# Kitchen drawer boxes (plywood) what joint to use?



## icandothat (Feb 26, 2017)

I'm replacing some 30 year old drawer boxes. About 15 or them.

Have 1/2" plywood (maple venner).

Tried doing half blind dovetails, even used sacraficial backer when cutting, but the pins kept falling apart. Guess the plywood has air pockets or some other issue.

Should I just miter then glue and put 2 18g brads in each corner?

Or should I rabbet or …?

1/3 of the boxes will have drawer fronts. Rest will be pull out pantry boxes.

Thanks for the input!


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

I use rabbets and brad nails for drawers using 
ball bearing slides. I use a brad about every
inch and a half. I don't think the rabbets are
much stronger than butt joints but the rabbet 
helps in assembly. I've used drawer lock joints
too.

One reason I like rabbets is that when the ply
is edgebanded prior to rabbeting there's a very
low reject rate when routing the rabbets. With
tongued profiles I've had some issues with the
edgeband getting torn up. I use a backing block
but I still had some rejects.

Dovetails are a great choice for wood-on-wood
slide action, but for modern steel slides
the strength of dovetails is generally overkill.


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## 000 (Dec 9, 2015)

This is what I do.
I prefer to use 5/8" though.


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## cracknpop (Dec 20, 2011)

I've used a dado/rabbit type joint on numerous plywood drawer boxes with good results. I used a router table in the past but find the table saw to be much faster.
Here's a pic of file drawer and even with heavy use, it has held up very well.


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## cracknpop (Dec 20, 2011)

Great minds think alike, I see jbay posted while I wasn't watching…


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## DalyArcher (May 3, 2015)

dados on the back, locking rabbets on the front. good quality glue and a few brads or staples if you feel the need.


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## BobAnderton (Oct 5, 2010)

Consider this

Lock miter bit. #22627 is for 3/8" to 3/4" thickness


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## cabmaker (Sep 16, 2010)

What kind of joinery did you find on the thirty year old drawers you are replacing ?


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## Carloz (Oct 12, 2016)

> Consider this
> 
> Lock miter bit. #22627 is for 3/8" to 3/4" thickness
> 
> - BobAnderton


On plywood ?


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## icandothat (Feb 26, 2017)

Thanks for all the input guys!

When doing a rabbet, do you guys band the front so the plywood doesnt show on pantry drawers?

As for the old cabinets, it was falling apart, believe it was all butt joints, chucked it out a while back.


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## GR8HUNTER (Jun 13, 2016)

jbay has the plan :<))


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

I have generally had poor success cutting dovetails in plywood (with a jig). So when I made my kitchen drawers, I used all solid wood, 1/2" I believe. That's why we all have planers now, isn't it?

The last joint I would use on any drawer would be a miter joint.

I realize dovetails are overkill, but an advantage is that, once properly cut, they practically assemble themselves. And if you're doing a lot of them, you can really crank them out once the jig is set up and the router dialed in.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

> When doing a rabbet, do you guys band the front so the plywood doesnt show on pantry drawers?


I don't.


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

What jaybay and cracknpop said. I like that joint.



Once in a while I'll do box joint on BB plywood, no tear out on the table saw.


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## icandothat (Feb 26, 2017)

Thanks!

I'll do a 1/4 rabbet.

Do you guys prefer doing that on the table saw or the router?


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## GR8HUNTER (Jun 13, 2016)

for me its the TS most of the time :<))


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## cracknpop (Dec 20, 2011)

I prefer the table saw, less chance for tear out.


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

Table saw


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## icandothat (Feb 26, 2017)

Got the table saw setup and ran some test cuts.

Much better results compared to my router.

One downside is for the pantry pull out drawers ( no drawer front being mounted on the drawer boxes) you see end grain and the notch for the floor bottom.

Likely going to edge band to cover this up.

Anyone have recommendations for edge band trimmers? My plastic on doesn't work very well.


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## John_ (Sep 23, 2013)

> On plywood ?
> 
> - Carloz


Yep - on plywood.


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## pontic (Sep 25, 2016)

If you do a box joint I would scribe the Dado lines to avoid tear out of the veneer. It looks bad on the inside of the drawer.


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## pontic (Sep 25, 2016)

Nice fancydan miter joint. Looks great on stand alone stuff. The humble box joint is just as strong in the kitchen drawer app. More beef to resist the pissed off teenaged slamming.


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## sawdustdad (Dec 23, 2015)

I've done this exact job several times for different cabinet installations.

Cheap chinese plywood won't hold dovetails. So splintery…Good appleply or marine grade plywood will work better, but you need sharp bits and a careful technique. That said…

I use poplar for drawer sides. Inexpensive, dovetails fine. Then pre-finished ply for bottoms.


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

> If you do a box joint I would scribe the Dado lines to avoid tear out of the veneer. It looks bad on the inside of the drawer.
> 
> - pontic


Mine box joints do not tear out inside or out when cut on the table saw. I wouldn't ever attempt it with a router.


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## JackDuren (Oct 10, 2015)

> I m replacing some 30 year old drawer boxes. About 15 or them.
> 
> Have 1/2" plywood (maple venner).
> 
> ...


You don't have to do any special joint unless you want to.

I guess the question I have is do want or feel you need a special joint?


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## davidsmith0726 (Dec 31, 2016)

I've always used good Baltic birch plywood boxes with through dovetails (I use a Keller dovetail jig). Haven't had any problems with blowout.

But…Baltic birch plywood doesn't seem as good as it used to be.


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## bilyo (May 20, 2015)

I concur with the tongue and dado joint for plywood, but I'll do a couple of things a little differently. I make the tongue and dado as thin as I can depending on the plywood thickness. This allows as much meat as possible to remain on the outboard side of the dado. This piece tends to break off easily. Likewise, I cut the dado as shallow as I think reasonable for the same reason. This has worked well for me for many years. No failures yet.

I think it was Fine Woodworking that did a test of this type of joint several years ago. This joint compared very favorably with other joint types. I remember being surprised by the strength.


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## bilyo (May 20, 2015)

> One downside is for the pantry pull out drawers ( no drawer front being mounted on the drawer boxes) you see end grain and the notch for the floor bottom.
> 
> - icandothat


You could use this type of joint. Somewhat more complicated, but should fit your need:










Or, you could glue a veneer over the entire front covering the edges.


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