Please critique this design for a file cabinet

Depending on the overall dimensions (LxWxH), the size of the drawers- when full- could cause a weight problem. You didn’t indicate if you were going to use drawer slides.

Also, raised panels usually “float” in grooves, so there won’t be much “racking” strength in the cabinet sides. This might also be a problem with heavy drawers.

-- Lew- Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

I built a four drawer file cabinet several years ago and used 3/4” birch plywood sides with horizontal pieces between each drawer and haven’t had any issues with racking. If you are going with frame and panel you might want to investigate sliding dovetails on your horizontals to help give some side to side rigidity.

-- Mistake? No, that's just an unexpected design opportunity....

Lew,
Thanks for the post. The cabinet is about 44” high, 17” wide and 15” deep. Glad you mentioned the weight – I was thinking of putting a weight lifters disc – 15lb – in the bottom. Yeah, drawer slides – Lowes/HD have them inexpensive. Thats why I decided against a face frame. As far as racking, good point. I wonder if I could add cross bracing on the inside between the rails and stiles. Not exactly Krenov but better than the thing collasping! Ha!

DynaBlue,
Thanks for the post. As far as adding side to side rigidity, I was hoping that the plywood back would do that – glued and screwed/nailed to the sides and to the 4 internal frameworks.

Cheers

A plywood back wont help front to back racking at all. You could always use a piece of 1/4” on the inside of the sides.

-- Julian, Park Forest, IL

Well, tightly fitted plywood rebated into the sides and dadoed to accept your horizontal members will help eliminate side to side racking but I’d recommend you use something stiffer than 1/4”. I would use at least 1/2” or 3/4” if possible..but some might consider that over engineering a bit. Still, I’d rather overbuild something and have it stand up than underbuild something and have it fail, perhaps castastrophically, a couple years down the road. Also the joints, if properly fitted and glued up, should be sufficient to eliminate the need for screws/nails.

I also considered weighting the bottom in exactly the same manner and built the cabinet to accept weights if I later deemed them essential. They weren’t needed and the cabinet is very stable on it’s own and it’s been used on both carpet and hardwood flooring. For reference my base (measured from the outside of the base trim) is 19 1/2” x 24”. Total height is 60”.

So far my file cabinet has survived about 5 years and two moves without any problems.

Good luck and if you have any other questions I’d be happy to give you my opinions.

-- Mistake? No, that's just an unexpected design opportunity....