drawer bottom thickness & do you rabbit thicker bottoms

Yes to 1/2” ply. Yes to a 1/2” groove (dado) as opposed to a rabbet joint. You’ll lose a bit of drawer space but it will be stronger.

-- John, BC, Canada

Another vote for the 1/2”...but I’m thinking (if I understand it correctly) the choice between that 1/2” groove or a 1/4” groove isn’t really that big a consideration (the 1/4” rabbet would have just about the same strength I think). But it would be easier to just make a 1/2” groove. Is there a reason to not do it that way? BTW, skip that floating panel/bottom concept…glue those suckers in!

-- I long for the days when Coke was a cola, and a joint was a bad place to be (Merle Haggard)

Absolutely dado the 1/2”. Since it’s all plywood, you can glue all joined edges

-- Lead By Example; Make a Difference

100LBS? in one drawer…need to find somewhere else to store the fishing lead…

-- IF YOUR NOT MAKING DUST...YOU ARE COLLECTING IT! SOUTH CAROLINA.

Another option to consider: 1/4” tempered hardboard (“masonite”). It won’t break.

Actually I think 1/4 fir plywood would be fine as well, glued in. I would avoid mdf-core 5.2mm material.

1/2” material seems overkill to me.

Once you get all the gold ingots in there, the drawers will be fine so long as you don’t use them as a pullout stepstool.

Kindly,

Lee

-- "...in his brain, which is as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd with observation, the which he vents in mangled forms." --Shakespeare, "As You Like It"

Stickley website shows people standing in their drawers and they use 1/4 in plywood.

I made a kitchen island that has pretty large drawers and it is full of dishes. I have never weighed them but they are pretty heavy and have not had any problems.

Make sure your slides are adequate to hold the weight.

Domer

My vote is for a 1/4” rabbit and 1/2” plywood.

I also vote for some kind of rabbet joint and dado because as we all know 1/2” plywood is not actually 1/2”.

-- Bondo Gaposis

I’m an overkill kinda guy I guess. I would use 1/2” ply on a drawer of that size an the weight you have.

-- Gene 'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

post deleted

-- Alaskan's for Global warming!

100 lbs is a lot! I’d opt for dado over rabbet. weight will be on the drawer box as opposed to relying on glue/nails.

with that weight you only want to do it once otherwise you have to pull it all out and start over. 16”x22” will certainly “test” 1/4” anything even at half that load so I’d opt for 1/2” (I’d even think about 3/4” but then think about a snow load on a roof where 1/2 seems to be ok).

I’ve made drawers that are 46” x 28”, one of them 15” deep and loaded with well over 100 pounds. 1/2” Baltic birch plywood bottom dadoed into the 3/4” BB drawer carcass was plenty sufficient.

-- John, BC, Canada

I have built a lot of drawer over the years. When I make all plywood drawers I use 1/2” Baltic Birch sides and 1/4 Baltic Birch bottoms set in a 1/4 dado. The 1/4 Baltic Birch is dam near a full 1/4 and fits in the 1/4 dado perfect. Its pretty darn strong too. All my shop drawer, kitchen drawer are made this way. At my work place with the School District I’ve built a lot drawers with 1/4 bottoms for years. No problems.

I the picture below my wife who weight in at 120 lbs is standing smack in the middle of a 22 X 44’’ drawer that has a 1/4’’ BB bottom. I measured the deflection in the middle and it was 1/4’’. I generally use 100lbs rated full extension ball bearing side mount drawer slide which I figure will fail before the drawer bottom will. If you like to over build I’d say you’re well on your way.

BTW what you using for drawer slides?

-- Alaskan's for Global warming!

Thanks!

It sounds like we are about evenly split.

Last night I went ahead and used the 1/2” (slightly less) for the bottoms. It may be over-engineering but I will feel safest, also it allowed me to use up some 1/2” scrap.

For drawer slides, I use the 75 lbs white epoxy slides for smaller (and lighter) drawers and 100 lbs Centerline (Rockler) for the large (and heavy) drawers.

-- Jesse, Saint Louis, Missouri

Good choices, Jesse.

-- Gene 'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton