# Drawer is *slightly* too wide -- Fix?



## eaglewso (Nov 12, 2012)

If this is the wrong section, please move it.

Building a changing table for my daughter that is on the way and got mostly done with the project. I measured the interior width incorrectly and each of my drawers are about 3/32 too wide for the opening. I am planning on using full-length soft close drawer slides on this piece so I need 1/2" on each side for the slides to fit. 

The sides of the drawers are 1x8 dimensional pine.

I have a 6" jointer but there is a roll pin that is for the guard cover that prevents me from putting this whole piece through. 

I had considered the following:
Tall router bit on my router table and adjust the fence to take 1/32 off at a time. Problem is the slides are 1.5" tall and the tallest bit I have is a pattern bit and even with the bearings removed it is only 1.25".

or

Clamp the drawer (its roughly 18x37") in my cross cut sled (just barely fits) and take off a little at a time on the table saw.


Are there any other options I am not considering? I do not own a shoulder plane, but not sure that would be well suited to a 1.5" wide cut path anyway. 

Here is a picture of the rough layout of how the project looks. Its not constructed EXACTLY like this but for the considerations on drawer mounting the picture accurately portrays how it will go.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Assuming you used nails to put the drawer boxes together just put an old blade on your table saw and rabbet the drawer sides the size of the drawer slides on each side. You might use a nail set first and try to set the nails in deep enough the blade won't hit them.


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## eaglewso (Nov 12, 2012)

Steve Neul said:


> Assuming you used nails to put the drawer boxes together just put an old blade on your table saw and rabbet the drawer sides the size of the drawer slides on each side. You might use a nail set first and try to set the nails in deep enough the blade won't hit them.


Glue and 2 pocket screws on each corner. Going to be hidden by the face of the drawer.

Not sure why I couldnt think of "rabbet". That was my option B, but I was not clear enough in my description.

I also found a 2" router bit that would give me the proper height to take off a little at a time (slides are 1.5" tall)

For the rabbet would I be better off using a sacrificial fence? Not sure exactly how to go about that since the fence is only about 3" tall and the work piece is 8".


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

You could always put the drawer between the fence and blade. The important thing is not hit any fasteners with the blade.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*use a dado head*

The drawers are overall too wide by about 1/8" per side. 
A dado head could remove material from the center leaving 2 rails to ride on the table saw. They could be hand planed off afterward. Then sanded flush. 
The drawer slides can be bottom mounted rather than side mounted....?

]There are many old dressers that used a wood sliding rail either in the center or on either side. That nylon strapping tape would make a good friction free surface for the edge of the drawers to slide on.


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## MT Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

I hope I understand what you are attempting to do.

I think you could back the pocket screws out if you used glue on the joints also.

I would agree a sacrificial fence would be the thing to do. That way there would be no chance of the table saw blade hitting your fence. Just clamp the sacrificial fence in place slightly over the blade and raise it up to cut a relieve in the sac fence. Then move the fence so that you rip off a two inch rabbit ever so slightly on each side of your drawer. After all, you only need 3/32, right?

Here are some pics of my aux fence. I use it often. The clamps are from Rockler but you can use any type of clamp.

Hope this helps.
Mike


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

Have you done the math to see how thick your drawer sides will be when you cut off the amount that will be required?

First remember that 1x lumber is not 1" think. So your two sides added together are probably only 1.5" thick. From that you want to remove 35/32" inch. That leaves 13/32 thickness for the total thickness of both sides.

George


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## d_slat (Apr 10, 2012)

GeorgeC said:


> Have you done the math to see how thick your drawer sides will be when you cut off the amount that will be required?
> 
> First remember that 1x lumber is not 1" think. So your two sides added together are probably only 1.5" thick. From that you want to remove 35/32" inch. That leaves 13/32 thickness for the total thickness of both sides.
> 
> George


Actually, according to the first post it's 3/32, half of which is 3/64.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

You would be surprised how often that happens in a professional shop. One person is making cutting tickets for the drawers, someone else is building the drawers and someone else making the faceframes. All someone has to do is make a little mistake and the drawers don't fit. Maybe the faceframe guy makes the opening a little small and the drawer guy makes the box a little big.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Confusing statements ....*

Quote:
Building a changing table for my daughter that is on the way and got mostly done with the project. I measured the interior width incorrectly and each of my drawers are *about 3/32 too wide* for the opening. I am planning on using full-length soft close drawer slides on this piece so I need *1/2" on each side* for the slides to fit. 

