Drawer construction?

I’ve tried to make router cut dovetails in ApplePly, and had no luck. The stuff just splintered way too much. Hand-cut dovetails should be totally doable.

I’m using ApplePly for my kitchen drawers because of dimensional stability, I’ve seen both good quality plywoods and solid wood construction in high end kitchens. I think that it’s largely a “what do you prefer” thing, the solid wood kitchens I’ve seen have also just used waxed wood for runners, where I’m a ‘give me the ball bearing soft-close undermount’ kind of guy.

And I went with Domino construction for my drawers, a rabbeted edge probably isn’t going to be quite as strong as a dovetail, but the other nice thing about plywood drawer construction is that you can glue the base in, which means even just butt joints would be pretty indestructible.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

Norm does it all the time!!

-- Matt, Houston Texas

customers ask about dovetails and ether ply or hard wood works for drawer sides

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

I would use Baltic Birch ply for drawers. Will not splinter out like regular ply when dovetailing. Makes beautiful drawers too.

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

If you want to go plywood, I agree with Cabinetmaster and baltic birch gives a good result. I usually use ash for my furniture drawer boxes (strong, cheaper than oak, finishes nicely). Check out drawer lock router bits if you don’t want to bother with a dovetails.

Cabinetmaster, what’s your trick (if any) on the dovetails in ply? With ApplePly and the Leigh Super jig and bits I’ve tried everything I can imagine and I’m still getting splintering.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

lead cutting in on first pass “on the run side” (right to left) then finish up left to right

-- Dan, Sterling Alaska, http://sullcon.homestead.com/ Before you criticise some one, walk a mile in their shoes...then you will be a mile away and you have their shoes!

My router table, China 1/2” ply, cut on Incra jig with a backer board, I squirt the ends of the board with Super Glue before cutting, helps keep splintering to a minimum. Third drawer down has a black mystery additive from China not a void.

-- MARK IN BOB, So. CAL

bluchz

To your specific question most ‘high end’ cabinet showrooms look down their noses at plywood drawer construction. However, this is a marketing racket to drive up costs. Discussing the choice between plywood (Baltic/ApplePly) and solid wood drawer construction in kitchen cabinets I present the issue as a ‘roi’ issue and a ‘put your money where everyone is going to see it all the time’. Many see the wisdom in this but some do not.

There is an article somewhere (I just can’t seem to locate right now) that did strength tests on various drawer construction joints and it’s results (as I recall) was that among the various ‘quality’ joints (ignoring butt joints, etc.) the difference in strength was marginal and well exceeded anything that could be considered ‘normal use’. Even finger joints did very, what it didn’t have in mechanical strength it made up for in glue surface.

So, my advice would be sure you can make high quality cabinets with plywood and don’t let perceived strength differences determine what joint to use.

-- criticism: the art of analyzing and evaluating the quality of a artistic work...