MDF has almost no structural strength in tension; compression is good.
That translates to a poor choice for horizontal panels with vertical loading, especially in thinner forms like 1/4".
What'll likely happen, if you put any significant weight in the drawers, is that they'll sag over time, especially if the perimeter isn't glued into the drawer sides.
Unlike lumber, and plywood to some extent, MDF won't spring back.

 

Totally agree with Dan on the drawer bottoms.

As far as the opening for the drawers go, look at the slide specs. They will give you the spacing of the drawer in the opening. It will probably require at least 1/2" + 1/16" for clearances but will depend on the maker.

For a typical drawer in a shop cabinet I usually go 19-20" if I can and use a 18" full extension slide. If you want to easily get to the back of the drawer when it is pulled out, use full extension slides and use the longest that will fit the drawer.

Bill

 

Just a word of caution...you can always add a shim to a drawer that is too narrow, but you are SOL if it is too tight. That is why I like face frames.

I attach the cabinet side of the glide to the inside of the face frame opening. Then I attach the rear mount to the back. I found it is much easier to adjust those rear brackets than try to adjust the slide against the side wall.

Here's an example. My sweetie is attaching the drawer slide to the back, which I had reinforced with 3/4 inch plywood.

Part II

As far as mounting the drawer slide on the drawer, I don't sweat it at all. I mount the slide flush with the drawer bottom. Easy peasy. The way the full extension drawer slides I use ar built, that will automatically raise the drawer to clear the face frame rail.

Lemme see if I can find a close up.

BTW, those are the 28 inch drawers we put in the corner base cabinets. They work great.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks , I seen those pics before Mike and had no idea what you referenced to in the rear of the cabinet before screwing them down ? I Assumed you had cut a piece of wood to act as a template/ guide to figure out the distances .

I actually never noticed that you could attach sliders from the back like that . Gotta check mine I guess if I can find them in the mess and see if there the same

 

You have to have a bracket for the back of the slide. They are fairly cheap, usually only a couple of bucks for a pair. If you are not attaching the slides to a panel/divider, etc. then you will have to attach to the back of the cabinet like in the photos and will require the brackets.

Bill

 

I Can't Move!!

And you'll need the lovely and highly skilled Mrs. Stringer to install them.
Rick, neither you nor I, are squeaking into a 28" cabinet! :grin:

 

And you'll need the lovely and highly skilled Mrs. Stringer to install them.
Rick, neither you nor I, are squeaking into a 28" cabinet! :grin:

Good point , that never occurred to me :lol:

 

If your drawers weren't too wide, 1/4 inch plywood will be good enough. For wide ones, I would go with 1/2 inch thick plywood.

The drawers in my work bench are 3/4 inch white pine w/ 1/4 inch bottoms. Just simple rabbet joints and glue.
The big drawer is loaded with stuff. I used 3/4 plywood I had on hand and 1/2 inch ply for the bottom. It is mounted with full extension ball brg drawer slides. For that drawer, I measured the width of the opening, then built the drawer to fit minus 1 1/16th inch for the slides.

Hmmm...that reminds me of something. I still haven't made a drawer front for that drawer! :surprise:

 

Ok I wasn't BS'n about the mess lol but here is the bench I want to mount drawers under . Was going to go right across and maybe 3 deep . There's no back or sides so I have to figure out what the best way to attach this is . Plus will need dividers between the drawers to support the sliders unless I put a wood backing on and attach the sliders as Mike and his wife did

 

Just add some stiles to the front and back. You'll have to add a rail (front) to the legs, add two stiles (front and back) between the legs and attach the slides to the legs and the stiles.

No need for dividers or panels.

I see 6-9 drawers in your future!

Bill

 

Bill are stiles the front things that Mike has in his first pictures . I sort of assumed I see to put a board across the bottom for support . Im glad I posted this as it clueless how to proceed . As you can see underneith I have a drawer from a previous attempt on the other work bench that I removed . Nothing to fancy joint wise but it worked

Ok stiles would just be vertical posts in the front and rear to secure to ?

 

Rails run horizontal and stiles run vertical. A couple of 2x4 would serve as the stiles. just attach the edges to the bench top and the bottom rail so you have a flat face to attach the slides to.

Bill

 

Looks like something blew up in there!

 

Ya, and if I catch the *******s that did it :lol:

 

What is your goal? Drawers where?

 

Well, I am not sleepy, and I haven't been drinking, so let's get it on.

 

Well, I'm exhausted, now! Time for a Stick break. I hear my pillow calling me to a nap.

 

OOPS! I forgot some folks have to work tomorrow!

 

If you're looking for Rick, he's in the freezer...

*Cranbrook Forecast for the weekend

(Remember, Rick complains when it's 70F+ )

 

Yes it's going to be a tad uncomfortable in the garage after 12:00 pm

 

Here is Option #1.

Face frame to cover entire front of bench.
Three drawers of equal size and length.
Add a filler strip to existing bench top to form an overhang and cover the top with a new 3/4 inch piece (or 1/2 inch or whatever).
Run 1 1/2 x 3/4 inch trim around the bench top to make it look purty! Round off the corners.
Add a piece of 3/4 inch plywood to the inside of the rear legs (screw it to the legs, top and bottom 2x4 cross members.

If it were me, I would make the face frame using pocket hole joinery. Nice and strong.

Rick, gimme some measurements first chance you get.
Leg height
Overall width of the bench from outside to outside of the legs.
Overall depth

My example is for a bench 60 inches wide x 34 inches high x 24 inches deep.

