Ataching a drawer front to the drawer carcass????..............

[Mark Rios]

I"m doing some final sanding on my ten drawers (small kitchen) and drawer fronts. The doors and drawer fronts are inset panel, 3/4" rails and stiles and 5.2mm maple, MDF core ply.

I got to thinking about mounting/mating these two components together after they are finished and got to wondering......Is there a standard method of attaching a seperate drawer front to the drawer? I"m not necessarily talking about a particular fastener but more along the lines of the empty space between the front of the drawer carcass and the back of the inset panel.

Does the void get filled behind the inset panel? If so, then with what?

I have a 3/4" overlay, a 1/2" gap (for the drawer glide) and a 1/2" thick drawer side. My stiles are 2" wide so that leaves me with only 1/4" to screw into the stile. So, realistically, I'm left with attaching the drawer carcass to the inset panel of the drawer front.

I'm thinking of finding some material, say like some plywood or something similar, that is the same thickness as the recess in the back of the drawer front and gluing it in. This would leave me with 1/2" thick material to screw into. However, while typing this and thnking about it some more, that's not a lot of material to screw into. So...maybe screw into the drawer front stile at an angle? Hmmmmmm...............


Thanks very much for any light you can shed on this.

[Terry Bigelow]

A piece of quarter inch will work because the hardware should help the short screws too(I'm assuming you'll have a pull on the drawer?). Use screws long enough to go through the drawer box, 1/4" backer and into the panel. Attach the 1/4" "sub-panel" to the drawer front with glue and set aside. Drive the screws through the drawer box so just the tips come all the way through the drawer box. Then close the drawer and hold the front up till it's just right and give it a tap so the screws just puncture the back of the front. Open the drawer and sink the screws all the way in. Now attach your pull through the front, sub-panel and drawer box. The pull will be enough to hold the front instead of just short screws.

[Jamie Buxton]

Can't you run your screws into the rails of the drawer fronts, not the stiles?

[Mark Rios]

Can't you run your screws into the rails of the drawer fronts, not the stiles?

No Jamie. Well, only the top rail. I"ve been playing around with one of my mock-up fronts. I think I may be bale to get it.

The customer had a specific cabinet style that they wanted me to copy, thereby dictating the narrow, 2" width of the rails and stiles. I didn't think about the drawer fronts until just today. I AM a bonehad.

[Joe Chritz]

I have that style drawer front.

My first plan was to glue in a spacer sheet as you mentioned and position it, then pin then use the pull for the real holding.

I ended up using scrap maple ply from the cabinets and rabbiting the back and running it through a drum sander to flush the back.

Whatever is done I would think the space would need to be filled somehow before the pull is attached.

Good luck

Joe

[Ed Kowaski]

Fastcap sells some little double slotted angle brackets for this application. I've not used them but they may be the answer to your problem.