I've started on the build for my daughters sewing room cabinet. She wants flush drawers. What is the recommended spacing around the drawers from the face frame? I'm thinking 1/8" but a bit of professional advice is in order.

Edited May 4, 20215 yr by Al B

I have found flush fronts a bit of a pain.  You have three axes to worry about, depth from the front, rotation left-right, and rotation top-bottom. Plus even spacing in case things are just slightly out of square.

 

 

That said the usual clearance recommended is the thickness of a penny on all sides. https://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-tips/techniques/skills/inset-drawers

 

In doing some research a cent is 1.52mm thick standard.  That's just slightly less than 1/16".   So if your drawer is 1/8" less than width and height of opening, that will give you 1/16" gap.

Edited May 4, 20215 yr by kmealy

26 minutes ago, kmealy said:

I have found flush fronts a bit of a pain.  You have three axes to worry about, depth from the front, rotation left-right, and rotation top-bottom. Plus even spacing in case things are just slightly out of square.

 

 

That said the usual clearance recommended is the thickness of a penny on all sides. https://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-tips/techniques/skills/inset-drawers

 

In doing some research a cent is 1.52mm thick standard.  That's just slightly less than 1/16".   So if your drawer is 1/8" less than width and height of opening, that will give you 1/16" gap.

Thanks Keith. That's a bit closer than I expected. Yes there are more dimensional tolerances to consider with the flush drawers but I'll give it a try. Wish me luck.

If you radius the edges (I use a 1/8" router bit) it will look a bit more.  But you don't want sharp corners as they are easily damaged

some requests a design feature i'm not good at:  cool, but i'm going to do it this way.  i don't know how to do it well that way, so let's just get it done, nicely, and move on with life.

 

now....if you want to fund my learning experience, that will entail a lot of extra lumber and a lot more paid shop time, well, we can talk about that.  how bad do you want that design feature?

 

my shop, my rules.

3 hours ago, kmealy said:

I have found flush fronts a bit of a pain.  You have three axes to worry about, depth from the front, rotation left-right, and rotation top-bottom. Plus even spacing in case things are just slightly out of square.

 

 

That said the usual clearance recommended is the thickness of a penny on all sides. https://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-tips/techniques/skills/inset-drawers

 

In doing some research a cent is 1.52mm thick standard.  That's just slightly less than 1/16".   So if your drawer is 1/8" less than width and height of opening, that will give you 1/16" gap.

Can't argue with this at all!!! Take into account warp/twist,moisture change in the seasons. Your doors/ drawer fronts will look like  a-ss in a few years experience has showed me this lesson!

I'm no pro but, I use 3 playing card thicknesses on either side, top and, bottom of the drawer fronts.

1 hour ago, Gene Howe said:

I'm no pro but, I use 3 playing card thicknesses on either side, top and, bottom of the drawer fronts.

I'm guessing that when your climate is as dry as a f**t, you don't have to worry as much about the wood expanding as we do here.

Like @kmealy I use the penny method and round the edges so they don't cut me later.

 

Okay so no paint, got it.

 

I've not used the penny method, but 1/16" is almost always what I shoot for.

I've used 1/16".  Attach drawer fronts to drawer boxes after drawer boxes are installed and working well for best fit.

4 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

I've not used the penny method, but 1/16" is almost always what I shoot for.

 

 

You can tape pennies to the drawer front sides which for me is so much easier than trying to jiggle them and hold them in place AND make a mark.

21 hours ago, Gunny said:

 

 

You can tape pennies to the drawer front sides which for me is so much easier than trying to jiggle them and hold them in place AND make a mark.

 

I have used drill bits to get a good even spacing.  wish I had thought about taping them in place!

56 minutes ago, Cal said:

 

I have used drill bits to get a good even spacing.  wish I had thought about taping them in place!

 

My Grandfather showed me that trick.  

On 5/4/2021 at 3:41 PM, Al B said:

Thanks Keith. That's a bit closer than I expected. Yes there are more dimensional tolerances to consider with the flush drawers but I'll give it a try. Wish me luck.

I usually try for 3/32 unless it is shop cabinets.  for shop cabinets, I plan for 1/8".  Danl

On 5/4/2021 at 5:54 PM, HARO50 said:

I'm guessing that when your climate is as dry as a f**t, you don't have to worry as much about the wood expanding as we do here.

Yeah, the lack of much humidity helps. But, I wouldn't think a drawer front would swell all that much in higher humidity. 

10 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

Yeah, the lack of much humidity helps.

One thing us west folks don't worry much if at all about, is swelling, unless you live in the beach areas. But for the rest of us, you can cut those tolerances really tight. That being said, if we build something that is going out of the shop into someone else's home, I'd treat it like it's going to the southeast or any place that changes climate drastically from season to season, because you never know where that piece is going to end up after it leaves our shop. It may stay in California for a few years, then the family gets a job in Alabama, and picks up and leaves and that cabinet you built for them goes with them.

6 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

But, I wouldn't think a drawer front would swell all that much in higher humidity.

I agree Gene, we are only dealing with a drawer face here, it's certainly is not going to move side to side since the grain would be orientated horizontally, any movement would be at the top or bottom edge of the face, and even at that, probably not much if any.

Now if Al were building a full width drawer case with face dovetailed in, then ya got other considerations to be aware of, such as the bottom of the drawer can move a lot and effect the gaps all around, withing the case, and at the face frame.

Why is it every time I see this topic pop up, I think poker game???