solid drawer bottoms

[marcros]

ignoring the use of sheet materials for drawer bottoms, how do people produce them from solid? To use a piece of 1" board and plane it down to c1/2" seems wasteful, or is this the way it is done? it seems to be the only way of doing it in a single piece. If the starting board was 2", nothing other than a re-saw would have the capacity to cut it into a thinner whole drawer sized board.

alternatively to take a piece of thick stock- say 4*4, and slice 1/2" or just over pieces from it could have issues with releasing stress from the larder piece and the slice being all over the place. how would these pieces be jointed- tongued and grooved?

Thanks
Mark

 

[Jacob]

ignoring the use of sheet materials for drawer bottoms, how do people produce them from solid? To use a piece of 1" board and plane it down to c1/2" seems wasteful, or is this the way it is done? it seems to be the only way of doing it in a single piece. If the starting board was 2", nothing other than a re-saw would have the capacity to cut it into a thinner whole drawer sized board.

alternatively to take a piece of thick stock- say 4*4, and slice 1/2" or just over pieces from it could have issues with releasing stress from the larder piece and the slice being all over the place. how would these pieces be jointed- tongued and grooved?

Thanks
Mark

For 1/2" you'd start with a thinner than 1" board if you can.
Or split a thicker one - you might have to wait a bit for it to settle.
They are usually joined anyway - just a simple rubbed glue joint.

 

[AndyT]

I think that this is harder in an age of standardised sizes. If you look at when solid softwood was used for ordinary drawer making, sawmills would have sold boards in 3/4", 1/2" and sometimes even thinner. There was a demand for it - as there was no plywood - but there were plenty of good trees which could yield thin boards which were usable.

With the quality available today, I expect that thin boards - if they were cut - would be too unstable to use.

If you are using hardwood you could buy a thick board and re-saw it yourself; or else the cheapest option is just to buy ordinary thickness boards and waste a lot.

You don't have to have a big power re-saw; hand rip saws still work, and you would not need much.

 

[No skills]

I have used softwood t&g cladding for a draw bottom replacement before - cant remember the thickness (6 or 9mm really not sure). There was a fair bit of wastage picking clear/straightest sections from the lengths but the pack was dirt cheap so wasnt fussed. Was obtained from the large orange shop, havent brought it for years but I assume they still sell it as it was a staple product for many years.

FWIW

 

[AndyT]

I found this in a 1913 catalogue from Jennings of Bristol as an illustration of how things used to be:

Can you imagine being able to order planed boards 3/8" thick and 22" wide!

Your best bet might be to dismantle some old furniture...

 

[No skills]

Assuming the draw base is going into a grooved side or slip you could use 1/2" and rebate the edges to fit the groove. BTW the cladding I used was cupped very slightly, the groove in the draw side corrected most of it.

 

[mtr1]

I buy 3/4" Oak centre boards, I can usually get about four boards that are quarter/rift sawn, and these are good for boards about 150/200mm wide on both sides of the split. I make all my drawer linings/bottoms from this and it works, it should of done most of its moving in the drying process, but I always measure moisture even if I'm buying from a regular supplier. I was machining some up today for a chest of drawers I'm making this week.