Home > Working With Drawers > How To Make Cabinet Drawers

How To Make Cabinet Drawers

March 22nd, 2011 Leave a comment Go to comments

How you decide to build your kitchen cupboards will determine how your drawers are made. One might think: “how hard could it be to build a four sided box with a bottom?” Actually, not hard at all, but the tricky part is getting it the perfect size in order for the slide-out box to roll smoothly.




How many different methods are there for making cupboard drawers?

Countless ways!

Each method is directly dependent upon which hardware you choose to use. Side mounted drawer slides will have different tolerance specifications than under-mount slides. Full-extension styles will require different allowances than white epoxy coated European kitchen drawer runners.

Some drawer styles will only have two sides, a back and a bottom because the decorative drawer face will actually be the fourth section that completes the box.

If you are building drawers using metal sides (know as Blum Metabox), then you will only need to cut a bottom and a back. Your overall drawer will be one inch less in width than the inside clear dimension of the cupboard. Refer to the video below to see how this particular application works.

If you are using under-mount hardware, your kitchen cabinet drawers will be cut one quarters of an inch smaller in width than the interior frame measurement. You will also cut it one quarters of an inch less in height than the opening size. There will also be notches and special holes that get cut into the back pieces. Refer to the video below for insightful help on how to build and install kitchen cabinet drawers with soft close slides.

How To Build a Kitchen Drawer Using With Epoxy Coated Side Mount Slides

Measure the inside of the opening where the drawer will be installed. Your overall drawer size should be one inch shorter in height and one inch shorter in width.

Making the Drawer Sides

There’s no right way or wrong way to fabricate the sides. You can make them out of half inch thick wood all the way up to three quarters of an inch thick. They can be butt jointed to the front and back, dove tail joined or rabbit jointed together.

Cabinet manufactures build kitchen cabinet drawers out of all types of materials including, Melamine, MDF, Oak, Maple, Pine and every wood species imaginable.

What is the best way to fasten drawer parts together?

People use screws, staples, dowels, Lamello biscuit machine, nails and dove tail joints to hold drawer parts together. Most manufactures use glue, but not all companies bond their parts together with adhesives.

You can purchase drawer building stock that already has grooves made in the material. You will find selections of wood grain colors, real maple wood and vinyl coated drawer stock. These pieces are pre-finishd and only need to be cut to size and then assembled together.

If you have a desk int he kitchen, refer to this article about Making File Drawers.

How To Make Drawer Bottoms

You can plan on inserting the bottom into grooves in the drawer sides or butt joint this part to the other components. Some people will make their drawer bottoms fit into a rabbit joint. How ever you decide to make your kitchen drawers, make sure that your cupboard bottoms are thicker than one eighth inch thick masonite.

There are many videos on Youtube demonstrating how to build kitchen drawers. The best thing to do is decide what kind of drawer hardware you will be using and the make you cabinet drawer specifically to work with your slide of choice.

Categories: Working With Drawers
  1. No comments yet.
  1. No trackbacks yet.

*