Sliding dovetail as a drawer front joint?

[RC]

I'm building some drawers and I'm doing the front of solid wood and a plywood box frame but I would like to do away with the plywood inner front of the box and join the plywood sides directly to the solid wood drawer front.

Since I'm using sliders that require 12,7mm of space between the drawer side and carcass on each side I can't just domino the drawer side directly to the front since the front needs to overlap the drawer box by 25.4mm (1").

I've been  toying with the idea of making sliding dovetails on my router table to the plywood sides front edge to slide from below into the groove I would make in the drawer front to join the box sides to the front.

What I'm unsure is how will plywood with its laminated nature respond to being cut into a dovetail shape? Will its laminations just disintegrate when cut like this?

 

[rdesigns]

It will work very well and be very sturdy. I have used the same joint with no failures or hint of weakness.
You'll probably use 12mm thick plywood for the drawer sides, and the deepest part of the dovetail will shave off about 2mm from each side, leaving you with about 8mm thickness to engage the drawer front. This is plenty, especially since the primary stress will not be side-to-side with the use of side-mounted drawer slides.

 

[BravoRomeo]

My kitchen drawers (factory produced) are assembled this way. It is a great idea, except for the two drawers where the remaining inner ply at the root of the dovetail had grain running vertically instead of horizontally. Eventually, after 20 years of drawer opening/closing, the fronts on those separated. So, I would exercise caution only in the respect of how the plywood will be weakened insofar as which direction the grain runs in the remaining plies, I ended up building new drawer boxes for the two failures... At least to last until I remodel the kitchen.

 

[tjbnwi]

Why can't you Domino the fronts on?

Tom

 

[tiralie]

Why can't you Domino the fronts on?

Tom

Yes, I wondered that as well.
Additionally could you use a blind dovetail.
Tim