Building Simple Cabinet Drawers

It s a handy way to fit drawer fronts in projects where the drawers run on metal slides.

Building simple cabinet drawers.

I am assuming you are using thick stock. The word drawer followed by dados and dovetails is surly enough to scare off many a diyer. Overlaps on the sides let you fine tune the cabinet width during installation. You have to take into account the size of the drawer slides and decide the width accordingly.

Face frames cover plywood edges. How to build a sliding drawer using kreg jig. Then place a 1 4 shim along the bottom of the opening and set the drawer on it. Begin with the right cabinet dimensions.

Assure they are level and mounted 1 4 above the bottom of the opening. Kreg tool is sponsoring this post and their pocket hole jig makes building these diy drawers an. Then i do the same for the next slide above it just add the two fronts below it plus an extra inch so 12 12 1 25. The 3 4 plywood case eliminates panel jointing planing and glue ups.

Nonetheless there s an easier way to build a drawer without using a table saw or router yet results in a beautiful sturdy assembly just the same. Decide the dimensions of the drawer box. Read this post to understand more about choosing inset or overlay doors. The sides and back of the drawer should be 1 2 or 5 8 thick.

To make things easy and give me plenty of wiggle room i measure up from the bottom of the cabinet about 1 higher than that drawer front so 13. These diy drawers are quick to make are very strong and you can even make all the cuts with a circular saw. I ll use a pocket hole jig to easily build these drawers specifically my kreg k4. In general the drawer front should be 3 4 thick unless it s a drawer with a false front false front drawers are a simple drawer box with the front screwed to the box.

This means some extra building work and buying more slides but the smaller rollouts will operate more smoothly and easily. Mount the drawer slides to the sides of the cabinet. That s where i mount the next slide. Wide consider installing two narrower rollouts side by side rather than a single wide one.

If the drawer front are inset the draw box will need to be recessed the same depth as the thickness of the drawer front. The sample base and wall cabinets shown below have these features to make building them as simple as possible. Wider shelves and drawers tend to bind or rack as you slide them in and out. Inset drawers are more difficult because of the precision required to get perfect lines around the drawer front.

I ll show you how to build a drawer in 6 easy steps.