I'm making my first project with drawers and discovered I am clueless as to how much clearance is needed between the drawer face (the drawers are inset) and the frame. I did a mock-up with 1/8 inch, but that seems way too big and doesn't look good. The wood is quartered white oak. Any enlightenment as to how much clearance is necessary will be appreciated.
Mike
"Necessary" is a mil or so... :)
Practically, I'll target a 32nd or 16th depending on how wide the drawer face crossgrain is (for plainsawn red oak in a file drawer height I'll go larger; w/ q-sawn white the smaller).
Thanks. There's so much talk about seasonal changes in the wood I wasn't sure how much would be necessary.
I typically cut the drawer front 1/8" shorter and narrower than the opening. I end up with a 1/16" reveal on all sides.
My preference is no more than 1/16th on inset drawers.
Slides or runners?
If the drawer is sitting on wooden runners, one of the problems with inset drawers is getting that bottom "gap" to equal the gap around the two sides and top, and to stay that way.
A neat tip/trick on inset drawers is to plane a very small "rabbet" on the bottom of the front edge of the drawer front. Make this small rabbet equal in depth to the distance of your fitted gap around the top and two sides. This way, your drawer, even though sitting flat on the runners, will appear to have the same width gap all around.
Damn those things are fugly...
Yabbut...if you have their drill - and insert press, they're awesome quick to built and install, and very reliable. You can have your 1/16th or 1/32 all around and so easy to adjust. Do they look nice? Well, with the new mottled silver and other shades, plus the chrome side bars, it has some appeal to the 'euro-tech' fan. I can knock off 12-16 drawers in a couple of hours... from scratch. Oh, and they're finished too. Nothing but upsides, 'cept the look... and even that's just fine with the drawer closed *S*
The fact that all my drawers in the house are baltic birch should tell you the rest.
1/16 each side and you are safe unless you have really, *REALLY* deep drawers).
If the drawer faces are horizontal, next to nothing clearance on the ends works.
If you taper the drawer edges slightly inward, next to nothing all around works.
Thanks for the info guys.
In answer to Swingman: Slides. I figured wooden runners would be a pain.
Mike
Depends on the project. I wouldn't put then in a kitchen, but wooden drawer runners are actually quite easy to do and a nice touch in traditional furniture designs, particularly when using dovetail joinery on the drawer (you don't have to hide part of the joinery with a side mounted slide, or go to the trouble/fussiness of undermount drawer slides, both in drawer design and installation).
There are many ways to do them, here are just a couple methods I've used on projects:
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