Outsourcing drawer boxes...?

[LazyGretlWoodWorks]

Hey all. Just built a bunch of shop cabinets (some free standing, some to go inside the open areas of various shop tables / work benches) while doing some major consolidation of my shop to increase open floor area. The joys of a small shop.

Anyway, to avoid making a couple dozen drawers, I'm considering just outsourcing them.

Any of you done that? If so, who did you use, and how was the experience in terms of delivery time and fit?

Thanks much!

 

[Cheese]

I used Fleetwoods in Ham Lake Minnesota...a local outfit. I'd go that option again in a heart beat. Pretty reasonable pricing and I had the rears machined for Blumotion slides. I'd be lucky to purchase just the materials for the price of the completed boxes.
https://www.fleetwoods.net

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[Peter Kelly]

These are a good choice for shop furniture:https://keystonewood.com/products/drawer-boxes/bee-line

Lancaster PA isn't terribly far from Wilmington DE, you'll save on shipping if you pick up yourself as well as purchasing them unassembled.

 

[LazyGretlWoodWorks]

Excellent. Thanks, guys. Messages in to both. Thanks!

 

[gunnyr]

Plus 1 for Keystone.  I don't make drawers, Keystone is too easy.  They can make them better and cheaper than I can.  I gave them my logo and for a small fee will laser it on all the drawer boxes.  I buy them flat packed to make the shipping cheaper.  Assembly is a breeze.

I also use Keystone to make my drawer fronts and doors.  I do a lot of Shaker style, I order them sanded and just break the edges before painting. 

I figure it's better to outsource the things that others do better and cheaper than I can.

 

[Vondawg]

“Dope” ? That’s good right?

 

[Tom the Remodeler]

Seconding Cheese's recommendation of Fleetwoods in Minnesota. They can supply a solid Maple drawer box with dovetailed corners and 1/2" plywood bottom for less than my cost to purchase the materials.

 

[squall_line]

“Dope” ? That’s good right?

Yup.

We'll find out just how good when the post-hoc spam links get edited in.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

“Dope” ? That’s good right?

Yup.

We'll find out just how good when the post-hoc spam links get edited in.

I thought the same thing, but hesitated to report it. Seems like that happened once and the person was real? What got me was the reminder about measurements....yeah, no kidding.

Anyway, to the real topic.
We used to have dovetailed drawers made at a local vendor. They specialize in doors/drawers and can do it more efficiently. The company bought a Grizzly dovetail machine a couple of years ago, so we do them in-house now. Doors just depend on volume. If it's just a few, I do them myself, for more than 10 or so, they still have the vendor do them. It can also depend on how busy I am. They usually have a few projects in the queue, but occasionally things get held up by material availability.

 

[Lincoln]

I understand the reasons why, but it always surprises me that woodworkers out source drawers.

 

[morts10n]

" woodworkers"  like to make a profit

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I understand the reasons why, but it always surprises me that 'woodworkers' out source drawers.

I know, it does sound funny, but the dovetailed drawers are a small proportion of what we do. The main ones are cut on production CNC machines and doweled together. (White Melamine, Black Melamine or "nice" plywood) It's only the hardwood drawers that were done that way, and now those aren't either.
[member=2330]morts10n[/member] is right though. Even if the cost was exactly the same, my time would be better spent on the things I normally do. (or at least two things would be happening at the same time)

If it was a personal project, I wouldn't. First of all, I don't like the uniform look of machine cut half-blinds. I don't go to the trouble of hand cutting, but the Leigh jig allows for custom spacing of through dovetails.
There is also the option of Shaper Origin, but I have not done them with it yet, box joints only.

 

[tjbnwi]

My last drawer box order was for 176 drawer boxes for 2 jobs. Turn around time was 2.5 weeks. I have a Grizzly dovetail machine but not the man power to run it at that volume.

Cutting the dovetails is not the most critical part of the process, stock prep is. All our drawer boxes are maple. The stock needs to be sized in all planes to a variance of not more than 0.005 otherwise you’ll struggle with assembly after the dovetailing. This takes people and machines I don’t have (primarily the people).

That said, all of the special and U shaped drawers are done in house.

Tom

 

[Lincoln]

" woodworkers"  like to make a profit

I said that I understand the reasons.