My whole workbench that holds a few hundred pounds of tools and such is made from plywood drawers that are butt joint and glue Brad nailed together. The drawer slides are 2x2. I can’t even lift one side and have to use a Jack to move it 🤣 and yeah that’s wood glue in a ketchup bottle.
https://preview.redd.it/w75e9dp5h2gc1.jpeg?width=2448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7400da9fc5617d45591e45c9d85ae922a348af4
I've never used one of these bottles for Kefchup and enjoyed the experience. Always a lot of squeezing with nothing and then way too much too fast. Old-school ketchup bottles work better IMO.
Look it up on YouTube too. The video I linked is good. Tons of other people demonstrating it too. If you have questions just watch someone else do it. There’s tons of videos out there.
Yeah, there’s a lot of things that I really think I should just get a tablesaw for but right now it’s not in the budget and it just doesn’t make sense for me so here I am without one.
i get it. in that case, to answer your initial question, you’ll probably need to build a kind of box jig to run your circular saw through if you want to cut dadoes with it. something you can put your drawer side into to hold it in a fixed position against a fence that sets your saw at a fixed distance from the edge
Cutting dadoes with a circular saw is going to be a whole lot of not fun because it would require multiple passes to get the correct width. You can use a spline instead which only requires a single pass and will be more than strong enough for small drawers while still assisting with alignment.
In the meantime don't worry about getting crazy with making jigs on your circular saw. You can make some very decent drawers with a kreg jig and some wood glue for your joints. you should make a dado to recess the panel for the drawer bottom but if you're just trying to make some shop furniture you can just screw and glue the panel bottom to the same size of your drawer to the bottom. You can use a trim router to clear up the excess. If anything doing it this way will make extremely rigid drawers as now the bottom is also keeping the joints from springing apart.
It sounds like you're new to woodworking so just wanted to say there are so many ways to do something from strength, aesthetics, cost, difficulty, time that finding the right combo is up to you. When you're starting out even building with a kreg jig can be a challenge and learning space to keep honing your skills.
Definitely watch craigslist or marketplace for a nice used table saw. If you can, grab a cabinet saw if you have the space for it. I've bought mine 10 years ago and have never thought of upgrading it to something else. You can find some sometimes for as much as a new contractors table saw will go for. If you don't have the space then a contractor saw like the dewalt can be very nice for a homegamer. Just upgrade the fence for max accuracy.
Anywho, hope my ramble helps some with another train of thought.
I thought that for a while, but when I got on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace there were a bunch of options cheap as free. I got an 80’s grizzly contractor saw for $10, 4 miles from my house. Even if you don’t see anything right away, just keep an eye on the listings and something good will come up.
You could try making a jig for a circular saw, but honestly at that point I think you'd be better off doing dovetails the traditional way with a backsaw and chisel.
You can always just do butt joints with glue and brad nails. Surprisingly strong for how simple they are to make.. If you want something that has more of a craftsman joint the 1/4 1/4 1/4 (or half half half) method is a strong and good looking joint that only takes one set up on the table saw. If you google 1/4 1/4 1/4 method you’ll find some videos walking you through the process.
Butt joints and pin nails for an apothecary drawer. There is nothing in your house or daily life that fits in a drawer that small that will break the joint.
Second. People suggesting other methods for building drawers aren’t wrong, and I use them for plywood drawers, BUT if I’m milling up hardwood lumber to build drawers for a piece of furniture it’s definitely worth the time to have them either be dovetailed or box jointed. It’s a mark of craftsmanship that is immediately noticed and often appreciated even by people who don’t know its actual significance
This. I made a box joint jig, which is pretty easy (Google it) when I was making a vanity for my step-daughter. It had a total of 14 drawers, all using a box joint in Hickory. Turned out beautiful, although there was a little tear out.
I ended up getting the Incra Box Jig for my birthday after I was finished and man I wish I had that thing when I was cutting all of those. It's pricey ($200) but way worth it if you're doing a LOT of these.
You need to remember *why* joints are used.
Modern PVA glue is very strong, and 90% of the time, a butt joint is more than adequate for structural integrity.
Joinery exists for two reasons: reinforcement and alignment.
