face doubles as the stop at that point. The dadoes ideally should be dead center on the drawer sides as measured vertically. If you make your sides a little thicker, it gives a little more room for the cut. I usually use 5/8" material for sides. The runners should be something sturdy, i.e. oak instead of poplar. My groove depth is usually just about half or a touch over, and I allow for just a little clearance between the groove and side. Sliding is eased considerably by the application of wax. Now I've read that these can wear over time and the wax may have to be reapplied. That you might have to replace the runners or even part of the drawer side. In principle, I agree. But I did my wifes chest three years ago and it's still slick as can be, and the glides don't show any wear yet. Of course, if you start storing books instead of undies, that would probably change. The flip side is, 3 years isn't probably notable for durability tests, but I can't tell you what it's going to be doing 50 years from now unless I'm still alive and posting.
I'm building an Arts&Crafts hall table, with three drawers underneath the top, and all will be side hung as described in the prior append. To be safe, the sides are 3/4 inches thick, and the "dado" will be 1/4 inch or slightly deeper. This leaves the drawer sides a little thicker. Probably overkill. Since these drawers are only 4 inches tall, and 10 inches deep, they won't carry much weight. I expect them to need no maintenance for many, many years.
My reveal is 1/16th of an inch all around. The front skirt was cut so that the drawer fronts were taken from the inside, and the grain will match exactly when the drawers are closed. I made the rip cuts on my bandsaw, cut the drawer fronts from the middle piece, and then glued the remaining pieces back together. The kerf was very small so the glue joint doesn't show up at all. It's looking beautiful.
John
Thanks, I understand what you are talking about and have used that technique once before on a coffee table. One of the factors that steered me away from that was the gap between the side panel of the chest and the drawer itself. The legs, which run the entire height of this piece are a solid 2" square. So 2" minus the 3/4 side panels and the additional 1/4" offset meant a 1" gap in the interior, not to mention the additional for the reveal. Attaching a 3/4" runner from front to back that was 1" wide, now in hindsight, doesn't seem that difficult, but when designing it, seemed like too much.
I did some additional contemplation on the subject today and am wondering if strips of melamine glued to the existing drawer supports/slides will give me the offset I need, not to mention the slip factor. I'll have to see if I can find some at the local home center, and make sure it is thin enough.
Have you considered making the drawer sides wider than the drawer front? If you want 1/32 reveal make the drawer sides extend 1/32 inch below the front. Wax them up and the will work great. I would prefer that to some strip glued on the guide.
Tom
Tom, that is an excellent idea. It would make cutting the bottom panel dados and dovetails a little more trouble - but not much. An alternative would be to make the entire drawer, to the overall dimensions using your idea, and then run the drawer, face down, across the tablesaw to trim off that extra 1/16" or so from the front, hmmm. They might look a little funny pulled out but I agree with you, I'm not too keen on gluing things to the internal glides/supports. I have an old desk that is pretty well made, it has flush mount drawers and to get the even reveal, they used (what look like) heavy, heavy gauge staples in the front divide so the bottom of the drawer rides across them. When closed the staples lift the drawer just enough to provide that consistent reveal.
Anyone know how the traditional shakers achieved this?
Boy,
Your project is way beyond my skill level so please don't take this as a suggestionbut rather food for thought...maybe.
I have a large man's dresser from the fifties with fitted drawers...made in North Carolina. They used sliding dovetails on the bottom of the draws. They work wonderful and keep everything aligned. The other kinda unique aspect is on the draw fronts...which have dovetailed sides...there are little 18-14" ears on the verticals. The top and bottom of the draw front are flat...but the sides of the draw front have this little bump out...I assume to make adjustment easier... Slainty said this was common in the mid-fifties furniture...
I suppose sliding dovetails would be the ultimate setup, however that is beyond my experience, skill level, and desire at this stage of the game. This will be the 4th piece of furniture I have made and by far the largest and most complex to date. Regarding the bump out mentioned in your post, you said the top and bottom are even with the sides having a bump out - are you describing the same sort of setup previously mentioned where the sides of the drawers are made slightly taller than the face, with the excess showing on the bottom side of the drawer?
