Drawer Making
by Richard Jones
www.RichardJonesFurniture.com
©2002 Richard Jones. Used by permission.
Drawer making for furniture ranges in scope from the very simple to the highly complex. The first might be no more than four pieces of plywood cut to length and width and glued and nailed together. A groove is worked on all the inside faces some way up from the bottom edge to carry a plywood base. Drawer fronts are 'planted' on with screws driven from the inside to hold it in place. Very simple, and it might take about an hour to make one, and less per drawer to make a batch. They are rather inelegant looking but good enough in workshop cabinetry, economy furniture and for items such as some inexpensive built-in kitchen cabinetry.
At the top end, drawers are made with traditional hand skills using all solid timber as shown in the photograph and sketch at left. Sides and backs are usually of a durable hardwood, such as oak, mahogany, ash or maple, about 8 - 10mm (5/16" to 3/8") thick and joined with hand cut through dovetails where the sides and back meet. The front is usually about 18 - 22mm (3/4" to 7/8") thick and attached directly to the sides with hand cut lap (half blind) dovetails. The drawers run on horizontal wooden frames or dividers built into the carcass, and to increase the wearing life of the bottom edge of the sides, drawer slips are added to the bottom inside edges. Slips, in the trade, are considered as maintenance items, like brake pads in a car, and need renewal and replacement from time to time over the life of a decently made cabinet -- along with maintenance to the horizontal cabinet dividers known as runners (bottom) and kickers (top). A quality cabinet might reasonably be expected to last anywhere from 100 - 250 years.
The drawer bottom slides in from the rear, underneath the back, and is carried in grooves worked in the slips and in the drawer front. It's locked in place with screws driven up through it into the bottom edge of the back.
A drawer like this takes a skilled craftsman between seven and eight hours to make and to shoot in precisely to the drawer opening. If multiples of similar drawers of this basic pattern are made the time element can be brought down to about 6-1/2 hours per drawer. Staining and polishing procedures take about another hour.
If hardware involves fitting a lock and escutcheon in additiion to fitting a simple proprietary pull, about another two hours has to be allowed. Fancy veneered fronts with inlays and stringing and other traditional features such as cockbeads add yet more time. The skills required to build all these traditional drawer patterns need to be well developed, and it can be seen that a very elaborate drawer may take nearly sixteen hours to make. Customers brought up on mass produced furniture and prepared to pay for the labour costs involved in a truly handcrafted drawer are rare.
next
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8