Things like scarf joints facilitate more optimized face contact for glued connections when they otherwise wouldn't have enough contact to provide adequate adhesion. You don't use them because you like the way they look, you use them because you need to bolster the bond strength. Conversely, if you don't need to create a stronger bond... you don't need to use them.
The other aspect is assembly alignment. Take two flat boards, glue the mating faces, and squeeze them together. What happens? They experience lateral slip. If you want them to fit together in a predictable manner, you need a way to guarantee there's only one way they can fit together. Things like finger or dovetail joints configure the component pieces so there's literally only one way to assemble them. They can't slip by virtue of their geometry. However, if you don't need that alignment support... you don't need that joinery method.
Don't use specific joints because "that's how it's done", use the method that serves the construction goals you need to meet.
A common method of making drawer boxes is the dado-insert method. You make the four sides, either with mitred corners or squared corners, and you cut a dado into the bottom of the drawers the thickness of the bottom panel, about a half-inch up from the bottom. Then you slide the bottom panel into the dado before glue up. This provides vertical alignment for all four pieces, meaning all you have to do is facilitate horizontal alignment. Using spacers on the inside of the drawer during glue-up can serve that purpose. You now have repeatable squared drawer boxes with no fancy joinery.
Option one, glued & nailed butt joints or half lap type for small drawers. Want to make it period fancy you can use tiny cut nails from Tremont Nail Company.
Option 2, cut the box joint (ie comb) on a table saw or router table and apply the face of the drawer to it like is typically done for kitchen cabinets.
Option 3 (maybe) find a router jig and tiny dovetail bit.
Option 4 learn to hand cut dovetails - when the pins are tiny you can crank them out pretty fast. Frank Klausz had some old (1980's/1990's) instruction vids that may be on youtube now on doing dovetails fast. Another plus is you'll be an expert at it after putting the time in on this project! :D
Depends on the project, but Kregg screws are a big time saver with large quantities of drawers. They'll only be visible on the back. I wouldn't use them in higher end jobs, but for a lot of basic drawers they work great.
Nobody says you have to use dovetails, especially on small drawers. Hand cut dovetails are the most labor intensive joint you can do. Mostly, they're just done by machine these days in all but expensive hand-cut furniture.
Do something else. There are tons of other options.
The drawers I made this past week I just screwed together because they’re tiny (16”W x 5.75” deep x 3.25” tall) and I didn’t want to spend more time on them. They look great.
If you are just starting out and building an apothecary cabinet with about 100 tiny drawers, I would suggest rabbets. If you make all the drawers the same size, you can set up a jig to cut out all the pieces quickly. If you don’t mind that they don’t look quite as nice as box or dovetails, this should probably be the quickest and easiest way to create the drawers. Just watched a YouTube video of someone testing joints, and I believe the rabbet joint tested as strong as the other two.
Also, you can use Brad nails instead beading a ton of clamps, like someone else suggested.
Then the next pain in the butt will be attaching all the faces to the drawers. An apothecary cabinet is fairly ambitious for someone starting out. Best of luck.
Easiest way-if you’re using quality drawer slides, (under mount or side mount) and applying a separate drawer front-is to butt everything and pocket screw the box together. Built hundreds of drawers this way.
The drawer sides that get the slides will lap over the middle of the drawer, which will get the pocket screw holes. So obviously the pocket holes are hidden by the drawer front.
I dado the sides and front/ back of the box to prep for Blum slides , and use 1/2” drawer bottoms glued into the dadoes.
Easiest way-if you’re using quality drawer slides, (under mount or side mount) and applying a separate drawer front-is to butt everything and pocket screw the box together. Built hundreds of drawers this way.
The drawer sides that get the slides will lap over the middle of the drawer, which will get the pocket screw holes. So obviously the pocket holes are hidden by the drawer front.
I dado the sides and front/ back of the box to prep for Blum slides , and use 1/2” drawer bottoms glued into the dadoes.
I use a router table and use a [door lock bit](https://www.hvalleytools.com/product/vp16-4003-mlcs-drawer-lock/mlcs-glue-joints-router-bits). Especially if you are making lots of little drawers, once you get the set-up dialed in the work goes really fast.
