Face frame cabinet carcass rookie question

[Brad_bb]

I'm making some additional storage in the shop. Some face frame cabinets to fit under workbenches. Planning to use three-quarter inch Baltic birch. In this two drawer 36 inch wide cabinet, that will have a face frame, do I need the divider in the box between the two drawers as shown? Do I need if nothing else than to support the face frame?  


 

[Brad_bb]

Another option would be to make it just a single deep drawer?

[Hilltop366]

To me a piece of ply or board ¾" by 2" or 3" across the box would be enough to stiffen the front and box sides.

[Don P]

google "dust panel". They are usually a sign of better work but are not necessarily needed.

[WDH]

I would.

[Dan_Shade]

Having a "dust catcher" will help keep the sides from Bowing in or out.

I would avoid a deep drawer, stuff has a way of getting lost in deep drawers.

I've designed my "shop furniture" to hold specific stuff and sized the drawers accordingly. 

[kantuckid]

I don't see properly braced 3/4" birch plywood bowing much? 2-3" wide piece is enough as said. 

 Dust dividers are typically for yer panties, not shop junk.  ;D 

20" is a deep drawer-is there two-sided access? If not, and they stay that deep, I'd consider a manufactured drawer slide to carry the bulky drawer. 
These drawers could utilize an inside slider-think of a hardware drawer in a box store with two levels of stuff. Much depends on the contents in mind for what makes sense with that large a drawer. 

[btulloh]

The face frame takes care of the bowing thing, especially if there's a divider in the ff. Agree with kantuckid on the dust panel and panties. Probably no delicates in the shop!  Also agree on sizing drawers for specific storage. Deep drawers can be a black hole. 

[firefighter ontheside]

I would say you do not need the divider as shown, but instead I would include a rail that defines the two drawer spaces.  Your kitchen cabinets are likely built that way.  The rail could be someting like 1 1/2" wide.  What kind of drawer slides are you planning to use.  I would recommend full extension heavy duty slides.  These are likely 1/2" thick, so you would need a drawer that is 1" less than the opening width.  Face frame will be wider than the inside of the case, so to attach slide to inside of cabinet you will need to add material to bring it flush with inside of face frame stile.  

[Crusarius]

Just curious why you are doing face frame? I try not to have face frame because they take up so much valuable real estate and just create more dust collecting space.

Plus with frameless design you do not need spacers for drawer slides or anything, they can just get screwed to the cabinet sides. Also makes adjustable shelves much easier to deal with.

[Tom King]

I would just do the face frame around the outside, and leave 1/8", or less, between the drawer fronts.  The 14" height is not going to bow to amount to anything, even with heavy loads in the drawers.

[Brad_bb]

By no face frame you mean have the drawer fronts cover the entire front of the cabinet. I'm not going to go that way because this box will get mounted under my actual woodworking bench.  I don't want the drawer to be right against the top and get caught.   So I'll stick with a face frame.  Good point about needing spacers for the drawer slides.  Actually I think I could compromise and have a perimeter face frame, but no frame between the two drawers.  I'll do a skinny top drawer for pencils, layout tools etc, and a deeper bottom drawer for planes etc.  I very well may put a dust panel between them.

[terrifictimbersllc]

I put a case of drawers under my workbench made of 3/4 plywood. It is about 20" high, 54" wide, and 25" deep. It has a 3/4" back and vertical 3/4 dividers so that there are 4 banks of drawers about 13" wide. The front edge of the case has 3/4" trim covering the plys of the top, bottom, and vertical dividers.  The drawers are side mounted with maple runners screwed to the cabinet sides and the vertical dividers,  so there is no wasted width. The sides of the drawers have a dado to receive the runners. There is less than 1/16" vertical space between the drawers of each bank.  At these dimensions the case is very stiff.  Side mounted commercial slides would have been easier but would have cost a fair amount of drawer width.

[DMcCoy]

You can build them anyway you want.  I do agree with more and shallow drawers, I no longer build big deep drawers.   Stuff gets buried and they are heavier to push/pull, requiring roller guides.  If you use 1/4 ply for the bottoms over time wide, deep drawers can develop saggy bottoms. ;)
Roller guides($10 pr.) are nice and I use them but I also use the cheap little plastic corner guides(<$5 for 20) and like them just as much.  The roller guides I use take up 1/2" per side, the plastic guides take up 1/8".  The key to the plastic guides is high quality plywood without voids, proper sanding, minwax polycrylic varnish and Johnson's paste wax.  The combination of minwax and the paste wax is slippery like frozen pond ice with dust on top.  Using plastic guides it's more about the cost and time of the drawers than the guides themselves.

[Crusarius]

Brad, you have many options for frameless construction. You can do full overlay where the door / drawer fronts cover the entire front of the box. you can do half overlay where they only cover half of the box sides, or you can do quarter overlay.

Any of those methods will give you plenty of clearance on the top and maximize the space while minimizing the time to build them.

I am just very much against face frame because I hate when I try to pull something out it always gets stuck on the face frame. Or if I put a couple things that fit perfect in there, I always need to remove one before I can get the other out. My knuckles hate face frames the most

[kantuckid]

By no face frame you mean have the drawer fronts cover the entire front of the cabinet. I'm not going to go that way because this box will get mounted under my actual woodworking bench.  I don't want the drawer to be right against the top and get caught.   So I'll stick with a face frame.  Good point about needing spacers for the drawer slides.  Actually I think I could compromise and have a perimeter face frame, but no frame between the two drawers.  I'll do a skinny top drawer for pencils, layout tools etc, and a deeper bottom drawer for planes etc.  I very well may put a dust panel between them.

You could hang it below the top with a spacer to clear up the front?

[rusticretreater]

I would say it depends on what you expect to store in the cabinet and the look you are going for.  If you are storing things like lathe chucks and other heavy items, a divider could be used.  I tend to overbuild or as I call it, build extra sturdy.  Its easier than coming back and shoring up a collapsed or rickety cabinet.

As you are talking about a face plate, the rear of the cabinet won't be viewed and can use some vertical bracings, 2-3 across the back.  On the front, I would definitely use a cross brace between the drawers.  For either look, box drawers flush with the face or panel front drawers that overlap the opening, you can finish the front with wood strips.

I try to look to the future.  Is it possible that you will later take this cabinet and put it elsewhere?  Put things on top of it?  

[Larry]

Planning to use three-quarter inch Baltic birch.

You must be really rich to use Baltic Birch....sawmill lumber works fine.

One I built not quite as big as your plans.  34" wide, 16" deep, and 9" tall.  The drawer box is BB but it was made before....







Face frame would add strength but on this box frameless was easier to build, gave me a little more room, and has served the purpose for about 5 years so I suppose its good.

Full extension extra heavy slides on this one but a lot of times I use shop built wood slides.

[Crusarius]

thats nice. I tend to do overlay just because its easier than trying to get all the gaps to look nice with the inset.

[Brad_bb]

Well, I've never used baltic birch before.  All cabinet making videos talk about it.  It seems to have the most number of plys and is supposed to be very stable and looks good.  I figured I'd try it.  I looked at lowes and they do have a maple veneer plywood.  You can see it has less plys that are thicker.  It's about half the price of the Baltic birch from Menards(you have to special order it).  It would probably work though.  Maybe I'll make one from each and see how I like it.