Adding drawers to a bathroom vanity - Help please!

[John TenEyck]

Hi Mike, Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the inside of the cabinet. But it's very simple. All I did was measure from the inside wall of the cabinet to the end of the hinge where it projects into the cabinet when the doors are open. I think it might have been around 1-1/4". I filled that space by first screwing two 3/4" pieces of plywood vertically inside the cabinet, floor to top, near the front and back. Then I screwed two pieces of 1/2" plywood, about 2-1/2" wide, to those spacers, front to back where the shelf slides needed to be mounted. I used side mounted slides and screwed them to those cross pieces. I measured the distance between the spacers and built the drawer to fit that dimension, following the guidelines for the drawer slides I used (1" less).

You could use the same concept with rear mounting brackets.

I love finger joints with Baltic birch plywood. I think they look good, they are incredibly strong, and they are very easy to do with either a home built jig and dado blade on the tablesaw, or with my original Incra jig on my router table. I built these with the Incra jig. One big advantage of the Incra jig is that you can gang like parts together and cut them all at once. When you need to make a lot of drawers this is a huge advantage. Of course, if you goof, all your parts will be bad.

What I like best about finger joints is that you don't have to calculate what the length of the parts should be, as you do with the sides of dovetailed drawers, or the front and back of rabbeted drawers. You cut the parts to whatever length the outside dimensions of the drawer needs to be, add maybe 1/32" to 1/16" for trim after assembly, and cut them to those dimensions.

John

[Jamie Buxton]

..What I like best about finger joints is that you don't have to calculate what the length of the parts should be, as you do with the sides of dovetailed drawers ..

Well, to be fair, if you're cutting through dovetails, the parts run the full length or width of the drawer. That's analogous to finger joints, which are also through joints.

[John TenEyck]

Well, to be fair, if you're cutting through dovetails, the parts run the full length or width of the drawer. That's analogous to finger joints, which are also through joints.

Right you are. I didn't think about them because I never use them. I don't have a jig that can easily do them, and I'm not cutting them by hand for anything but a period piece.

John

[Andy Giddings]

Dovetails with birch ply can be hit and miss due to tearout of the face veneer. Climb cutting helps but still tricky. Finger joints are good, I prefer lock miter joints which are also strong, but show no joint as such

[Myk Rian]

This works well.
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[Mike Manning]

Does it work well with plywood?

[John TenEyck]

Mike, you can use any joint you like if you use Baltic birch plywood. If you use plywood from HD, Lowes, etc., however, something like what Myk showed above is a better choice because it tends to tear out when you try to cut finger or DT joints. It can be done, but you have to use backer boards on both sides. The locking rabbet joint Myk showed is easy to make with nothing more than your table saw.

John

[Mike Manning]

Well, I am planning on using 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood for the drawers/pullouts. I haven't used that joint but it definitely looks easy enough with or without a dado blade. Luckily I've got one and can use some practice getting familiar with it as I've not had it that long. Looks like a good joint as well.

Realizing as I'm typing this I have a concern with that joint. These drawer boxes won't have a face on them. I wanted to do a floating bottom and if I use this joint it seems as though it will require some additional handwork with a chisel to keep the dado for the bottom from showing on the sides. So I thought that I should just use a rabbet joint to join the drawer boxes which would hide the bottom dado. Am I wrong in that or is there another way?

[John TenEyck]

Mike, the dado for the bottom won't show on the sides, only the front back. (In the photo Myk posted the front/back is the horizontal piece.) This type of joint is really only used with a false front drawer. If yours won't have a false front you should choose another type of joint. You could use a stopped dado so it won't project through the front/back, but you would still be looking at the end grain of the sides which wouldn't be very attractive.

l'd use finger joints.

John

[Mike Manning]

John, don't I still have the issue of the dado for the bottom exposed on the sides using finger joints? A little more reading and I think the answer is the bottom dado would be exposed. Only way around that is stopping short and cleaning them out with a chisel or doing half blind dovetails. Not sure if there's a half blind box/finger joint. Given that I want this to be quick and easy, I think going with rabbet joints for boxes that are going to hold cosmetics and the like should be sufficient.

However, it does make me wonder how people are attaching the bottoms to the boxes/drawers/pullouts/etc when using exposed dovetail/box/finger joints. Do you know?

[Lee Schierer]

However, it does make me wonder how people are attaching the bottoms to the boxes/drawers/pullouts/etc when using exposed dovetail/box/finger joints. Do you know?

I use half blind dovetails and you can't see the 1/4" dado. Most likely your drawer slides will hide the dado on the outside of the drawer if the slides are located near the bottom of the drawer. A little planning and the dado will end up in a finger not a slot and would only be visible on the drawer side and not the front.

[Mike Manning]

I use half blind dovetails and you can't see the 1/4" dado. Most likely your drawer slides will hide the dado on the outside of the drawer if the slides are located near the bottom of the drawer. A little planning and the dado will end up in a finger not a slot and would only be visible on the drawer side and not the front.

Lee, good thought on the drawer slide hiding the dado on the outside. Yeah, I'd already figured with some planning I could limit the exposure to the sides. Thanks for the input.

[John TenEyck]

No, the dado won't show on the side IF you locate it so it's under one of the fingers. These drawers were made with 1/2" BB plywood, including the bottoms, and 1/2" finger joints. 1/2" BB is just under 1/2" so if you center it carefully on the finger it won't show on the side, only the front/back. The back doesn't show so who cares, and the front gets covered.

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John

[Roger Feeley]

I used to use General Finishes water-borne poly from Woodcraft. But I've become a big fan of Vermont Natural Coatings PolyWhey. I think it brushes on easier and dries harder. In my experience, the GF seems a little soft. When you tap the PolyWhey with your fingernail, you get a nice click.

[John TenEyck]

I used to use General Finishes water-borne poly from Woodcraft. But I've become a big fan of Vermont Natural Coatings PolyWhey. I think it brushes on easier and dries harder. In my experience, the GF seems a little soft. When you tap the PolyWhey with your fingernail, you get a nice click.

Roger, which specific GF product are you talking about? I've never found any of their water borne products to be soft, and I've used HP Poly, EnduroVar, and Enduro Clear Poly. All are hard. But Enduro Clear Poly is the hardest and also very abrasion resistant. Either you used a different product from those I've, though I can't think of which one it would be, or you put it on a soft substrate, or you didn't apply it where the temp. was high enough for the product to cure correctly. If the PolyWhey is harder than the GF products then it's one hard product.

John