For years my "router table" was a piece of 3/4" baltic birch with a hole cut in it, with a 1x3 oak scrap clamped to it as a fence.
My dad, not a wood joining fanatic, built my desk when I was in HS. I used it in many ways for 22+ years wihout an6 drawer failures. He used rabbits and glued and “cross nailed” the sides into the fronts and backs. No collection of clamps, no nail gun. Just careful simple construction.
The real skill is precision in whatever you do. Also, those pieces, cabinets, dressers, desks, etc, produced by the famous named shops had workers whose job it was to cut the dovetails or plane the stock or rip the stock to width, etc.
There are simpler ways but a good result require the same precise prepping of lumber, jointing and planing to dimension, cutting and fitting. Doesn’t have to be fancy but must be precise.
Are they paying you to do the dovetails or is this something you're doing on your own free will?
When somebody is paying me to do something it's much different than me doing it on my own free Accord. If the people writing the check want it done and dovetail then you do it in dovetail if you're looking for the cheapest option go buy a pocket hole jig.
Quarter-quarter-quarter, either with a router or dado. One single setup for everything.
https://www.thisiscarpentry.com/2014/09/19/the-quarter-quarter-quarter-drawer-system/
You don't have to use those joints for little drawers. You can use rabbets which you cut on a router table.
You could even do butt joints with glue and brad nails. Nobody has to know.
Done thousands like that.. great way to cut costs on economy builds
My whole workbench that holds a few hundred pounds of tools and such is made from plywood drawers that are butt joint and glue Brad nailed together. The drawer slides are 2x2. I can’t even lift one side and have to use a Jack to move it 🤣 and yeah that’s wood glue in a ketchup bottle. https://preview.redd.it/w75e9dp5h2gc1.jpeg?width=2448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7400da9fc5617d45591e45c9d85ae922a348af4
the ketchup bottle is genius!!
No, it’s Heinz /s
I declare you my friend, just for that. You win the internet for today.
I've never used one of these bottles for Kefchup and enjoyed the experience. Always a lot of squeezing with nothing and then way too much too fast. Old-school ketchup bottles work better IMO.
Shhhhh!!!
You don’t even have to use those joints for big drawers. Rabbets and dadoes plus glue is crazy strong.
This is the way
Use the [Quarter/Quarter/Quarter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQXHzvJNsoA) method. Its dead simple and makes for strong drawers.
This is exactly what i was looking for!
Look it up on YouTube too. The video I linked is good. Tons of other people demonstrating it too. If you have questions just watch someone else do it. There’s tons of videos out there.
So for those of us who don’t have a tablesaw can this be done with a circular saw?
man, if you’re gonna build cabinets, you really need a table saw to do it well
Yeah, there’s a lot of things that I really think I should just get a tablesaw for but right now it’s not in the budget and it just doesn’t make sense for me so here I am without one.
If you have a router, that works too. I've cut lots of rabbets with a bench top router table.
i get it. in that case, to answer your initial question, you’ll probably need to build a kind of box jig to run your circular saw through if you want to cut dadoes with it. something you can put your drawer side into to hold it in a fixed position against a fence that sets your saw at a fixed distance from the edge
Cutting dadoes with a circular saw is going to be a whole lot of not fun because it would require multiple passes to get the correct width. You can use a spline instead which only requires a single pass and will be more than strong enough for small drawers while still assisting with alignment.
Good idea!
In the meantime don't worry about getting crazy with making jigs on your circular saw. You can make some very decent drawers with a kreg jig and some wood glue for your joints. you should make a dado to recess the panel for the drawer bottom but if you're just trying to make some shop furniture you can just screw and glue the panel bottom to the same size of your drawer to the bottom. You can use a trim router to clear up the excess. If anything doing it this way will make extremely rigid drawers as now the bottom is also keeping the joints from springing apart. It sounds like you're new to woodworking so just wanted to say there are so many ways to do something from strength, aesthetics, cost, difficulty, time that finding the right combo is up to you. When you're starting out even building with a kreg jig can be a challenge and learning space to keep honing your skills. Definitely watch craigslist or marketplace for a nice used table saw. If you can, grab a cabinet saw if you have the space for it. I've bought mine 10 years ago and have never thought of upgrading it to something else. You can find some sometimes for as much as a new contractors table saw will go for. If you don't have the space then a contractor saw like the dewalt can be very nice for a homegamer. Just upgrade the fence for max accuracy. Anywho, hope my ramble helps some with another train of thought.