(A) are the drawers 3/32" too wide including the 1/2" needed on each side for the slides? 

OR
(B) are they 3/32" too wide AND you need to remove 1/2" off each side as well?

Your material thickness is 3/4" or so using 1 X material. 
If your condition is (B) you can't remove that much material ( 1/2" + 1/16") from each side without loosing structure.

If your condition is (A) you can easily remove 1/16" from each side using a dado head in the table saw OR a router with a rabbeting bit. Repeated passes with a single blade in the table saw would take forever... not very practical.

You can make a rabbet or a dado for the slides recessing them 1/4" or so, but you would still need to remove another 1/4" or 5/16" from each side if condition (B) and that won't work because of material thickness.

Please post the actual dimensions, (O) inside measurement of the opening and (X) exterior measurement of the drawer.


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## Rickcin (Aug 9, 2016)

MT Stringer said:


> I hope I understand what you are attempting to do.
> 
> I think you could back the pocket screws out if you used glue on the joints also.
> 
> ...


Nice set-up!


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## eaglewso (Nov 12, 2012)

woodnthings said:


> Quote:
> Building a changing table for my daughter that is on the way and got mostly done with the project. I measured the interior width incorrectly and each of my drawers are *about 3/32 too wide* for the opening. I am planning on using full-length soft close drawer slides on this piece so I need *1/2" on each side* for the slides to fit.
> 
> (A) are the drawers 3/32" too wide including the 1/2" needed on each side for the slides?
> ...


O = 38 1/2"
X = 37 19/32"

So each side needs to lose 3/64". It doesn't sound like much but its too much for the drawer slides to deal with. They will not fit in the cabinet next to the drawer as it sits.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

eaglewso said:


> O = 38 1/2"
> X = 37 19/32" ...<37 5/8"
> 
> So each side needs to lose *3/64"*. It doesn't sound like much but its too much for the drawer slides to deal with. They will not fit in the cabinet next to the drawer as it sits.


The difference in total is 7/8". For Accuride you need 1 1/16". So you need 3/32" off each side. Some slides need exactly 1/2", other need < 9/16" per side. Some are totally flush mount, no room to "let them in" ... others may have some side play to allow for dados ...? 
Depending, you may have to remove <1/8" or 3/32" per side from the entire drawer face. 

If that's not possible, you may want to remove one side and relocate it. It depends on you mush trouble that is ...? If it were me, I would set up a dado head and remove 3/32" from each side leaving outside rails to plane off afterwards as I mentioned above. :frown2:


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## TimPa (Jan 27, 2010)

just switch to undermount slides and chalk it up to a learning experience. you will be able to use those slides somewhere else.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*I suggested this above*



TimPa said:


> just switch to undermount slides and chalk it up to a learning experience. you will be able to use those slides somewhere else.


I mentioned the nylon strapping tape as a friction free sliding surface that doesn't require a change in height since it's less than 1/16" thick. A strip of Formica would also work well. My antique dresser repair project used wood drawer glides:
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f2/antique-dresser-repair-11477/


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## JIMMIEM (Oct 12, 2014)

How about using a dado/planner blade in your router to remove material in the area where the slide would be? Depending on the size of your router table you could stand each drawer on its side to do the routing. Or you could do it handle held with the router base sitting on the drawer side(s).


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## TomCT2 (May 16, 2014)

what jimmiem said - I'm pretty sure I don't understand the whole issue - because,,,, using side mount slides, with a too-tight-boo-boo, the obvious solutions 

- notch the carcass mount points - could be tricky if already built/assembled/etc
- rout a shallow dado in the nominal 1x8 drawer side to accommodate the x/32's needed.

paper-thin-slicing a couple x/32 off the entire 8" surface is gonna' be a trick&a-half.

frankly I'd be more concerned with the slide mounting screws going loose in pine.

oh, btw, the roll pin can be removed from the joiner. it'll drift pin punch out from the bottom. on mine the guard pin mounts in the guard itself - just a hole in the bed.....


