Drawer design

[DiscoStu]

I am making a staircase (sort of) for my daughters loft bed. What I actually doing is making drawers of different sizes that will form the stairs. Because they are stairs she doesn't want handles etc so I bought some "push to open" sliders. I made the first drawer and whilst it works the push to open isn't great. I think it struggles with the weight of the drawer (when empty). I made the drawer out of 18mm MRMDF and it is very heavy. I think the little Spring really struggle to propel it forward.

So I am thinking of making lighter drawers. I can certainly go for a much thinner lighter ply base but what about the sides? I'm thinking maybe 15mm ply or maybe some pine boards?

Any thoughts?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Put finger holes in them? You wouldn't spoil any lines.

 

[Jacob]

Redwood all round. 3/4" front, 3/8" sides and back, 1/2" bottom.

 

[Beau]

Made our large kitchen draws with 12mm birch and they have held up fine but 15mm would be ample for all but massive draws.

 

[DiscoStu]

The bottom drawer is 550mm deep and around 400mm wide and 250mm high.

I don't want to put finger holes in them (nice idea) because the drawers need to be secret hidden drawers! Basically my daughter is at an age where she is growing out of toys but would still like a few but she doesn't want anyone that comes round to see them, so I suggested some secret drawers and she loved the idea.

I'm currently thinking 12mm or maybe 15mm ply for the sides, 6mm ply for the base and then the MDF drawer front so it looks the same as the step / drawer box.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Beau]

The bottom drawer is 550mm deep and around 400mm wide and 250mm high.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can't see any problems with 12mm on that size. Ours are 500 deep 250 high and 500 wide.

 

[Racers]

I have made wide draws with 12mm birch ply and biscuits, that are still holding up fine.

Pete

 

[Adam9453]

I'd have said 12mm birch ply would be fine and 15mm would be ample.
Although I would question the quality of the fitting if they can't cope with the 18mm MRMDF drawers you have already made.
I recently made some pretty large drawers and went over the top with the material thickness as I was trying to use up leftover materials but the ball bearing push to open soft close runners I used worked wonderfully.
The runners I used are smart slide ones.
I would have used blum runners but these were cheaper and I was recommended to use them, they weren't wrong.

What make are your runners?
Also have you checked your drawers and carcass for square and parallel as its easy to get iffy sliding drawers if somethings not quite square or parallel.

 

[DiscoStu]

To be clear the runners are beautifully smooth and take the weight without a problem. The issue is that the push to open mechanism struggles to put the drawer forward and I'm sure that this is due to the weight of the drawer. I'll go for 12mm ply with a 6mm drawer base


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Adam9453]

Sounds like a safe bet to me discostu

 

[DiscoStu]

Right then! Off to the timber yard - or builder merchant in this case.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk