My Big Drawers

Bill Simpson

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1,756
Well, actually one.

Here is the problem, My friend brought over a broken cabinet drawer from his kitchen, seems he dropped something on the drawer front and it broke off.

No problem, went to BORG and got some 1/2" Poplar and using the existing sides as a guide I cut matching joints and re assembled just like new, So what's the problem?

The original sides were made of 7/16" poplar whilst I used 1/2" thick poplar. Who would have thought that production cabinets had such a close tolerance? Especiall with such a large overhanging lip on each side.

So the problem now seems to be how to make each side 1/16" thinner considering that I did a really good jop of glueing the joints so they won't disassemble and there is a 1/2" lip on each side where the drawer front extends. (so running across the joiner is out of the question)

I already sucessfully solved the problem, just interested in how you guys would approach this delima....
 

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Is it the sides or the glides that are binding? If it's the glides, you can use a router to rout a groove (finish up with a chisel) 1/16 deep for them to sit in. DAMHIKT
 
Neither... The box was too wide for the hole, no glides (30 year old cabinets) Rear roller guide only

Easy solution would have been to widen the hole but drawer and cabinet were in different towns and several drawers were interchangable. All Exact same size (and same size holes so didn't want to make an oddball drawer.

I have done the routed groove before (1/4" DAMHIK) for a set of guides but that was not the problem or solution.
 
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OK, what I did... I have a small trim Router, put in a 3/4" bottom cut dado bit set to 1/16" deep. Started on the tail end and back and forth began removing 1/16" till I got to the drawer front and the lip, left about 1 1/4" wide section, which I cleaned off with a small modeler's block plane and finished the rest with a sharp 3/4" mortice chisel, Sanded with 60 grit Random Orbital sander (to get rid of the swirl marks and dips from the router) and finished off with a mouse palm sander.

Made delivery tonight and it fit like a glove, I checked all the drawers in the cabinets and they all fit tight and snug. Not too tight, just right. Better Craftsmanship back in their day, we checked and they were built when the kitchen was redone in the Fifties.
 
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