face frame question

[Bob Cooper]

i've always built cabinets w/a rail between each drawer. I've seen some posts where folks don't do that...rather there's just 2 stiles and 2 railes and all the drawers sit just sit between the rails and you just mount the drawer faces so that there is a mimimum gap between them once all the drawer boxes are hung.

These are going to be shop cabinets so i'm worried a little about dust getting into the drawer boxes...so here's my questions...

1) does this design have an issue w/sawdust getting into them?
2) what's a good gap between drawer faces?

[Scott Brandstetter]

Bob
I just built my assembly table with the style you are describing, and have used the method many times in the past. It really depends on how much dust is too much. With any gap dust will definitely find the gap but I have never found it to be a big issue myself. The first thing to come to mind as a gap filler would be a type of brush that went across the bottom of each drawer front but again, not sure I would go to that length.

[John Echenrode]

Bob,

No rails between drawers is a great way to go. It will allow you to make larger drawers. It also prevents the occasional item in the drawer that shifts and "jams" on the rail between drawers preventing the drawer from opening. The item will just "open" the drawer above. I really don't think a drawer can be totally made dust free. Drawers behind a door would help some. But that is always inconvenient to open a door to pull out a drawer.

A good spacing between drawer fronts is to place a washer or a quarter on both side as a spacer (1.75mm). Once the lowest drawer front has been attached it will be simple to space and align the remaining drawer fronts to each other.

[Jim Andrew]

This is interesting, I have always used 1 1/2" rails between drawers and then make the box 3/4" less than the height of the opening. How do you figure your drawer spacings?

[Martin Wasner]

This is interesting, I have always used 1 1/2" rails between drawers and then make the box 3/4" less than the height of the opening. How do you figure your drawer spacings?

You could just figure it off of the drawer front

[John Echenrode]

If you use side mount drawer sides you could use the same spacing method. Just divide the space between rails by the number of drawers you need and subtract the 3/4". If you use concealed under mount slides you will need to allow approximately 9/16" below each drawer when you figure your spacing because the drawer slide mounts underneath.

[Jim Dwight]

I finished a base cabinet to support my RAS and CMS last weekend - just the basic box. I have the CMS on it but I think I will cut out the wall behind (it is an interior wall) so I can move it back up to 3 inches. I want to be able to pull a car in eventually and the extra inches would be nice. So I am still messing around with the installation of tools on top. But once that is done I will move to drawers.

I do not use ball bearing slides on shop cabinets. They waste space and money. Drawers move fine for me wood on wood. A little wax helps them move more easily. I just make what are sometimes called "dust frames" to support and separate the drawers. I ususally do not put a center panel in them to close off the space between drawers entirely. Probably just a 1 inch wide by 3/4 thick frame screwed to the cabinet sides. This way, I have no wasted space on the sides and only 3/4 inch between drawers. I will probably allow 1/8 around the drawers for clearance. Maybe a little less (minimum is 1/8 total). I don't fuss with shop cabinets too much. For kitchen or bathroom cabinets, I would shoot for a little less clearance, maybe 1/8 total or 1/16 on each side. I will probably put drawer slides on my next cabinets, wife wants them, but I did an island without slides in the last house. I liked it and my late wife did too - we gained space we needed. But current wife likes slides and doesn't seem to understand about space (she complains about not having enough but doesn't connect the slides to the space - it's only an inch but it's an inch on every drawer).

I do not think there is any issue with dust with my inset drawers. Dust has to move horizontally to enter which is does to some degree but not enough to be bothersome - at least in my shop. I also try to use a shop vac or DC at the tool to minimize the dust moving around.