On 6/25/18 6:53 AM, Robbie Brusso wrote:
Sorry for the long delay everyone. I failed to mention a key point: I'd still brad or screw in the bottom along the sides. If not, as many of you have pointed out, the bottom would sag (especially when the depth is 17.5 inches).

I suppose dadoing along the entire box might make assembly easier. My only issue was that I've never done a dado before so I wanted to take a minimalist approach. But I guess if I'm able to do the front and back properly, I should be able to do the sides. I'm using a router table so it should be fairly straight forward.

And this is for my own kitchen - but my wife is an attentive customer haha.


A couple things.
All this talk about sag is a non-issue. You make the bottom strong
enough for the intended purpose, period. 1/4" cabinet grade plywood is
usually strong enough for smaller drawers, but you might want to go 3/8"
which you'll find as 9mm or even 1/2" which you'll find as 12mm in
cabinet grade plywood.

You don't have to cut the dado the full thickness of the plywood. You
can rabbet the edge of the plywood to match the dado. 1/4" is a common
size for that.

About that dado... I would cut a slot to receive the drawer bottom on
the sides before I would do it on the front/back. That is, if I had to
choose on or the other. The point is, you don't.

Since you're likely using the same plywood for the sides and back of the
drawer, it's easier to cut the dado in the plywood before you cut it
into the separate pieces. Heck, most cabinet drawers are done with all
four sides in plywood, with a separate face anyway, so you can cut all 4
dados as one on the plywood before cutting out the sides.

In other words it's easier to cut dados in all sections of the drawer
than it is to cut it in only two.


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-MIKE-

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