Rounding Over Maple Drawer Boxes

bmyyou | Posted in General Discussion on December 2, 2009 08:51am

I’m getting ready to build soft maple dovetailed drawer boxes for my kitchen, and I was curious when is the best time to roundover the inside edges of the drawer box – before assembly after the tails and pins are cut, or should I wait and run the perimeter around the bit on a router table after assembly is complete? I built a sample drawer box and rounded the edges after assembly, but the corners are left with a sharp point that I don’t want to deal with when machining and assembly multiple sets.
Thanks for the feedback,
Brian

Replies

hammer1 | Dec 02, 2009 02:13pm | #1
Certainly a lot easier before assembly, but, if the drawer back is the same height as the sides, there will be a gap. I typically make my backs shorter, just below the round over. You can chamfer the edges rather than round them over, or just ease the edge with sandpaper. If you want a full rounded edge, doing it after assembly adds a significant difficulty factor.

Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
mrbird90 | Dec 02, 2009 05:28pm | #2
I have done it both ways, the sides can be rounded on both edges when doing it before assembly but the front and back has to be stopped short by the thickness of the side. Other times I put a 1/8" round over bit in the router and do all the edges after assembling. You then have to touch up the corners by hand as th router bit does not get the corners. I just finished 18 drawers and I did it all prior to assembly.
Woodman41 | Dec 03, 2009 05:27am | #3
or you can leave the roundover stopped slightly before each corner... turn it into a design feature.
knuts | Dec 03, 2009 03:11pm | #4
I don't like the look of the roundover butting into the fronts/backs, so I always leave a short piece of 'square' at each end.