I am confused about how tightly a drawer should fit. My recollection
of the Frank Klausz video is that he made them fit very tightly. He
would size the front and back to fit exactly and then once he assembled
the drawer, would plane it a little to make it fit. However, I'm
concerned the the wood will move, particularly in the height (depth of
a the drawer), and make the drawer too tight. Of course if you make
the drawer too short, it will tip out easily. Any advice out there?

I made a small chest of drawers for the shop and fit them as Klausz
suggested and they seem to work pretty well in all seasons, although
some are a little tight. My next project is a large chest of drawers
and I want the drawers to work well.

Mark

Mark Wells wrote:
I am confused about how tightly a drawer should fit. My recollection
of the Frank Klausz video is that he made them fit very tightly. He
would size the front and back to fit exactly and then once he
assembled the drawer, would plane it a little to make it fit.
However, I'm concerned the the wood will move, particularly in the
height (depth of a the drawer), and make the drawer too tight. Of
course if you make the drawer too short, it will tip out easily. Any
advice out there?


When I get really lucky, I can make drawers that, when closed, force
another drawer open from air presure. And that's allowing a little
clearance in the height. I love it when a plan comes together :-).

Mine have never stuck, but if yours do, just get out the plane and do a
little modification.

"Mark Wells" wrote in message

I am confused about how tightly a drawer should fit.

On wooden drawers with no drawer slides I generally go for 1/16" on all
sides. Be sure to use paste wax on all sides and bottom where the drawer
rests.

A tip for getting the bottom 1/16" of an inset drawer front to always look
good is to plane a small 1/16" rabbet in the bottom front edge, just wide
enough where the back of the rabbet is not visible from the front ...
generally an 1/8" - 1/4".

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 10/22/05

I'm going to slap a front on the drawers so I won't have to mess with
getting the inset right.

Are you saying the drawer is 1/8" (1/16" + 1/16") or 1/16" smaller than
the opening?

Mark

"Mark Wells" wrote in message
I'm going to slap a front on the drawers so I won't have to mess with
getting the inset right.

Are you saying the drawer is 1/8" (1/16" + 1/16") or 1/16" smaller than
the opening?

3/16 - 1/8" smaller than the opening is what generally works for me. With
overlay drawer fronts you can err on higher side, although I will generally
use a sliding dovetail drawer runner for those which allows you much more
freedom in drawer width and height without a lot of slop.

See the below and scroll down to the "wooden drawer slides" caption toward
the bottom of the page, for examples of both:

http://www.e-woodshop.net/Projects3.htm

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 10/22/05

"Swingman" wrote in message

3/16 - 1/8" smaller than the opening is what generally works for me.

Sorry, that should have been 3/32" to 1/8".


--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 10/22/05

"Mark Wells" wrote:

I am confused about how tightly a drawer should fit. My recollection
of the Frank Klausz video is that he made them fit very tightly. He
would size the front and back to fit exactly and then once he assembled
the drawer, would plane it a little to make it fit. However, I'm
concerned the the wood will move, particularly in the height (depth of
a the drawer), and make the drawer too tight. Of course if you make
the drawer too short, it will tip out easily. Any advice out there?

I made a small chest of drawers for the shop and fit them as Klausz
suggested and they seem to work pretty well in all seasons, although
some are a little tight. My next project is a large chest of drawers
and I want the drawers to work well.

Mark raises an interesting dilemma in which constancy of local humidity must
be a factor.

However, as a matter of possible interest, I was taught that a perfectly
fitted drawer should tighten slightly as it is pulled out, offering a nice
challenge to the fastidious woodworker and reducing the chances of a
spillage.

Jeff G

--
Jeff Gorman, West Yorkshire, UK
email : Username is amgron
ISP is clara.co.uk
www.amgron.clara.net

On 24 Oct 2005 09:43:06 -0700, "Mark Wells"
wrote:

I am confused about how tightly a drawer should fit. My recollection
of the Frank Klausz video is that he made them fit very tightly. He
would size the front and back to fit exactly and then once he assembled
the drawer, would plane it a little to make it fit. However, I'm
concerned the the wood will move, particularly in the height (depth of
a the drawer), and make the drawer too tight. Of course if you make
the drawer too short, it will tip out easily. Any advice out there?

I made a small chest of drawers for the shop and fit them as Klausz
suggested and they seem to work pretty well in all seasons, although
some are a little tight. My next project is a large chest of drawers
and I want the drawers to work well.

