Building cabinet boxes

[donclifton]

I want to build some drawers with thru dovetail joints. I have tried using plywood and mdf but get a lot of tear out. What does the cabinet maker on this forum use. I have a Leigh super jig which works great with solid wood.
thanks
Donald Clifton

[cip]

Specialty Supply sell finger joint birch drawer side material 5/8" thick in varied heights 21" or 82" lengths. I use it all the time and it works just fine.

Hardware resources also sells solid wood drawer side material.

Mike

[bleeth]

Don:

Drawer dovetails are usually done as 1/2 dovetails since the front of the drawer is usually not seen anyway.
You could use a backer board to prevent the tearout. Plywood dovetails are always problematic which is why it is rarely used for that. If you do you need a good quality multiply like the Baltic Birch 5 x 5 sheets. In another part of the country I used to get an excellent grade ply called "Appleply" but in our neck of the woods (Florida) the suppliers don't know what it is!
For plywood drawers a lock shoulder or mortise and tenon is generally preferred.
For MDF dowelling is the top rated method followed by biscuits for fasternerless joints.

So for dovetail drawers you should be using solid wood. Mike beat me to the punch with his post about where do get drawer stock.

[dlcw]

Don,

There are several suppliers of maple dovetailed drawers out there. I use Waltzcraft. I can get my drawer boxes with all the necessary milling opertions done for Blum concealed slides (my preference). You can also have the edges relieved, have them finished, get them unfinished, get them unassembled, etc. Many options.

Without the proper machinery setups (dovetailing machine) I find it difficult to make the drawers for less then I can buy them for. I don't have a dovetailing machine.

I have the Porter-Cable dovetail jig (waste of money) and have found that baltic birch plywood chips out the least, but you still get some. Other hardwoods like, poplar or birch can be used also.

[gc3]

http://www.drawerbuilder.com/cd_custom_combos.php?osCsid=m9qipf1sumaeko8edb4loa al62

look at the prices on those boxes....how can you build it for that?

[ken_rychlik]

The bot is my dovetailing machine. I do a lot of half blind dovetail with Baltic.

I offer solid wood as well and let them choose between price and quality.

I have a jig made that mounts to the bot to make it fast and repeatable.

[michael_schwartz]

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/images/editor/separator.gif
Both poplar and maple are a good choice.

[donclifton]

Thanks for all the great advice. I'm building a roll around cart for the shop and wanted to do dovetails, I used datos in the past and it takes a lot of clamps. I went with #2 pine, it dovetails really well.
Thanks again
Donald Clifton

[myxpykalix]

KENNETH I sent you an email to info at kdcab...ect

[dlcw]

Kenneth,

Any chance of some information on your dovetail jig? I've been thinking of putting one on my machine.

[ken_rychlik]

Don, I have had several request, so I put this together.

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12418

[cip]

I build my own dovetail drawers with a setup similar to Kenneth.

I use pre-finished and pre-dadoed material and the material cost is about $14.50 for a 22" wide by 21" deep 4" high and it takes less then 5 minutes to cut and assemble. So yes you can beat almost anyones price by doing it yourself.

I get my materials from either Specialty Supply or Hardware Resources depending what type of material I need.

My software for the operation is a modified version of the one Gary Cambell wrote some time back. The modifications to the software were to accommodate the pre-dadoed material.

Mike

[englert]

I seem to recall a thread from a couple of months ago that Gary Campbell posted about a jig and programming for your SB's.

For those with the ShopBot Link for eCabinets. Many of our Thermwood owners do cut plywood dovetail drawers on our machines. There may be some SB owners that do the same, so you may query about that.


Dennis