Who's used Tom Clarks' cabinet making book?

[Greg Urwiller]

I've got Tom Clark's cabinet making book and I'm trying to build some cabinets for the shop. Maybe I'm making it harder than it needs to be, but I don't understand his dimensioning for the drawers. I've got the total height of the cabinets, less the upper and lower face frame width dimensions. That leaves me with a dimension of "X" which I need to divide up into my drawer depths. So, with his description, (if I want, say, 4 drawers) I just decide what depth I want each drawer to be, and divide "X" into those dimensions? Does that mean if I want the bottom drawer to be twelve inches, I just measure up 12" from the bottom face frame and screw in the "doubler and drawer glide" for the next (upper) drawer? And if the second drawer is, say 8", just measure up another 8" and screw in the doubler next drawer? In other words, am I just spacing the drawer mounts now, and "fitting" the false fronts to fit the opening later? I know I'm making more of this than I need to, but better now than later! Thanks. Greg

[David Thompson 27577]

Assuming that you'll be using drawer glides, make your drawer boxes less tall than the amount of height available. Make the drawer fronts so they fit nicely, with maybe a 1/16 gap above/below/between.

Mount the drawer slides to the cabinet and the drawers, then measure and mark each drawer front for location. Drill the drawer box for the mounting holes, giving yourself a little bit of play.

Then drive the screws.


If there's enough space, and you have the right kind of clamps, you can clamp each front to the drawer while driving the screws.

[William Roach]

Greg, I built some recently, and I believe the answer to all of your questions is yes. I would recommend raising the drawer slides up 1/4" off the bottom edge of the doublers and making the actual drawer box height (the drawer without the false front) 1" less than the height of the opening. That allows you take a shaving off the top and bottom of the false front if you need to, and gives the clearance needed to remove the drawers (the drawers rise up 3/4" when they are backed out over the rollers). Also, it helps, as Tom suggested, to put some weight in the drawer before attaching the false front.

[Greg Urwiller]

What I don't understand is, the way Clark makes his cabinets, there are no horizontal face frames (other than the top/bottom), so I really don't have any "drawer opening". Just a total from the bottom to the top. Say my bottom drawer is going to be a 12" drawer. I've attached my bottom "doubler/slide", now do I measure up 12" from the bottom of the doubler or the top? I am guessing I measure from bottom to bottom each time, the dimensions I plan on each drawer being, in other words, 12'' up for a 12" drawer, 8" up for an 8" drawer, etc? Then size the drawer box 1" shorter? I know I'm making this harder than it needs to be, but I've never built anything with drawers in it yet. I could picture it a lot easier if there were individual horizontal face frames which would give me an exact opening to work with. Thanks. Greg

[Tom Clark FL]

What I don't understand is, the way Clark makes his cabinets, there are no horizontal face frames (other than the top/bottom),

Sorry all the photos in the book don't make this easier for you to understand.

For taller cabinets, there is a center face frame to help stiffen up the cabinet, as shown the photo. (By the way, the first three cabinets on the left were some of my first wood working projects, built before I had a table saw in the shop. The parts were just cut out on a bandsaw.)

The reason there is not a face frame under every drawer is they would just be a waste of space. The idea is to make every drawer as large as possible to maximize its utility. Of course you can add them if you wish…

As long as you leave a bit of space under the bottom drawers, and at least 3/4" above the drawer sides - so the drawers can be easily installed and removed at will - the rest of the open area is covered by the drawer fronts.

Always happy to answer any other questions!

[Greg Urwiller]

Hey, thanks for responding Tom! So am I right with the way to measure everything to lay out the drawers? Greg

[Ed Jolin]

I just built a set as a test of his method. I liked it and plan to build some more (time permitting).

Based on your description, it sounds like you're measuring things out correctly. This pic may help. I wanted a stack of 6" drawers. The distance from the bottom of the lower doubler to the bottom of the next doubler is 6". The drawer side is therefore 5" (1" less). The drawer front for the lower drawer in the pic was 6", but since the upper drawer needed to overlay the faceframe, it was 6 3/8" to account for the upper overlay.

If you have face frame members in the middle of the drawer sets (like I have in the pic), you would need to take them into account in measuring up to the bottom of your next doubler.

IMG_0170_resized.JPG

I lined up my drawer slides flush with the bottoms of the drawers. As was pointed out, this can cause the drawers to bottom out against the face frame if it's adjacent, so I had to raise those drawers a hair. I need to come up with a better drawer slide mounting process, as that turned out to be rather time consuming.

[Greg Urwiller]

Thanks Ed. That's the way I'm doing it, got the first cabinet glued up, ready to start the drawers. It wasn't my intention, but apparently I insulted Mister Clark with my questions ( "Sorry all the photos in the book don't make this easier for you to understand."), but as I said, I've never built anything like this before. I hate to waste materials if I don't have to so I figure why not ask. I'm looking forward to finishing this up, I think they'll be good cabinets. Greg