# Drawers



## Pauley (Jan 21, 2012)

How can I figure out how many overlay drawers I can fit into a particular space? I have an opening of 18 5/8 wide... 10 1/4 inches deep... 25 3/4 inches high. I am looking to make the drawers as a box, then add the overlaying face to that...Im looking for 5 drawers to go in it. I guess it's safe to say I suck at the math part....


----------



## MT Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

Pauley said:


> How can I figure out how many overlay drawers I can fit into a particular space? I have an opening of 18 5/8 wide... 10 1/4 inches deep... 25 3/4 inches high. I am looking to make the drawers as a box, then add the overlaying face to that...Im looking for 5 drawers to go in it. I guess it's safe to say I suck at the math part....


If you have a spreadsheet program, you could figure it out by putting the drawer sizes in some of the cells, include some separation space in the other cells. Play with the sizes to you get hat you want.

Will that help?


----------



## mako1 (Jan 25, 2014)

The info you have given is not enough to answer your question.Is the drawer box going to be frameless or have a face frame?Toe kick?If face frmae how wide will the stiles and rails be?


----------



## woodchux (Jul 6, 2014)

It depends on if you are stacking the drawers horizontally (left to right) or vertical (one on top of another), and allowing for humidity expansion/contraction of drawer overlays material. Measure entire surface of where the drawers will be placed, divide that number by 5 (drawers required) which will equal the total surface of one drawer overlay, and adjust that dimension accordingly for easy measuring by allowing in-between space of drawers. Be safe.


----------



## MT Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

MT Stringer said:


> If you have a spreadsheet program, you could figure it out by putting the drawer sizes in some of the cells, include some separation space in the other cells. Play with the sizes to you get hat you want.
> 
> Will that help?


Here is what I am talking about.
All you have to do is...
1) Put a value in the cell designated as the total height of your cabinet (total stile length) - B3
2) Put a value in drawer opening #1 - (B5)
3) Copy the value in cell B5 into each of the other drawer opening cells. Then all you have to do is enter a new value in B5 and the others will reflect it. :yes:

4) Put a value in each of the mid rail cells. This would be the width of a rail or it can be the separation between your drawers.

5) Put a SUM formula in the cell that will display the total of all values. example: =SUM(B4:B14) This will total all values. Make changes accordingly until you get the desired result you are looking for.

Once you know what your opening is, you can then build your drawer boxes to fit, just don't build them too big! :smile:

Check my pics. This is how I build my face frames, which I do first. Then I build the cabinet to fit it. I do it this way so I can make my cabinets fit a certain space in my kitchen.

Good luck. Hope it works out well for you.

Note: You could always draw the results to scale on graph paper (or Sketchup) to make sure the numbers are right.


----------



## Pauley (Jan 21, 2012)

mako1 said:


> The info you have given is not enough to answer your question.Is the drawer box going to be frameless or have a face frame?Toe kick?If face frmae how wide will the stiles and rails be?


It will be frameless, no toe kick...


----------



## Pauley (Jan 21, 2012)

woodchux said:


> It depends on if you are stacking the drawers horizontally (left to right) or vertical (one on top of another), and allowing for humidity expansion/contraction of drawer overlays material. Measure entire surface of where the drawers will be placed, divide that number by 5 (drawers required) which will equal the total surface of one drawer overlay, and adjust that dimension accordingly for easy measuring by allowing in-between space of drawers. Be safe.


I will be stacking them on top of each other...


----------



## Pauley (Jan 21, 2012)

MT Stringer said:


> Here is what I am talking about. All you have to do is... 1) Put a value in the cell designated as the total height of your cabinet (total stile length) - B3 2) Put a value in drawer opening #1 - (B5) 3) Copy the value in cell B5 into each of the other drawer opening cells. Then all you have to do is enter a new value in B5 and the others will reflect it. :yes: 4) Put a value in each of the mid rail cells. This would be the width of a rail or it can be the separation between your drawers. 5) Put a SUM formula in the cell that will display the total of all values. example: =SUM(B4:B14) This will total all values. Make changes accordingly until you get the desired result you are looking for. Once you know what your opening is, you can then build your drawer boxes to fit, just don't build them too big! :smile: Check my pics. This is how I build my face frames, which I do first. Then I build the cabinet to fit it. I do it this way so I can make my cabinets fit a certain space in my kitchen. Good luck. Hope it works out well for you. Note: You could always draw the results to scale on graph paper (or Sketchup) to make sure the numbers are right.


Thanks for the reply, but you lost me at "all you have to do..." Ha ha...I'm kind of a dinasour, if I can't figure it out on a scrap piece of wood, then I need help....thank you anyhow...


----------



## MT Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

Pauley said:


> Thanks for the reply, but you lost me at "all you have to do..." Ha ha...I'm kind of a dinasour, if I can't figure it out on a scrap piece of wood, then I need help....thank you anyhow...


Sorry about that. What I have posted will get you pretty close. Lay it out on your story stick. The mid stile area is the space between your drawers.

With a 1 1/2 inch rail, and a 1/2 inch drawer front overlay, you will have 1/2 inch space between the drawers. You could drop back to 1 1/4 and have the drawer fronts closer with about 1/4 inch space.

Hope this helps.

That is what I did when I built the cabinet for my drill press.
Mike


----------



## bauerbach (Mar 25, 2012)

25.75" to work with.

you will have 4 divisions between 5 drawers. Figure each drawer has 1/4" between them? thats 1". you might go less if you think you can handle that level of precision. Im ignoring any clearance on top and bottom... you may need some space on top or bottom if its going to rub the floor or a counter top. lets call that .75" for easy numbers

Lets call your working space 24" (25.75" - 1" - .75")

24/5= 4.8" per drawer

I think thats your answer...


----------



## MT Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

Here is another calculation.
I plugged in 3/4 inch for the cabinet frame thickness with no face frame.

I reduced the space between the drawers to 1 1/4 inches. 

Looks like you could build drawers that have 3 1/4 inch sides with no problem...maybe even 3 1/2 inches.

Mike


----------



## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

1. Subtract any space at top and bottom from total height.
2. Subtract 4 times distance required between drawer fronts from result of step 1.
Divide result of step 2 by 5.


----------



## MT Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

FrankC said:


> 1. Subtract any space at top and bottom from total height.
> 2. Subtract 4 times distance required between drawer fronts from result of step 1.
> Divide result of step 2 by 5.


Yep. That is exactly what I showed in the pic of the spreadsheet.


----------



## Pauley (Jan 21, 2012)

Thanks everyone for the help. I got it....


----------

