LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner
13K views 16 replies 12 participants last post by  dakotawood 
I've made drawers out of maple and ash and both work well. But I often use eastern white pine for drawer sides and backs, which is pretty traditional in North America as a secondary wood. While it's weaker than hardwoods it's very dimensionnally stable. There's probably no single "best" wood for this.
All the species you suggest would work, though I might tend toward elm, ash or maple rather than basswood (though I have little experience with it other than for carving, and looking at strength numbers it's no weaker than the pine I already mentioned). If ash is cheap go for it - it's extremely strong and generally fairly easy to work.
As for the thickness of the sides, if I had 5/4 wood I'd resaw it, but if I had 3/4 inch thick stock I'd just use it as is rather than planing it down.
 
There's no problem at all in using solid wood for the bottoms, been done for centuries. Just make sure that, as TheFridge mentioned, they float, plus that the grain is oriented so that the bottoms expand and contract from front to back of the drawer (in other words, the grain on the bottom runs from side-to-side). The back of the drawer should be shorter than the front, so that the drawer bottom can slide in from the back. There should be a short slot in the bottom that gets a screw into the back piece.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top