Mark


for an overlap front I use about 1/8" clearance all around with a
center maple dovetail slide and a stabilizing nylon pad on each side
under the drawer sides which extend below the bottom. Every couple of
years I wax the slide and the bottom of the sides with paste wax.
even very large drawers with heavy loads seem to work well with this
drawer system.

A friend put all the lower dimensions on CAD for us a few years ago.
dimensioned drawer bottom slot on the sides,back, and front.
Dimension for the short slot for the dovetail slide tongue and the
back cuttout dimension for the rear end of the dovetail slide. No
matter what the other drawer dimensions are, this under carriage
design remains the same.

Never done an inset drawer. Not sure I'm skilled enough to get it
consistent.

Frank

I see. Swingman actually suggested that, but I missed it on his site.
I really like the idea of a dovetail runner because it keeps the drawer
from tipping forward and it doesn't seem that difficult to fit because
all you have to do is cut a dovetail in the back of the drawer and then
make sure the runner is straight.

Mark

"Mark Wells" wrote in message

I see. Swingman actually suggested that, but I missed it on his site.

Very last thing on the referenced page.

I really like the idea of a dovetail runner because it keeps the drawer
from tipping forward and it doesn't seem that difficult to fit because
all you have to do is cut a dovetail in the back of the drawer and then
make sure the runner is straight.

Very easy to do. The drawer bottom rests on the top of the dovetail drawer
slide, which provides minimum slop side-to-side, or up and down, and the
drawer will not tip until it's fully extended.

Actually, on the last above, you may find that they work so well that you
need to put what cabinet makers call a 'button' at the top of the back of
each drawer (with one screw so that it can be swiveled out of the way when
you want to remove the drawer) so that the drawer can't be pulled all the
way out by accident.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 10/22/05

"Mark Wells" wrote in message
oups.com...
I am confused about how tightly a drawer should fit. My recollection
of the Frank Klausz video is that he made them fit very tightly. He
would size the front and back to fit exactly and then once he assembled
the drawer, would plane it a little to make it fit. However, I'm
concerned the the wood will move, particularly in the height (depth of
a the drawer), and make the drawer too tight. Of course if you make
the drawer too short, it will tip out easily. Any advice out there?

I made a small chest of drawers for the shop and fit them as Klausz
suggested and they seem to work pretty well in all seasons, although
some are a little tight. My next project is a large chest of drawers
and I want the drawers to work well.

Mark

Until your voice rises, and your vision blurs... then wear the next size
larger.
Sorry, couldn't resist... GD&R
Tom

I think it also depends on type of wood and type and size of drawer. A
teensy-tiny drawer would use less clearance than a big one. I don't
know too much about wood types and expansion coefficients, but for a
large drawer I think that should probably be taken into consideration.
Same if using regular wood versus plywood or some synthetic material.

On 24 Oct 2005 09:43:06 -0700, "Mark Wells"
wrote:

I am confused about how tightly a drawer should fit. My recollection
of the Frank Klausz video is that he made them fit very tightly. He
would size the front and back to fit exactly and then once he assembled
the drawer, would plane it a little to make it fit. However, I'm
concerned the the wood will move, particularly in the height (depth of
a the drawer), and make the drawer too tight. Of course if you make
the drawer too short, it will tip out easily. Any advice out there?

I made a small chest of drawers for the shop and fit them as Klausz
suggested and they seem to work pretty well in all seasons, although
some are a little tight. My next project is a large chest of drawers
and I want the drawers to work well.

Mark

On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 20:09:14 -0400, "Thomas Bunetta"
wrote:


"Mark Wells" wrote in message
roups.com...
I am confused about how tightly a drawer should fit. My recollection
of the Frank Klausz video is that he made them fit very tightly. He
would size the front and back to fit exactly and then once he assembled
the drawer, would plane it a little to make it fit. However, I'm
concerned the the wood will move, particularly in the height (depth of
a the drawer), and make the drawer too tight. Of course if you make
the drawer too short, it will tip out easily. Any advice out there?

I made a small chest of drawers for the shop and fit them as Klausz
suggested and they seem to work pretty well in all seasons, although
some are a little tight. My next project is a large chest of drawers
and I want the drawers to work well.

Mark

Until your voice rises, and your vision blurs... then wear the next size
larger.
Sorry, couldn't resist... GD&R

Somebody had to say it. ;-) Gotta admit, that was kind of my first
thought also. I like the way you think. G

Tom





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