Bedroom dresser help

[Danno30008]

Good evening everyone:

I have been thinking about building a dresser for our spare bedroom and have a few questions:

1. I want to use a good plywood for the outside(s) is this ok?
2. If so, I would glue an edge strip to cover the end grain for finishing.
3. My skills are ok and I am concerned about building the drawers and making them work.. So, how hard is it to build drawers and what material should I use?
4. Overall, how hard is it to build a dresser?

Thanks in advance for any and all help and suggestions.
Take care

Dan

[aschueler]

I am fininishing a changing table that has a small dresser base. It's the most intricate thing I have made yet, and it seems to be working out reasonably well.

I keep promising pictures, but it's almost done so I might wait until I get the top on it, then put a whole bunch in some degree of sequence up.

Anyway, I had plans for one from a woodworking book that I altered a little. This led to LOTS of more unforeseen alterations later on, but I got it to work out. They had the dresser tapered about 1.5 inches from top to bottom, which led to a 2 degree cut on the top of the sides so that the top would sit flush. The height of the sides went beyond what my tables saw capacity was, and there is no way I can do 2 degrees with a circular saw,so i skipped the taper. It threw off more than I expected. For me, if I didn't have plans to start from, I don't think it would have worked out well at all. However, I had to change so much in the end...

I used a mixture of solid wood and plywood; the solid wood was for the face, and I used plywood for the sides, top, and back. I didn't use edge banding for the plywood on top, as I wanted it rounded over. Instead I used 1 inch strips of red oak that I attached with biscuits to reinforce, and mitered the corners to 45 degrees.

The sides: on the front, they met with the solid wood so there was no visible plywood edge. On the back, it was plywood meeting plywood; however, I just left it visibile. Heck with it, it's the back. The only problem I ran into was that I was occasionally just a little off with the biscuit jointer (not sure how, but I was), and the edges sometimes didn't meet perfectly. This is about 1/64 to 1/32, but you can see it, and the thickness of the plywood veneer makes it not fixable with sanding. I was able to mostly minimize the appearance of the lip where it did show, but it's still there.

Drawers: I found there are LOTS of different slides. Mine go along the sides of the drawers, with a 1/2" gap between the drawer and the space for the drawer itself. I was gratified that they slid right along on the first try. I made mine out of 1/2" birch plywood with pine bottoms (it's what I had, and a lot cheaper than the maple plywood), and I like them fine. Left the drawer edges as such, not sure it matters much for drawers. However, the drawer fronts are from solid wood.

So, summary: me being a rank amateur, I am almost done (took several months with lots of interruptions) and found it very gratifying. However, I definitely needed plans. Plywood saves $$$ and doesn't warp as much.

[Danno30008]

Thanks for the information.. I will look through some back issues of Wood magazine for some plans. I like your idea of using wood for the front of the cabinet.
Please post some photos when you get a chance I wouldlike to see them.

Thanks again and take care

Dan in Atlanta

[Joe C]

Cabinet grade plywood is perfectly fine for the carcass. Edge it with hardwood to hide the plywood edge.

As for the drawers there are many ways to join them. Since this is for your own personal use, this is a good time to experiment with different joinery. How about dovetails??

I use inexpensive poplar for the drawer interiors and harwood for the fronts. I have photos of an entertainment center I built with dovetails posted on this site somewhere.

[Joe C]

I found the post with the pictures. It is under the photo gallery dated 11/23/2007.

[edp]

It is normal and acceptable to use veneered plywood for the sides of furniture cases. I find that it makes more stable projects. As to the edges on your dresser, the top will normally extend beyond the sides and the rails and stiles of the face frame should be fabricated from solid wood so now, all the exposed edges of the ply are now covered. I use the same plywood to create the top as well. Just band it with solid wood, maybe add a cove below to beef it up and you are good to go.
For drawers, I always fall back on the true Baltic Birch, 1/2" thick plywood for the sides and the bottoms. I use a drawer lock joint tool in my router to fabricate the box joinery and then cut a rabbet on all 4 sides of the bottom panel to fit in the dado on all 4 sides. Once these are glued together, they are nearly bomb proof. I normally send 2 or 3 brads into the joint to hold them until the glue cures to avoid the bother of clamps.
I tend to veer from the norm when I install the drawers. I have been using the same full extension ball bearing roller glides for the dresser drawers that you normally would find in a kitchen. They are easier for me to install and people seem to appreciate the ease of movement they provide. The only change to normal construction I have had to adopt is using 1/2" or 3/4" plywood for the backs so that I have a place to screw the glide mounts.
All in all, dressers are a simple and very rewarding project that most hobbyists can tackle with confidence and basic tooling.

Ed