# Strong/thin drawer bottom



## Gijoe985 (Sep 25, 2012)

Just curious on your thoughts. 

If you wanted to make the strongest drawer bottom as possible, but while trying to maximize the drawer depth as much as possible, how would you fasten the drawer in there? Now, I was thinking about a 1/4" bottom glued and nail in, but after doing a little research, a 1/8" bottom inside a dado would be nice and give you the same depth. It is for a "secret drawer" in a nightstand and it would not hold much weight, but it is already confined to a very small space, so I'm trying to get as much room in there as possible.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

When I make a drawer I normally make the drawer bottom 1/2" up from the bottom of the drawer box. I normally make the bottom of a drawer box out of 1/4" birch plywood mainly because it looks nice. For a number of years I worked for a custom cabinet shop that built their cabinets out of particleboard. The drawer bottoms were always made out of 1/8" masonite. If it was a drawer that required extra strength we put a piece of 1/2" plywood about 3" wide under the bottom. On big range drawers we used 1/4" masonite and put two of the 3" supports under the drawer. I still use the plywood supports on the underside of a bottom where needed.


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## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

The size of your box can dictate how you design the drawer bottom. 
One drawer is made to hold a load of pots and pans in the kitchen. 
Another drawer is one of three in a small jewelry box. 
You didn't say what the dimensions of your box was, only that it would be hidden and not hold much weight. 
Very small drawers can be made without a dado. 
Give us a little more info so we can give you a better opinion.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Small night stand ...*

Let's say 20" wide X 15" deep? Either 1/8" with a dado or for more strength 3/16" or 5 mm Birch. Dados are so easy to make may as well use them, then no nails are required and it looks much better on the bottoms.


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## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

woodnthings said:


> Let's say 20" wide X 15" deep? Either 1/8" with a dado or for more strength 3/16" or 5 mm Birch. Dados are so easy to make may as well use them, then no nails are required and it looks much better on the bottoms.


There are 3 dimensions to a drawer. 
The width (side to side)
The depth (front to back)
The height (how deep the drawer is)

I think you need 3/16" minimum for a 20" wide drawer with 1/2" between the bottom of the drawer side and the bottom of the dado.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*First of all it's a nightstand!*



Gijoe985 said:


> Just curious on your thoughts.
> 
> If you wanted to make the strongest drawer bottom as possible, but while trying to *maximize the drawer depth *as much as possible, how would you fasten the drawer in there? Now, I was thinking about a 1/4" bottom glued and nail in, but after doing a little research, a 1/8" bottom inside a dado would be nice and give you the same depth. It is for a "secret drawer" in a nightstand and it would not hold much weight, but it is already confined to a very small space, so I'm trying to get as much room in there as possible.





Toolman50 said:


> There are 3 dimensions to a drawer.
> The width (side to side)
> The depth (front to back)
> The height (how deep the drawer is)
> ...


I don't know the depth, I've always referred to the vertical dimension of a drawer as the depth... but I'm betting it's around 3", more or less. 
Deep drawers for pots and pans:









https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...+drawers+for+pots+and+pans&fr2=piv-web&fr=sfp

Unless it's filled with 9mm FMJ ammo, it won't need to carry that much weight. He's trying to maximize the space, so I wouldn't use a 1/2 dimension up from the bottom for the dado, maybe 3/16" or even 1/8". :wink2:


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