# What thickness wood for 31" drawer box



## icandothat (Feb 26, 2017)

Hi Everyone

For holding pots/pans under the stove I'm building 2 pull out drawers boxes.

31"w by 23" d by 4" h

Will I be fine with 1/2" sides and 1/4" bottom or should I do 3/4" sides and 1/2" bottom Or something else?

Thank for the help!


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

You'll be fine with 1/2" and 1/4". I would
glue the bottom in.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

+1 ditto Loren


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

I have drawers way bigger than that using 1/2 BB Ply for the sides and 1/4 for the bottom. As Loren says "you'll be fine"

All of these are 1/2 with 1/4 bottoms


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## icandothat (Feb 26, 2017)

Perfect, thanks!


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

I think 1/2" sides are marginally adequate, but I wouldn't even consider 1/4" drawer bottoms for your application. You probably have cardboard in your shop that is stiffer than most 1/4" plywood these days.

I would use 1/2" plywood for the drawer bottoms. Even if you have to create a rabbet so the plywood bottom will fit a 1/4" groove, it will be much better at resisting sag.

I would rather you get it right the first time, instead of regretting it later.

Good luck with the project.


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

I'm an over kill guy. I put hundred pound slides in all my lower cabinets, so it didn't make sense to load 3'x2' cabinets with heavy cast iron on less than 3/4.

So I lost 1-1/2" over the height? So I spend an extra hundred bucks on the entire kitchen? These will be here for decades.


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

I would go with the 1/2" bottom. The weight of pots and pans sitting 24/7 on 1/4" plywood will cause it to sag over time. Add cast iron cook ware and the bottom will fall out. 1/2" sides is OK. BTW, 4" doesn't seem to be enough drawer height. Except for some shallow pans, most pots with handles will be higher than 4". You may have only enough room for one deep drawer. A dutch oven for example is around 6" deep and forget about tall stock pots.


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## cracknpop (Dec 20, 2011)

I used 1/2" baltic birch for the sides AND bottom of a 39" wide x 22 deep x 10" tall drawer for our pots/pans. Glued the bottom into shallow dado. 100# drawer slides. Working fine for 4+ years (except made the mistake of using a plastic rear mount on the slide which ended up failing).


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## 000 (Dec 9, 2015)

1/4" will work, but 1/2" would be much nicer and have greater longevity.
You wouldn't want the 1/4" to sag and drag along the bottom shelf when it does.


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## AandCstyle (Mar 21, 2012)

Cando, you can plug the values into the Sagulator to get an estimate of the sag with differing loads. Plywood is at the bottom of the materials list. I made some assumptions and found that 35 pounds would be an acceptable load for 1/4" fir plywood. The Sagulator was designed for shelves, but, in essence, a drawer is a shelf with edging. Also, if you search "drawer bottoms" here on LJ, you might find a pix of Alaskaguy's wife standing on a 1/4" drawer bottom. HTH


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## icandothat (Feb 26, 2017)

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll put in some 1/2" bottoms instead of 1/4".


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## Texcaster (Oct 26, 2013)

The sides are mostly unimportant. Standard commercial work practice for me is to butt nail and glue the bottom on to a drawer box with no grooves or rebates. Bottom mount runners cover the bottom end grain. Strong and fast and clean. Pot drawer bottoms are 16 mm.


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

116 pounds in the middle of an 1/4×22 x 44 inch BB drawer bottom. Been doing this a many years. It not going to sag enough you'll every notice it. 100 pound rated drawer slides with fail first.


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

My problem, as someone who, for years, had to do repairs for folks, is all the lightweight drawers that pulled apart or otherwise went south on people. If there isn't enough meat to dado, rabbit or groove, you aren't going to build it as strong as you can with thicker materials.

Of course, the type that most often had to be repaired were the ones that were merely stapled or nailed.


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

18 years building and repairing all types of cabinet components in the 100 schools and support building in the Anchorage School District I did not see many drawer bottom failures. And we had plenty of 1/4'' drawer bottoms with less quality materials than BB Plywood. The 2 main problems was the one of the front drawer corners failing and on very old furniture the glue would dry and fail on dovetailed drawers.

Kelly could you go into detail on how all these drawer bottom failures occurred it all the drawers you had to repair?


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

It wasn't about things about falling through the bottoms, it was all about sides pulling away from the fronts and backs so, of course, the bottoms would fall out.

Even now, I see all kinds of "high end" cabinets with little effort into joinery and just nailed, or more often, stapled.


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

> It wasn t about things about falling through the bottoms, it was all about sides pulling away from the fronts and backs so, of course, the bottoms would fall out.
> 
> Even now, I see all kinds of "high end" cabinets with little effort into joinery and just nailed, or more often, stapled.
> 
> - Kelly


So that more a a construction method that a material issue. I glue and brad nail my bottom in. The side stay put.


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

True on the material thing.

I rabbit my fronts and back and bury them in the sides (with glue) so pulling on them would never pull the drawers apart, unless the wood, literally, broke.


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## pontic (Sep 25, 2016)

You will be suprised at what a wife will load in drawer. Especially a big one.
I go with 1/2" bottoms at least.


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## 000 (Dec 9, 2015)

> You will be surprised at what a wife will load in drawer. *Especially a big one*.
> I go with 1/2" bottoms at least.
> 
> - pontic


Do big wife's load more into a drawer than little wife's.


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

> You will be suprised at what a wife will load in drawer. Especially a big one.
> I go with 1/2" bottoms at least.
> 
> - pontic


Lol, I won't try to sell you Grizzly or 1/4 bottoms. This is wood working not Dental work


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

> You will be suprised at what a wife will load in drawer. Especially a big one.
> I go with 1/2" bottoms at least.
> 
> - pontic


Yes, I do and I can tell school teacher will put them to shame when it come to loading drawer and shelves.


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## TheFridge (May 1, 2014)

1/4" would be fine. If it was alder. Boom.


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