How to fix drawer guides/runners on a frame and panel chest?

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Hi guys.



I have a doubt regarding how to fix the drawer’s runners or guides on the frame and panel chest of drawers I’m planning to make. It is my intention to use wood guides, and a groove on the sides of the drawers or maybe no groove and the drawers running on top of them

What would be the most used/common system? Should the guides be attached directly to the front and rear posts of the frame using let’s say one screw on each end?

Or make an array of bars using some sort of mortise and tenon joint and fix de guides on top of them?

Any other way that can be used?

Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated
 
The most common of ways to guide drawers using panel construction is/was to allow the drawer to ride on the dust panel and have strips of wood either side to center in the opening. Sometimes a strip was attached to the center of the dust panel center rail and a notch was cut in the drawer back to assure alignment and sometimes to act as a stop to keep the drawer from pulling all the way out.
 
Hi Bill.

Thank you very much for the information, but my lack of english woodworking vocabulary is still short. What is the dust panel on a drawer? I've looked it down on my english woodworking books and didn't find it.
Could you provide me with a picture, a sketch or some sort of explanation so I can understand it better?

Thanks again.
 
Toni, a dust panel is a thin horizontal panel above a drawer, to help keep dust (and other things) out of the drawer. It's often made of thin plywood. If you search the contents of this book on Amazon for the term "dust panel", you will see a link for page 80 of the book. That page has a picture that should help explain it.

I hope this helps -
 
Hi Vaughn.

Thank for the info, that clarifyes it to me. It shows that you are into languages as well :)

Bill, thanks for the link but unfortunately I'm not enrolled to Fine woodworking magazine so I can't se the article. I think I will have to use the free trial period they offer but the fact that the they enroll you inmediately once it expires makes me doubt, I tend to forget those things.
 
Hi Toni,

I may be wrong but I don't think you need to subscribe to view this article. Go to the Finewoodworking home page and enter dust panel, then scroll down to the artice by Gary Rogowski, this is part I of his project. Clicking there will take you to the part 1 pdf, but if you then scroll down again you can go to the second part and view that pdf which contains the dust panel and the drawer rails.
 
The dust panel is not necessary a Panel but a rails & stiles cabinetry that provides the lateral supports and the distinction between drawers, In reality, years ago the panels were installed in the rails & stiles that did provide a covering to keep dust out of the drawers. (houses weren't as clean back then as we keep ours now) As years progressed, the practice of putting the panels inthe rails & stiles has fallen to the wayside.

Sorry to assume slang offerings, What I was saying, that the guides are located either side of the bottoms of the drawer's sides. nailed to the framework of the drawer seperators (those rail & stile constructed pieces that go from each end panel , front to rear). The guide pieces rest on them. Some use a center guide that is notched in the drawer rear and two guides on either side, down the middle of the bottom.
 

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Hi Bill.

Thanks a lot for the skecht provided. One more question if I may.

Being what I intend to make is a panel and frame structure, I understand that the rails and stiles are only fixed to the frame, not to the panel otherwise the panel could not shrink and expand as intended.

Am I right?
 
Correct, In fact, often, on the rail/stiles construction of the inside pieces or drawer seperations (dust panels) the rails are not glued to the stiles but slip joinery so that when placed against a solid side it is allowed to expand with the piece.

As you say, with panel construction, nothing is affixed to the panel nor is the panel glued to the rails & stiles.
 
Thanks Bill.

I might come back with some other questions, I want to have every bit clear before I start so that I don't struggle unnecessarily or make any mistake.
 
Another tip, Toni, is to NOT use the same type wood for the drawer sides and the slide strips that the drawers slide on, and they will show much less wear than if the same wood is used on both pieces. (I don't know why, but it is a fact that two different species of wood sliding together don't wear as much as two pieces of the same species).
 
Thanks Norman.

I guess that it is for the same reason that for moving parts on a machine. specially threaded rods with a nut that moves along them, the nut usually is made out of bronze or a different type of steel than the rod itself, otherwise they tend to grip.

BTW Problably you know this tip already, but if you want drawers to slide smoothly sprinkling a bit of talcum powder on the guides or runners works wonders:).

Quid pro quo as they say...;)
 
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