Unsquare Drawer Holes

Kevin Sadaj

Member
Messages
144
Location
Michigan
I have finished the carbass of my workbench. It is the first workbench I have built. It is so long and has so many dividers, the drawer holes came out not square. If i took it apart, i would probably ruin it since the glue is already set.

I'm using 3/4 standard drawer slides. They are 22" deep and some are off up to 1/2".

My question: is there a method I could use to install my drawers, like with shims or something?

Or should I just consider installing shelves, putting a door on it and calling it a day?
 
If I understand correctly, the width of your drawer opening is a different dimension from the front of the opening as opposed to the back of the opening. That being the case, shims are your solution. Drawer slides must be mounted parallel to one another to function. Good luck.
 
Im confused as to what you mean by "off".
Could you be a bit more specific? Also, a photo would help.

Is it as Carol states?
If so then that would be the solution.
 
You could measure each opening and make note of the narrowest dimension. Then make the drawer box for the width suggested for the slides you are using. When installing the slides, just use shims behind the cabinet member, or both the cabinet and drawer side (if necessary) to install the drawers. It would help to use a framing square on the bottom (under the drawer) to draw 90° lines back, to give you reference points to take measurements, which will allow the drawer to move straight in and straight out.


MikesMasterLogo2.gif
movingplane1.gif

.
 
Correct: the width of the drawer opening is a different dimension from the front of the opening as opposed to the back of the opening.

Gonna be a fun evening. I'll chalk this up to a learning experience. I am pretty sure what I did wrong and if I would have just did a couple relatively simple things, I may have avoided this. Not having been to school for this, I learn now.

Thank you for your help. Since joining this site last week, you all have been really helpful and nice. I appreciate you all!
 
Well Kevin, you could always just make pyramid shaped drawers to go into the holes.

Many people beleive pyramids have super-natural powers, and you could claim you did it for that reason.

Just kidding--lol :)

Maybe some cell phone pics up close might help...


and one thing I know for sure, is if you mess something up once, and learn from it, you will never repeat it!
 
...Not having been to school for this, I learn now...

I think it's safe to say most of us haven't gone to school for this. This forum, and others like it, are our "school", and mistakes like non-square drawer openings are our "extra credit". :D It's how most of us learn. Welcome to the class. :thumb:
 
Kevin welcome to my club. :D Making anything square is still my greatest challenge. Glad you asked this question because i have exactly the same problem and have been contemplating remaking my whole draw cabinet because of it. Worse in fact i got real cheap and used the kitchen draw rails ....never again. Now i got slides but have been procrastinating on how to go about fixing the problem. Going to be shims for me :) when it warms up.
 
Kevin, what about a face lift? By that I mean a nice sheet of birch ply or something with all of the holes templated, cut out and installed on the front of the workbench so the drawers all work and who cares what the original plan was. If there is too much mismatch the cutouts could become the drawer fronts also making everything an optical illusion.

And also meant to say but ran out of energy, get the drawers all shimmed and working first. Then using the ply on the front, a faux cover masking the irregularities behind. :thumb:
 
Last edited:
Welcome Kevin!

My, my. Out of square? Wow, sounds like me! Like Rob, getting things to come out perfectly square has been an elusive goal of mine for many years. :rofl: Jonathan's solution is interesting and might be worth a look, but any way you decide to go will most like involve shims and a lot of fine tuning of the drawer fronts. Good luck!
 
I agree that shimming the drawer guides to run true is the way to beat this providing your drawer boxes are square. There may be a fair amount of fooling around to get things tuned up so, don't use all your drawer glide holes at once; just use a couple on each side till you get things fitted in.

This situation screams for false fronts on separate drawer boxes. This will allow you to fit the drawer box and then attach the front piece to fit the hole hiding the real world that lies behind. Many hack kitchen cabinet outfits couldn't survive without false front drawers and overlay doors :D. Seriously though, fitting the box by whatever means and then adding a nice false front will give you a better look. A picture of your problem would be worth a 1000 words.

ff drawer.JPG
 
The false front idea seems like a good one.

