# Drawer bottom glued/screw to sides disadvantages?



## nelcatjar (May 15, 2009)

Every where I read about drawer bottom construction says to slide a slat into grooves. I understand that is to allow for wood expansion/contraction. But to me, it seems that method wastes space.

I never read about just glueing or screwing a bottom to the sides.

| | sides
--- bottom

I was planning to glue or screw a hardboard bottom bottom of the sides of my drawers. Sides will be MDF or plywood. What are the disadvantages?
I think it saves a little bit of space.

This is for a garage work bench, so no... it is not fine furniture.


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## Tony B (Jul 30, 2008)

nelcatjar said:


> ........I was planning to glue or screw a hardboard bottom bottom of the sides of my drawers. Sides will be MDF or plywood. What are the disadvantages?
> This is for a garage work bench, so no... it is not fine furniture.


The only real disadvantage would be that a drawer bottom in a slot will hold more weight than one screwed directly into the bottom which would be more prone to falling apart. This is only true if you are using a web frame and sliding the drawer directly in and out of the carcase. If however, you are using metal bottom mount drawer slides then there is no real disadvantage.

Hope this helped.


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## nelcatjar (May 15, 2009)

Yes... all opinions are welcome!


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

Another disadvantage for gluing the bottom to the box is that it would be a PITA to replace it if necessary, without creating some damage.


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## Jim Tank (Apr 28, 2009)

*A cute little bottom*

When you put drawer bottoms into a groove in side & front pcs, it holds the drawer box square during assembly and through it's lifetime. Screws or nails will eventually fail when put into the edges of MDF or plywood, so the days are numbered if drawer is used alot. If drawer is not that important then who cares anyway? But if you have any of the woodworking friends over for brats & beer, then maybe you will want them to discover the well-built drawers when they peek at your craftsmanship while you are fetching the horseradish. Enjoy your bench & buddies!!


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## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

I have had bad luck with drawers falling apart without the glue. I’ve been preached about keeping the bottoms floating, but I got to say I have dresser drawers stuffed with clothes and have never had a problem in over 25 years of gluing them down. The same thing with kitchen cabinet drawers, it’s a real pain to pull open a drawer and have all the utensils fall on your foot. I can see may be if youre moving a piece back and forth from extreme outside temps to inside controlled temperatures for long periods. 
My inside house temperature doesn’t change more than 15 deg and even if I do take things outside such as moving, it’s not more than a few hours. Of course I haven’t moved across the country yet in a covered wagon. 
So I’m for gluing them down until I actually see a problem, which has not happened yet.


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## Gerry KIERNAN (Apr 20, 2007)

You do waste a small amout of space by sliding the drawer bottom into grooves in the drawer sides, but it is fairly insignificant when compared to the added strength that your drawers will have. If you are building these drawers for a workshop the chances are that they will become heavily weighted with contents over time, and the glue/screw method may fail you.

Gerry


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

I see no advantages of "floating" a plywood drawer bottom. If they are made of solid slab wood then there is an advantage

How I make my drawer bottoms depends upon what it is I am making. If it is a fine piece of furniture that I want to look the best then the sliding bottom is my preference. If I am just making a drawer for the shop then I am satisfied with just about any setup. 

g

PS If a glued bottom is not sufficiently strong than neither would be a sliding botom.


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## RussBoyd (Feb 28, 2009)

*drawers*

Using 1/2" material with a 1/4" dado for the slots, you are only losing 1/2" of space and sacrificing a significant amount of strength. If you're making a jewelry box then it probably isn't important, but anything of any weight would collapse over time. Russ


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## Rick C. (Dec 17, 2008)

All of you make good points,but,nelcatjar stated he was using hardboard for the bottom,we don't know what size the drawer is or what it will hold.If hardboard is 1/4" masonite on a 12"x12"drawer holding paint brushes I'd say thats fine.Thinner masonite in a groove holding planes may flex and fall out.IMHO size and weight matters,this time.I'm a firm believer in over kill,don't want things falling apart in my grand children's life time.Just my $.02
Rick


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## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

Rick C. said:


> All of you make good points,but,nelcatjar stated he was using hardboard for the bottom,we don't know what size the drawer is or what it will hold.If hardboard is 1/4" masonite on a 12"x12"drawer holding paint brushes I'd say thats fine.Thinner masonite in a groove holding planes may flex and fall out.IMHO size and weight matters,this time.I'm a firm believer in over kill,don't want things falling apart in my grand children's life time.Just my $.02
> Rick


You have made a good point. I didn’t realize he was also considering hardboard. Hardboard does not work well for wide drawers and doesn't glue well. 
Usually I cut the slots and glue it in, but once I built a desk center drawer that was about 30” wide. I wanted room for an arm chair to fit under it, so I glued and nailed a 1/4” piece of plywood flush with the bottom and used drawer slides. It worked great for 30 years and it would accumulate a lot of stuff. In fact I just sold it last year because it was too big for my needs now.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

If you use the epoxy cheapy slides you can get away with putting the bottom on this way. Just use a few staples and put the slide on and where can the bottom go? If you use side mount slides then you can possible put to much weight in the drawer and have thebottom fall out. Most do not use screws to put the bottoms on, staples are standard practice.


