Dresser Drawers - Glass Front

[John Gehlsen]

A few months ago I built a closet organizer for my wife. I left a space for a built-in dresser and now have some time to get it built.

I have already designed the face frame and am trying to figure out how to build the drawers. I would like to make the drawers with a glass panel so that you can easily see what is inside the drawer.

After considering several designs, I decided to go with a flat panel drawer front (but instead of wood, I will use a piece of glass for the panel). When I have built drawers in the past, I would simply built the drawer itself and screw a piece of solid wood to the front. I can't do this with this drawer since I want to be able to see the inside of the drawer. I also want the drawer to overlay on the face frame for a clean look. Based on these requirements, I believe that the right solution is to use a 1/2" half-blind rabbeted dovetail.

I have a PC 4112 dovetail machine that is capable of doing 1/2" half-blind rabbeted dovetails. When I was reading the instructions, it mentions that the maximum depth of the drawer is 10.625". The depth of the drawers that I am planning on building will be 20". Does anyone know why they state that the depth of the drawer should not exceed 10.625"?

The slides that I am planning on using are 20" full-extension Accurides. In the instructions it says that the drawer width should not exceed slide length. The drawer width of two of the drawers will be 32" (the slide is 20"). Is this just to keep the drawer from wedging when it gets pushed in?

I have looked through a couple of books that I have that discuss drawer construction and it provides some guidelines but nothing along the lines of what I found in the instructions. Are these just guidelines or am I going to run into some insurmountable problem if I don't follow these notes?

If anyone out there has built drawers like this in the past, I would certainly appreciate any tips that you would provide.

Thanks.

John Seattle, WA

[Paul Shirron]

Sounds to me like two different dimensions are being discussed here. The dovetail machine probably has a limit on the width of material it can accommodate, resulting in a maximum 10.625" deep (top to bottom) drawer. The length of the material is limited by the distance from the top of the machine to the floor, but would still result in one long (front to back) drawer.

Are you really planning on making 20" deep (top to bottom) drawers? Or, did you mean that you were planning to make 20" deep (front to back) drawers?

On the slides, I suspect that, again, you are comparing two different dimensions. The 20" slides should be used on a 20" or less piece of wood, meaning that the drawer will be 20" deep (front to back). The side to side dimension of the drawer is irrelevant.

[Doug Miller]

[snip]

They're talking about the top-to-bottom dimension, which is probably limited by the size of the jig.

Read "drawer width" as front-to-back dimension.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Leon]

LOL... Now you have me confused..

Read "Drawer Depth" as front to back.

Drawer Width, side to side... Drawer Height, top to bottom.

I'm sure that is what you meant to say..

[Doug Miller]

Go back and read the original post.

Not in the context of the original post.

I agree that this is more reasonable terminology, but, again, _not_ in the context of the original post.

No, it's not. I said exactly what I meant. Did you read the original post? I'm guessing not, otherwise you would realize that the OP was the victim of some pretty confusing terminology in the instructions he was reading.

The OP said that he had a dovetail jig with instructions that said that the maximum "drawer depth" (their phrase, not mine) that could be made with said jig was 'x'. Clearly in this context "drawer depth" refers to the length of the dovetail joint, which is the top-to-bottom dimension of the drawer, exactly as I said. Not front-to-back. There is obviously no restriction placed on front-to-back dimension by a dovetail jig, only top-to-bottom.

He also said that he had drawer slides with instructions that said the "drawer width" (their phrase, not mine) could not exceed 'y' (where 'y' is the length of the slide). Clearly in this context, "drawer width" refers to the front-to-back dimension of the drawer, again exactly as I said. Not left-to-right. Again, there is obviously no restriction placed on left-to-right dimension by a drawer slide, only front-to-back.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Leon]

I got what you are saying but his misinterpretation should have been corrected. I don't ever recall the width of a drawer being the measurement from front to back.

[Doug Miller]

As far as can be seen from the original post, it's not *his* misinterpretation. He was describing what the instructions for his router jig and drawer slides said. And I think that my response, in which I explicitly referred to the relevant dimensions as 'top-to-bottom' and 'front-to-back', was quite sufficient to clear up any misunderstandings that the OP may have had.

Neither do I. But (according to the OP) that's how the directions for his drawer slides referred to it. Can you wonder that he was confused?

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Leon]

[FEngelman]

front back, up down...all very confusing, but I still wonder how he's going to put dovetails into a piece of glass...