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## eaglewso (Nov 12, 2012)

TomCT2 said:


> what jimmiem said - I'm pretty sure I don't understand the whole issue - because,,,, using side mount slides, with a too-tight-boo-boo, the obvious solutions
> 
> - notch the carcass mount points - could be tricky if already built/assembled/etc
> - rout a shallow dado in the nominal 1x8 drawer side to accommodate the x/32's needed.
> ...


Drawer is already built and assembled. Otherwise I would just make the front and back narrower.

With a 2" router bit stood all the way up on a router table just barely proud of the fence (think joiner laid on its side) to take off 1/32 at a time work? I had thought about notching the sides for the mount points but I do not have a good dado set. Doing that on a router seems like it would be even more of a pain to get exact.


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## MT Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

eaglewso said:


> I had thought about notching the sides for the mount points but I do not have a good dado set. Doing that on a router seems like it would be even more of a pain to get exact.


C'mon man, use the table saw blade and shave off a little on each side and check your fit. Still too tight? Bump the fence slightly and do it again. I really don't see the problem.

Good luck. I got faith in ya.


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Sometimes there can be a bit too much help around here.:smile3:


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## unclefester (Aug 23, 2013)

MT Stringer said:


> C'mon man, use the table saw blade and shave off a little on each side and check your fit. Still too tight? Bump the fence slightly and do it again. I really don't see the problem.
> 
> Good luck. I got faith in ya.


That's the safest approach in my opinion.
I would probably knock the drawers apart and cut down to fit. Even glued I bet they come apart pretty easily.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

unclefester said:


> That's the safest approach in my opinion.
> I would probably knock the drawers apart and cut down to fit. Even glued I bet they come apart pretty easily.


A lot of us glue the drawer bottoms in. Those wouldn't come apart easily.


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## eaglewso (Nov 12, 2012)

My drawer bottoms are dadoed in but the sides are glued together so the bottoms are not going anywhere.

I ended up buying the 2" tall Diablo straight bit from the local home improvement store and put it on the router table. Adjusted the fence to take off just 1/32 at a time and ran a pass on each side. Worked like a champ! I do not have any clamps to hold a sacrificial fence on my table saw as of right now, but that will change in the near future (saw some on sale in the ad I just got from Rockler). 

I'll post up some pictures tomorrow of the trimmed product and hopefully some of the finished work in the next week or so. Still have a crib to build.


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## unclefester (Aug 23, 2013)

Steve Neul said:


> A lot of us glue the drawer bottoms in. Those wouldn't come apart easily.


Hmmmm
I've always left the bottoms loose for movement but snug on all for sides
I'm bad


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## amckenzie4 (Apr 29, 2010)

For 3/32? Make sure it'll clear the pocket screws, then take it off with a hand plane. That's probably less than half a dozen strokes over each area, which is about two minutes work.


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## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

unclefester said:


> That's the safest approach in my opinion.
> I would probably knock the drawers apart and cut down to fit. Even glued I bet they come apart pretty easily.


If my drawers come apart easily, I didn't build them right! 
I'm always liberal with my glue. And yes, it's caused me big time problems when it's glued-up wrong.


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## unclefester (Aug 23, 2013)

Toolman50 said:


> If my drawers come apart easily, I didn't build them right!
> I'm always liberal with my glue. And yes, it's caused me big time problems when it's glued-up wrong.


 I've assembled pocket screw joints and after removing the screws a tap with a dead blow hammer will usually break the glue joint. At least that works on oak joints. Pain in the butt removing the glue reissue but at least the joint is apart.
If the bottom has been glued it's a whole 'nother story....
I just finished putting drawers in an old workbench. Carcass was an old pine cabinet I inherited with the house built in 1950's. The back was bowed and angled in and I was too lazy to start the bench from scratch and was determined to "make it work."
I used my Festool track saw and shaved 1/8" tapered on each side to make the drawer slides work. Worked like a champ.


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