Boy,
I'm not sure if I'm describing what has been previously described. Let me try to be a bit more visual in my discription of my draws.
Let's say you made a draw front and did half blind dovetails with the sides. Now you have a rectangular front...with the sides flush and perpendicular to the front. Now lets say on the rectangular front..on the sides (ie. vertical pieces) flush with the front..you attached 1/8" half round stock. is that visually clearer?
So in effect they cut the front to include in a little overhang on the fitted draw. In there technique, nothing is attached..it was milled that way. I guess you would cut your draw front maybe 12 1/4 x 8"x1" let say and then rabbitt 7/8" of the 1" depth about an 1/8 inch each side.
however that is beyond my experience, skill level,
Baloney. If you can cut a dado with a table saw you're adept enough to create a sliding dovetail on a router table. Maybe you haven't done it yet, but that doesn't mean you can't. Just don't run down your abilities. The desire to learn and willingness to take risks will get you whatever you're after.
RW, Thanks for the vote of confidence, sometimes its needed. New things are always a little intimidating. I will try that on my next project, where the drawers aren't quite so wide (32"). Thanks again.
None of the above matters. Make the drawer to fit. The Shaker's didn't get all knicker twisted about it. They, like every other craftsmen, let the drawer front bottoms rest on the horizontal divider. They created a shadow line (or reveal if that term is prefered) up the sides, and across the top. Natural lighting and angle of view provides the illusion of a shadow at the point where the bottom of the drawer front sits back from, but meets the divider. The 'correct' shadow is caused by the natural viewing angle.
Furniture is seldom viewed directly as drawn in front elevation drawings, and all sorts of wee shadow lines come into play. Essentially, don't get all hot and bothered about unimportant details. Slainte. Some stuff I've made.
Slainte, those are words to live by.
I was flipping through a book the other day on tables (I believe the Taunton Press book), and looking at a couple of the plans which had flush mount drawers and sure enough, the drawer runners were offset with the front rail by 1/32" to give the drawer that little bit of lift.
BP, Certainly it can be done, not that I would. If a traditional drawer is being made and installed, you're talking of the drawer box typically made with dovetailed corners, and the bottom edge of the drawer side usually slides on wooden runners built into the carcase, and the top edges of the drawer sides are usually (but not always) retained by kickers, whether it be a chest of drawers, table etc.. There are many ways of suspending drawers within a cabinet.
About the only time I can think that you'd notice the slight intentional gap at the bottom is if you view the drawer front straight on, as in a front elevation of a working drawing, or if the drawer front coincides with your sight line, such as at standing or sitting height. I can't think that there's any insuperable technical reason why you wouldn't do it, and as usual there's always more than one way to skin a cat. So if it works for you, do it.
It's my experience that the insets and tolerances created in drawer front fitting and natural viewing angles most furniture is seen from create all sorts shadows and lines, and this is more than enough to fool the eye. Over time of course, all traditional drawers develop a sloppy fit as both the bottom edge of the sides, and the runners in the carcass wear, but that's for the restorer in the future, ha, ha. Slainte.
Some stuff I've made.
Assembling the drawer first and cutting the bottom edge of the front would be a fine way to acheive the reveal. I don't know how the shakers achieved this or if they did at all. I know that i have used this method before with good results.
Tom
Tom - In the December 2001 issue of FW, the cover has a nice cherry cabinet. In fact, this provided much of the inspiration for my chest of drawers (same panel design) but with much different proportions and no cabinet. In this article, the author has created flush fitting drawers and has the drawer runners flush with the front rail. I did the same thing. How then, does this author (Scott Gibson) achieve an even reveal. There is nothing that mentions the drawer sides being somewhat taller. I'm confused - the only explanation I can muster is that the drawers are so well fitted, that this was not of concern.
In thinking about this a little more, a slight bevel on the bottom of the drawer face would essentially do the same thing as building the sides slightly larger.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled