Cabinet Drawer Joints

The front and back pieces are the captive pieces locked into the sides.

Cabinet drawer joints.

Just because a cabinet includes dovetail joints doesn t mean it s a great quality drawer. With 1 2 drawer material you simply subtract 1 2 from the desired drawer width. For the wood joint torture test in wood magazine issue 173 they created and then destroyed more than 100 joints. However they can also be the most difficult to make.

Which of the woodworking joints give the most strength. Wood magazine shear test mortise tenon joint took 1 005 lbs force over double to triple the force to break compared to other. For this type of joint the best choice is a half blind dovetail. A perfect example is a drawer front where you don t want to see the end of the through dovetail on the face of the drawer.

There is a certain amount of skill and special attention required when constructing a dovetail joint. Although you can build drawer joints using any number of methods we think lock rabbet joints like the ones above make sense for attaching the sides fronts and backs of most drawers. Learn how to build a clean strong and beautiful half blind dovetail joint and when to use this type of wood joinery. The grooves will be exposed and we want those to be hidden by the false drawer front.

Although not as strong as a dovetail joint a well made lock rabbet joint will hold up fine unless the drawer takes heavy regular pounding.