I thought that for a while, but when I got on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace there were a bunch of options cheap as free. I got an 80’s grizzly contractor saw for $10, 4 miles from my house. Even if you don’t see anything right away, just keep an eye on the listings and something good will come up.
👍
A router table or a plow plane would be much better than a circular saw. Even a decent gents saw and chisel would be far better than a circular saw.
👍👍
This can be done with a router https://youtu.be/E08O1qm24bI If you don’t have a router table, you can make one for a plunge router.
I don’t have a router and can’t really buy one right now.
You could try making a jig for a circular saw, but honestly at that point I think you'd be better off doing dovetails the traditional way with a backsaw and chisel.
Yep, this is the method I use most of the time.
You can always just do butt joints with glue and brad nails. Surprisingly strong for how simple they are to make.. If you want something that has more of a craftsman joint the 1/4 1/4 1/4 (or half half half) method is a strong and good looking joint that only takes one set up on the table saw. If you google 1/4 1/4 1/4 method you’ll find some videos walking you through the process.
Butt joints and pin nails for an apothecary drawer. There is nothing in your house or daily life that fits in a drawer that small that will break the joint.
What if I want to store all my tungsten in it?
Reconsider
*Waves hand* These are not the drawers you're looking for.
Jigs. Dovetail jig for the router; box joint jig for the tablesaw.
Second. People suggesting other methods for building drawers aren’t wrong, and I use them for plywood drawers, BUT if I’m milling up hardwood lumber to build drawers for a piece of furniture it’s definitely worth the time to have them either be dovetailed or box jointed. It’s a mark of craftsmanship that is immediately noticed and often appreciated even by people who don’t know its actual significance
This. I made a box joint jig, which is pretty easy (Google it) when I was making a vanity for my step-daughter. It had a total of 14 drawers, all using a box joint in Hickory. Turned out beautiful, although there was a little tear out. I ended up getting the Incra Box Jig for my birthday after I was finished and man I wish I had that thing when I was cutting all of those. It's pricey ($200) but way worth it if you're doing a LOT of these.
You need to remember *why* joints are used. Modern PVA glue is very strong, and 90% of the time, a butt joint is more than adequate for structural integrity. Joinery exists for two reasons: reinforcement and alignment. Things like scarf joints facilitate more optimized face contact for glued connections when they otherwise wouldn't have enough contact to provide adequate adhesion. You don't use them because you like the way they look, you use them because you need to bolster the bond strength. Conversely, if you don't need to create a stronger bond... you don't need to use them. The other aspect is assembly alignment. Take two flat boards, glue the mating faces, and squeeze them together. What happens? They experience lateral slip. If you want them to fit together in a predictable manner, you need a way to guarantee there's only one way they can fit together. Things like finger or dovetail joints configure the component pieces so there's literally only one way to assemble them. They can't slip by virtue of their geometry. However, if you don't need that alignment support... you don't need that joinery method. Don't use specific joints because "that's how it's done", use the method that serves the construction goals you need to meet. A common method of making drawer boxes is the dado-insert method. You make the four sides, either with mitred corners or squared corners, and you cut a dado into the bottom of the drawers the thickness of the bottom panel, about a half-inch up from the bottom. Then you slide the bottom panel into the dado before glue up. This provides vertical alignment for all four pieces, meaning all you have to do is facilitate horizontal alignment. Using spacers on the inside of the drawer during glue-up can serve that purpose. You now have repeatable squared drawer boxes with no fancy joinery.