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## nelcatjar (May 15, 2009)

Thank you for all the input. Keep the feed back coming. I'm considering all of it.

I guess I could switch to plywood drawer bottoms instead of hardboard in some cases.

More info, I was going to use side mount drawer slides, so the bottoms do need to be strong. Some drawers will carry tools, others will just carry hardware.

I'm just curious, maybe I should do a real life stress test. Make a floating panel and a glue/screw drawer, start stacking bricks in them and see which one fails first. (and post pics) I mean, I don't know of any official testing of one verses the other. 

Wood magazine did an article one time joinery stress test. A similar test would be good on drawer bottoms.

Anyone interested in a drawer bottom stress test?


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Not going to change the way I make my drawers (dovetails with trapped bottoms) but it sure would be interesting to see what happens.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*How about this?*

If you are using 1/2" side material, why not use 1/2" for the bottom and rabbet it up to have a flush bottom, glue it in and brad nail in from the sides. Not as strong as a dadoed bottom, but pretty close. My local HD also has a 1/2" hardboard material, I think for sub flooring, FYI. For drawers up to 18" wide and deep, a 1/4" hardboard bottom dadoed in 3/8" up, should be plenty strong. So, that's a total of 5/8" for the bottom lost space. Big Deal?:no: bill


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## Tony B (Jul 30, 2008)

Bill, I dont mean to step on your toes but thye total lost space by making the dado slot is only 3/8" not 5/8".
He would lose the 1/4" thickness of the bottom no matter where he puts it. 
I guess that's what you get for _*posting at 3:35AM.*_ Man, get some sleep. LOL


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Lost in space, man that's me!*

What I meant to say was the total space all inclusive would be 5/8ths, 1/4" + 3/8ths" = 5/8ths" Didn't seem like that much in the big picture. as opposed to just rabbeting in the bottoms and using thicker stock, say 1/2" for nail holding ability. Only talking 1/8th difference, all inclusive. No harm, no foul!:thumbsup: bill


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## Handyman (Jan 2, 2008)

I have always mortise the sides of my drawer and cut a tenon in the bottoms. I glued all joints and have never had a draw fail. Now I am working with a contractor I have to build drawer the way he wants them. And I must say I like his method much better. I now rip all the sides of the drawer the same and rip the fronts and backs 1/2 smaller. And cut the bottoms the same width and the fronts and backs. This way the bottom fits between the sides and under the fronts and backs. I shoot the drawers together with a 2" 16ga finishing nail, No glue. If the front and back are flush with the bottom edges the drawer is square. We build them all out of high grade plywood. This is way faster then the way I have done it in the past.


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## scribbles (Mar 2, 2009)

I always dato, and i always will.


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## nelcatjar (May 15, 2009)

Handyman said:


> ..... I now rip all the sides of the drawer the same and rip the fronts and backs 1/2 smaller. And cut the bottoms the same width and the fronts and backs. This way the bottom fits between the sides and under the fronts and backs. I shoot the drawers together with a 2" 16ga finishing nail, No glue. If the front and back are flush with the bottom edges the drawer is square. We build them all out of high grade plywood. This is way faster then the way I have done it in the past.


This sounds like the best of both techniques, slots on the side, glued/screwed/nailed on the front and back. I LIKE IT.


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## HomeyCat (Oct 7, 2007)

nelcatjar said:


> This sounds like the best of both techniques, slots on the side, glued/screwed/nailed on the front and back. I LIKE IT.


I took him to mean that he's nailing the sides to the bottom. I don't think they're cutting a slot on the side for the bottom, since he said the bottom is the same width as the front and back.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*YUP, no slots/dadoes.*



Handyman said:


> I have always mortise the sides of my drawer and cut a tenon in the bottoms. I glued all joints and have never had a draw fail. Now I am working with a contractor I have to build drawer the way he wants them. And I must say I like his method much better. I now rip all the sides of the drawer the same and rip the fronts and backs 1/2 smaller. And cut the bottoms the same width and the fronts and backs. *This way the bottom fits* *between the sides and under the fronts and backs*. I shoot the drawers together with a 2" 16ga finishing nail, No glue. If the front and back are flush with the bottom edges the drawer is square. We build them all out of high grade plywood. This is way faster then the way I have done it in the past.


I'm not used to calling dadoes anything other than dadoes. But now that we have "slot cutters" for the router I suppose that it's Ok.:blink: Except when using a table saw with a dado blade, I still call 'em dadoes.
BTW this method puts all the shear on the glue line, which I did hear mentioned above, but I certainly would use glue, and the nails. With a dado, the wood becomes a structural element. This method is not quite as strong, in my opinion, or as finished looking, but probably adequate for most drawer applications. Certainly faster to make, however.:yes: bill


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