A question about drawer joints

[rudy de haas]

I need to make a bunch of drawers for the vanity - the thinnest pair will have a sidewall depth of about 3" - the stock will end up about
1/2" thick; santos mahogany on the faces, white birch sides and back, baltic birch bottoms.

Dove tail joints scare me a bit, plus I don't have a plunge router.. and, just now, got a sale flyer from busybeetools offering, among things, a bargain on a "lock mitre shaper cutter" for 3/4" spindles - which I do have.

My Blandford book (the master handbook of woodworking techniques) doesn't mention this joint while the Hylton and Matlack book on working with routers barely mentions it.

Is this joint strong enough, with the wood and sizes I'm using, for all four corners on light duty vanity drawers?

[John TenEyck]

Yeah, you can use a lock miter for drawer boxes, but if you have a table saw and dado set, or router table and straight cutting bit already you can easily and quickly make finger jointed drawer boxes w/o spending a penny. Finger joints are incredibly strong and I like how they look though some don't.

IMG_3226.JPG

John

[George Bokros]

You can use a lock dado joint too. Basically a dado in the side and a rabbet in the front and they lock together and are very strong. No tooling needed.

[Jamie Buxton]

..Dove tail joints scare me a bit, plus I don't have a plunge router..

You don't need a plunge router to make router-cut dovetails. A fixed-base router will do the job just as well.

[David Eisenhauer]

The lock dado George describes is a very good drawer joint, easy to set up (as compared to the other equally as-strong joints) and does not require special tooling or equipment other than a dado set. I too like the look of box joints, but I believe they are slightly more involved to set up, but that is an opinion only. When I was building kitchen cabinetry commercially in my small shop, I would offer the lock dado joinery for drawers instead of (machined) dovetails when the prospective client was looking to save on cost. I would demonstrate that the drawer strength was not compromised at all if the higher-end looking dovetails were not used.

[mreza Salav]

I have done lock dado but I disagree it is as strong as finger joint or dovetail (it is weaker than all above because there is no face-to-face glue surface ever, every side of the joint has an end-grain face).
Yes, you can use lock miter and I say it is strong enough for a drawer. Just be aware that each lock miter bit/cutter works for a certain range of stock thickness.

Edit: I have used lock miter only along the grain (where the boards are joint along the grain not like a drawer). For a drawer, large portion of the joint is end-grain, so I agree that it will be more like a lock dado in terms of strength.

[Lee Schierer]

You don't need a plunge router to make router-cut dovetails. A fixed-base router will do the job just as well.

That's what I use with a Rockler dovetail jig.

[Wakahisa Shinta]

I just made a bunch of pull-out shelves using a Whiteside locking drawer glue joint router bit (link). I decided to use this because making dovetail or finger joints would have been too time consuming for 50+ drawers. The joint has a lot of glue surfaces. I haven't performed any comparison test against other types of joinery, but the drawers are plenty strong assembled. Only time will tell, but I feel that these drawers will last quite a long time. They are also installed in the kitchen.

[David Eisenhauer]

Drawers (for indoor use, finished all surfaces) I made in the mid 1980's using lock dado or rabbet dado joinery are still working just fine with no repairs or other adjustments required. I believe through dovetails and box joints are stronger, but how strong do we need kitchen cabinet drawers? I prefer dovetails just because I can do them, but still contend the rabbet dado is sufficient for long term use.

[John Lankers]

I'm not sure that cutter would work on 1/2" stock, the description says it's cutting length is 1 1/4".
I personally would prefer either box joints or dovetails.

[Dave Zellers]

You can do a nice lock dado with just a table saw if you want.
But I always use a couple brads on the side.
image.jpg

[Chris Kiely]

Drawer boxes don't need to be as strong as they used to - depending on hardware, drawer size, and so on. When I was making commercial millwork years ago we'd staple the drawer together, and I still see those boxes in use today, almost 20 years later withstanding heavy commercial use.
Now I'm not advocating you to staple your drawer boxes together, I'm just saying that you don't need to use the strongest joint out there. My 2c.

[Robert Engel]

Lock dado with pins.

[Dave Arnett]

Drawer boxes don't need to be as strong as they used to - depending on hardware, drawer size, and so on. When I was making commercial millwork years ago we'd staple the drawer together, and I still see those boxes in use today, almost 20 years later withstanding heavy commercial use.
Now I'm not advocating you to staple your drawer boxes together, I'm just saying that you don't need to use the strongest joint out there. My 2c.

+1

I've made more drawers than I can count. More ways than I can count.

I've settled on....sliding dovetails for the fronts, and simple dados for the backs. The bottoms get glued in. NEVER had one come back on me.

[rudy de haas]

Right, i should have said something like "I don't have the right router". Right now I only have a small hand held that doesn't have the power needed.