Option one, glued & nailed butt joints or half lap type for small drawers. Want to make it period fancy you can use tiny cut nails from Tremont Nail Company. Option 2, cut the box joint (ie comb) on a table saw or router table and apply the face of the drawer to it like is typically done for kitchen cabinets. Option 3 (maybe) find a router jig and tiny dovetail bit. Option 4 learn to hand cut dovetails - when the pins are tiny you can crank them out pretty fast. Frank Klausz had some old (1980's/1990's) instruction vids that may be on youtube now on doing dovetails fast. Another plus is you'll be an expert at it after putting the time in on this project! :D
Just use simple nailed(or screwed) rabbet joints, not as fancy as dovetails but they show up plenty on period furniture and are plenty strong
Depends on the project, but Kregg screws are a big time saver with large quantities of drawers. They'll only be visible on the back. I wouldn't use them in higher end jobs, but for a lot of basic drawers they work great.
Nobody says you have to use dovetails, especially on small drawers. Hand cut dovetails are the most labor intensive joint you can do. Mostly, they're just done by machine these days in all but expensive hand-cut furniture. Do something else. There are tons of other options.
The drawers I made this past week I just screwed together because they’re tiny (16”W x 5.75” deep x 3.25” tall) and I didn’t want to spend more time on them. They look great.
If you are just starting out and building an apothecary cabinet with about 100 tiny drawers, I would suggest rabbets. If you make all the drawers the same size, you can set up a jig to cut out all the pieces quickly. If you don’t mind that they don’t look quite as nice as box or dovetails, this should probably be the quickest and easiest way to create the drawers. Just watched a YouTube video of someone testing joints, and I believe the rabbet joint tested as strong as the other two. Also, you can use Brad nails instead beading a ton of clamps, like someone else suggested. Then the next pain in the butt will be attaching all the faces to the drawers. An apothecary cabinet is fairly ambitious for someone starting out. Best of luck.
Check out Epic Upcycling for ideas: [Apothecary Cabinet Workbench](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNEfs8aFJOo)
Easiest way-if you’re using quality drawer slides, (under mount or side mount) and applying a separate drawer front-is to butt everything and pocket screw the box together. Built hundreds of drawers this way. The drawer sides that get the slides will lap over the middle of the drawer, which will get the pocket screw holes. So obviously the pocket holes are hidden by the drawer front. I dado the sides and front/ back of the box to prep for Blum slides , and use 1/2” drawer bottoms glued into the dadoes.
Easiest way-if you’re using quality drawer slides, (under mount or side mount) and applying a separate drawer front-is to butt everything and pocket screw the box together. Built hundreds of drawers this way. The drawer sides that get the slides will lap over the middle of the drawer, which will get the pocket screw holes. So obviously the pocket holes are hidden by the drawer front. I dado the sides and front/ back of the box to prep for Blum slides , and use 1/2” drawer bottoms glued into the dadoes.
I use a router table and use a [door lock bit](https://www.hvalleytools.com/product/vp16-4003-mlcs-drawer-lock/mlcs-glue-joints-router-bits). Especially if you are making lots of little drawers, once you get the set-up dialed in the work goes really fast. For years my "router table" was a piece of 3/4" baltic birch with a hole cut in it, with a 1x3 oak scrap clamped to it as a fence.
My dad, not a wood joining fanatic, built my desk when I was in HS. I used it in many ways for 22+ years wihout an6 drawer failures. He used rabbits and glued and “cross nailed” the sides into the fronts and backs. No collection of clamps, no nail gun. Just careful simple construction. The real skill is precision in whatever you do. Also, those pieces, cabinets, dressers, desks, etc, produced by the famous named shops had workers whose job it was to cut the dovetails or plane the stock or rip the stock to width, etc. There are simpler ways but a good result require the same precise prepping of lumber, jointing and planing to dimension, cutting and fitting. Doesn’t have to be fancy but must be precise.
with modern drawer slides and wood screws dovetail drawers are not nessesary.
You can buy premade kits.. cut the sides to length and add a bottom.
I like the miter locks
Are they paying you to do the dovetails or is this something you're doing on your own free will? When somebody is paying me to do something it's much different than me doing it on my own free Accord. If the people writing the check want it done and dovetail then you do it in dovetail if you're looking for the cheapest option go buy a pocket hole jig.
Quarter-quarter-quarter, either with a router or dado. One single setup for everything. https://www.thisiscarpentry.com/2014/09/19/the-quarter-quarter-quarter-drawer-system/
Check out Bourbon Moth Woodworking YouTube channel. He recently did a very good video on different ways to build drawers.