Many pallets are made from oak and be had for free if you ask.

A hand plane, a dowel guide and some glue might make for some impressive free drawer fronts.

Dowel them up to the size you need.

If you do this make sure to go over the wood with a magnet looking for staples before you plane it.

It is not 1st grade wood, so it will have color differences and random knots, but that can be a good look too.


A Dowel Guide
dowel guide.jpg
 
The false front idea seems like a good one.

Many pallets are made from oak and be had for free if you ask.

A hand plane, a dowel guide and some glue might make for some impressive free drawer fronts.

Dowel them up to the size you need.

If you do this make sure to go over the wood with a magnet looking for staples before you plane it.

It is not 1st grade wood, so it will have color differences and random knots, but that can be a good look too.


A Dowel Guide
View attachment 81816

Don't forget, pallets are either sprayed so they don't spread bugs around the world or they are heat treated, if they don't have a HT on them, wouldn't turn them, burn them, or use them where they would out gas in my shop or home.
 
Don't forget, pallets are either sprayed so they don't spread bugs around the world or they are heat treated, if they don't have a HT on them, wouldn't turn them, burn them, or use them where they would out gas in my shop or home.

Wow, didn't know that, thanks for the tip.

I've seen an impressive floor made out of pallet wood, used with exposed brick. Hopefully they knew this.

I suppose if they didn't termites wouldn't be a problem. But who knows the toxicity of the spray.

Where do you look for the (HT), is it heat branded on or something?
 
Last edited:
A very important "something" that no one has mentioned is: If the drawer guides are not really perfectly parallel, the drawer will NOT open and close smoothly or maybe not even function.

I also vote for false fronts. If you can get a board long enough to make fronts the width of your cabinet, you can make the grain run all of the way from left to right across the row of drawers. I think that last sentence was in English; some of my teachers might argue however.

Enjoy,
JimB
 
I'm glad to know I'm not alone in seeking the elusive squared up project. I worked on the opening tonight. Ok, I wasn't off 1/2" but almost.

Shims worked great and I now have squared openings. Now for the actual drawers. I hope to finish up this weekend so I can get my shop clean and get that air filter made. I'll post pics to the project when it is done. Thank you all again for the awesome advice.
 
I'm glad to know I'm not alone in seeking the elusive squared up project. I worked on the opening tonight. Ok, I wasn't off 1/2" but almost.

Shims worked great and I now have squared openings. Now for the actual drawers. I hope to finish up this weekend so I can get my shop clean and get that air filter made. I'll post pics to the project when it is done. Thank you all again for the awesome advice.

:thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
I'm glad to know I'm not alone in seeking the elusive squared up project. I worked on the opening tonight. Ok, I wasn't off 1/2" but almost.

Shims worked great and I now have squared openings. Now for the actual drawers. I hope to finish up this weekend so I can get my shop clean and get that air filter made. I'll post pics to the project when it is done. Thank you all again for the awesome advice.


Sometimes when I am working on something that needs measuring, instead of looking at the ruler (and all of those little hash lines) over and over,

I will cut something to length, such as a dowel, or a part of a paintstick and use that as the size.

So you want to align a slide say ((2)3/16)" from the bottom of X. You can screw all of them the exacly on the mark. Same with drilling holes in the drawers to accept the other part of the slide.

This is something I will do for even as small as 4 items because it knocks the error factor to zero and only takes 30 seconds to accomplish.
 
Sometimes when I am working on something that needs measuring, instead of looking at the ruler (and all of those little hash lines) over and over,

I will cut something to length, such as a dowel, or a part of a paintstick and use that as the size.

So you want to align a slide say ((2)3/16)" from the bottom of X. You can screw all of them the exacly on the mark. Same with drilling holes in the drawers to accept the other part of the slide.

This is something I will do for even as small as 4 items because it knocks the error factor to zero and only takes 30 seconds to accomplish.

I often take a similar approach with flatwork. More often than not, I cut to fit instead of cutting to measure. ;)
 
Top