Drawer front mounting advice

[sgryd]

I'm about to build some drawers for my new work bench. I'll probably box-joint or domino the drawer and then put a false drawer front on it. But I don't want any handles pertruding from the work bench and I don't want holes in the drawer to let dust in.

I want to use a router bit like this:
[attachimg=#]

Has anyone used this kind of bit? How thick drawer front do I need? I'll be using Birch plywood for booth drawer and drawer front. Here is a drawing of the drawer fronts made out of 21 mm plywood. It seems like I need an even thicker front. How do I fasten the front to the drawer. Should I glue the front to get some more strength?
[attachimg=#]

 

[mastercabman]

Looks like a neat design,but i don't think i would use plywood for the front.
As far as fastening the front,it depend on how the drawer box is made.
I would secure it with screws from the inside of the drawer box.Or you can incorporate the front as part of the drawer box.

 

[greg mann]

Good advice above. What sides are you using? They look like a Blum or equivalent product to which you could mount the front from the backside.

When routing the pull contour I would consider doing some of operation 2 first to allow an exit path for chips created by the dovetail cutter used in operation 1.

 

[JPatrickWinstead]

If I was building it, I'd make the drawer box with 1/2" (12mm) plywood sides, and the applied front 3/4" (19mm). You can rout the pull as shown, or just run the bit along the bottom or top and skip the chamfer. Birch ply will be fine for the front, but I'd use a nicer 9 ply if you can get it. Attach the front by driving screws from the inside of the drawer - one in each corner, and maybe one in the middle if it's a really big drawer front. Gluing them is overkill, though.

 

[sgryd]

Thanks all.
Routing the handle at the under side of the drawer front is a good idea. I completely missed that possibility. This will solve the problem with a seemingly weak mid section of the front.

What is 9-ply?

I have a huge pile of Mahogany at the attic that I don't know what do do with. Maybe mahogany drawer fronts?

I'll mount the slides 45 mm recessed from the front to be able to screw them to the side panels. I couldn't find any slides that would fit between the Extrusions. This means I would not be able to mount the front directly to the slides..

I was planning to use 12 mm ply for the drawer sides. But I don't know what to use for the bottom. This will be tool drawers. The slides are rated at 100 kg each. Should I:
A: Use 12 mm ply for the bottom and dado the sides 10 mm from the lower end? I.e. I'll loose 10 + 12 mm of drawer depth.
B: Use 6 mm ply for the bottom and dado 8 mm from the lower end, together with a middle divider attached to front and back and dadoed as well. I'll loose 14 mm of depth.

The drawers are 600 mm wide and 800 mm deep. The slides are full extension slides.

I'm an amateur, learning. I've never built *real* drawers. I'm all open for advice and comments.

//Michael

 

[Mettes]

There are alternatives to have a flush pull on drawers

In line with your original idea:

A little bit easier, just drill a hole and insert one or two of these:

 

[greg mann]

I would not use 6mm ply for a drawer that big, especially for holding shop tools. 12mm would be a minimum for me. As far as losing space goes, I find there is a maxim related to drawer size. No matter waht size you make your drawers they will soon be too small and too shallow.  [wink]

 

[rdesigns]

Thanks all.
Routing the handle at the under side of the drawer front is a good idea. I completely missed that possibility. This will solve the problem with a seemingly weak mid section of the front.

What is 9-ply?

I have a huge pile of Mahogany at the attic that I don't know what do do with. Maybe mahogany drawer fronts?

I'll mount the slides 45 mm recessed from the front to be able to screw them to the side panels. I couldn't find any slides that would fit between the Extrusions. This means I would not be able to mount the front directly to the slides..

I was planning to use 12 mm ply for the drawer sides. But I don't know what to use for the bottom. This will be tool drawers. The slides are rated at 100 kg each. Should I:
A: Use 12 mm ply for the bottom and dado the sides 10 mm from the lower end? I.e. I'll loose 10 + 12 mm of drawer depth.
B: Use 6 mm ply for the bottom and dado 8 mm from the lower end, together with a middle divider attached to front and back and dadoed as well. I'll loose 14 mm of depth.

The drawers are 600 mm wide and 800 mm deep. The slides are full extension slides.

I'm an amateur, learning. I've never built *real* drawers. I'm all open for advice and comments.

//Michael

If you make false fronts that will be attached to the drawer box, keep in mind that you can also do routing from the back side of the false front. This will allow you to use a 45 degree chamfering bit to make the kind of angled slot that you showed in your original post. Of course, this means you would not run the finger slot all the way across the front, because that would cut it in half.

As for the drawer bottoms, since the boxes are being made of multi-ply, the bottoms could be attached very securely by simply gluing and nailing or screwing a full-size bottom to the perimeter of the sides, with no loss of depth that would result from setting the bottoms in grooves cut into the sides.