Drawer Base Question

[WelshWood]

Hi guys,

Just a quick one,

I'm in the process of making a wine cabinet, and wondering what size ply to use for the bottom,

Each drawer will be around 450mm wide and 300mm deep, holding 4 bottles in each,

Do you think 6mm ply will be enough?

~WW

 

[mo siopa]

Without seeing the design or anything about what the 6mm drawer bottoms might be supporting, I'm going to suggest that 6mm is plenty (because the odds are in my favor).  If you have one bottle per drawer, 6mm is more than adequate.  If you have 20 bottles per drawer with no other support, 6mm may not be adequate.

For my wine racks, there are no "bottoms."  There are only fronts, backs, and sides. (I tried to add smiley faces, etc. but I am emoticon impaired)

 

[WelshWood]

Thanks for the reply,

I think 6mm will be strong enough, each drawer will have 4 bottles in, sides and back will be 15mm softwood, with the drawer front 20mm hardwood. The 6mm base will be installed into a 5mm groove in each of these components.

I will also be having 3 dividers in each drawer, going from the drawer front to the back of the drawer, to which the 6mm base could be screwed to from underneath..

As I've typed this reply out i'm thinking 6mm will be plenty!

~WW

 

[Scorpion]

I will also be having 3 dividers in each drawer, going from the drawer front to the back of the drawer, to which the 6mm base could be screwed to from underneath..

Adding the support of dividers will make the drawer bottom much, much stronger because it decreases the unsupported distance and weight to distance ratio the bottom material must handle.  Without the dividers I'd make them 10mm but I always try to slightly overbuild drawer bottoms for one reason only - the added cost is far less than the time to remake a drawer (or set of drawers) if it turns out the bottom can't handle the weight even just barely.

 

[bertv]

You could shape the dividers to the roundness of the bottles (do these would sit in them solidly) and forsake the bottom altogether. Should improve airflow a lot and that’s what wine racks are all about, right?

Maybe large dowels as dividers?