I would love to see a drawer tutorial. I want to use drawers in a few of the plans that do not call for them and I am brand new to building furniture. I have tried to dissect exactly what you need to do for drawers from several of the plans that include them, but each one is slightly different! If I could see the "drawer rules" laid out for me, I think I could tackle adding them to the existing plans.
Thanks for considering this and thank you for all you do!
Kristen
Forums
suzieandjesse
Mon, 09/20/2010 - 08:00
Drawers are really the last big thing that have my wife and I frightened as well... If we could get some kind of tutorial, or best-practice layout, that'd be super.
Great idea Kristen!
chrisandpatience
Mon, 09/20/2010 - 13:37
I have just started rebuilding all the drawers in my kitchen. I live in a 6 year old house that was obviously built with cheap cabinets. While the fronts look beautiful the drawer bodies are constructed of press board. It is my first venture into anything drawer related. I have to say that my long lived fear was totally unfounded. I took my time and one by one i am making my way around the room. Once this project is completed i am going to make a desk for my 12 year old daughter and it will have a drawer. I owe all this to confidence i gained from Ana.
Peace
sjohnston
Mon, 09/20/2010 - 14:43
I would love to get some good drawer tips but I have to say, too, to just give it a go. My third project was the Simple Nighstand which I picked because I wanted to try out a drawer. It came out great--much to my surprise! I had to re-cut a couple pieces but it was obvious that I needed to do it and just staying patient led to great results.
kristen
Tue, 09/28/2010 - 06:07
Thanks for the advice and nudges to just try out the drawers. I will take it on faith that they will be easier than I am imagining I just need to keep repeating to myself that it is okay to make mistakes...it's okay to make mistakes...it's okay to make mistakes...
andjarnic
Thu, 10/14/2010 - 05:18
There is a tool out there that can help with at least putting the drawers together. It's a router jig that comes with the bits to allow you to cut the drawer side ends a certain way so they fit together at 90 degrees and have that nice looking connected shape to them. I think it's a dovetail jig, forget tho. Porter Cable sells one at Lowes, but Rockler.com has a few too that look good. There is also some guides from Kreg and others to help line up the drawers.
Like most of you, I've been afraid of drawers too. I have been contemplating the router jig just to hopefully help me make a good drawer. Figuring out the nice glides and how they fit in just right, the right size, etc is a little scary.
orangesugar
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 04:41
I don't think I would make drawers without using pocket holes or more advanced woodworking techniques. Here is a thread about making them with the Kreg Jig.
kristen
Sun, 10/31/2010 - 09:29
andjarnic--I agree that figuring out the glides is one of the aspects of drawer construction that intimidates me. I'll look up the Kreg guides you talked about for lining up drawers and see what they have/have to say.
orangesugar--thanks for the link for the Kreg Jig. I'm going to copy that info. Looks like a nice, solid drawer once you put it together like the picture they include. I'm going to attempt storage drawers under my daughters bed that will need to be put together pretty strong, and those look like they would work well.