The drawers would be one third the width of the bench, or about 20 inches wide.
The drawer openings would be 8 inches high x 17 1/2 inches each, making the drawers 7 inches on the side and about 18 inches deep.

I am open to suggestions. Modifications are easy to make.
Good night all.
Mike

 

Thank you Mike but I didn't want to put you to the trouble . Basically trying to figure out how to proceed is all , that's why I never took any measurements .

I see you have a sheet of plywood on the back in your sketchup design . I was going to just go with vertical boards (stiles ?) front and back . Will add a lower brace in front at bottom.
I'm planning on putting drawers all the way across and maybe 3 deep . Guess I'll keep building them till I get tired of adding lol .

Thanks for all your input guys

 

Rick, Blum or Richlieu common drawer slides take up one inch of width. As Mike pointed out,too wide is a disaster. Too narrow can be shimmed. Aim for just a little too small, the slides can accommodate that. Using a jig stick to set height for each drawer is a good idea.
Remember that the slides also have to be set for the distance to the front of the carcase which is approximately 1/32" if I remember right. If the slides are too far forward the drawers won't close flush to the carcase.

 

Adding that, face frames really make things more elegant!
Sid

 

Here is Option #2

If you need more detail, I can make a few adjustments. For the horizontal drawers, I added a piece of 3/4 plywood across the rear for the drawer mounts to attach to.

Now you need to make 5 identical drawers. Trying to make things simple for ya.

I guess the question is "How many sets of drawer slides do you have?"

I just checked. It is 72 in the shop. :surprise: The AC is working! :grin:

 

One other thought. I noticed you have a bench grinder and a vise. You could always mount those tools on pieces of 3/4 plywood scrap, then clamp them to the table when you need to use them. Remove and store when not needed.

 

Actually I was going to get off my butt and mount them both . Put the vise on the far front left and put the grinder on the right . A quick removal system would be kinda cool , but I don't think it's really necessary.

Mike so in the front I'm going to build vertical and horizontal pieces that connect via my Kreg pocket hole jig . Now what material would I use for that ? As you know hardwood or anything other than 2/4s are a fortune here

I'm almost thinking of installing 2/4s front and rear and maybe build some filler pieces for the front , but that would probably be a bit tacky looking I guess .
I'm amazed having the slider only attached to the front side and rear provides enough strength to hold things up

 

Mike, what did you mean by 'Don't do it, Rick'? Don't mount on the table, or don't mount on a board? I was thinking about making my vice and grinder 'portable' by mounting them to a board that can be clamped down where convenient. If you have some logic as to why mounting to a board is 'bad' I'd like to hear it.

 

Mount them on a board so they can be used wherever and put away when not needed. Mount it on a bench, and it will be in your way within 15 minutes! :grin:

 

Jeff; I'll let Mike explain what he meant, but my perspective is that permanently mounting onto a workbench you preclude ever again using that space for large objects (cab. carcasses) or big panels.
Another objection might be that that type of vice is often used for metal working/maintenance and the surrounding area is very likely to become seriously contaminated with metal filings/oil/silicone...not a prime area for doing woodworking then.

 

I completely agree Dan, thanks. These are the reasons that I was going to mount the vice and grinder to boards. I'm looking for any arguments against this approach.

Jeff

 

One more thing to be aware of, Rick. Make sure you have a way of making sure your drawer slides are square and parallel.

I made divider/frames out of 2 x 4s when I built my workbench about 40 years ago. (You can see the basic bones in the Sketchup drawing.) I had no problems with the structure because I had a shelf inside with cabinet doors on the front.

A few years ago I decided it was more effective to have drawers rather than cabinets (as you have wisely concluded) and started installing drawers. The first five on the right end were no problem, but as I got to the third section (2nd opening from the left) I was having a lot of problems with the drawers binding. At first I thought I had mis-made the drawers and finally (after running out of my extensive repertoire of colorful language) I realized that my divider/frames were ~1/4" out of square over their 24" depth.

I was able to salvage things by adding a 1/4" shim to the back stile on one side of the opening and to the front stile of the opposing one.

A pain to say the least. So the moral is to find a sure way to keep the front and back end of your slides square as well as level and your drawers will work well.

 

Thank you Oliver as I'm really liking your frame idea you made from 2/4s . Looking at them they would really work well for my application

 

Here are some drawer construction details for a simple, yet sturdy drawer. Build it this way and add the false front which typically should be 1/2 inch larger all around.

Even though the rabbet joint is simple, glue and brad nails will yield a strong joint that will last for years to come.

I build the front this way so it is easy to cut the drawer pieces that will fit. I cut a piece of scrap that fits in between the drawer hardware. Cut the pieces the same and the drawer should fit when built.

Also, cut the rear height short so you can assemble the drawer, then slip the bottom in from behind. Secure it with a couple of screws or staples, and you are done. Easy to do.

Note: 28 years go, I built three of these drawers using simple butt joints, glue and finish nails. When I tore them apart two years ago, I had to beat them apart with a shop hammer. All those years, those drawers were loaded with all sorts of stuff from boxes of nails to clamps. All with 1/4 inch Masonite bottoms.

Hope this helps.
Mike

 

Thanks Mike that helps a lot ! I was wondering what to do for the joints and seeing as I have a dado on my TS this should work great. Get to put those clamps to work too

 

My shop drawers using the joint described in the drawings. The top one uses the cheep metal hdw. UGH! I hate them because I can't get to the rear of the drawer.

The two lower drawers have the full extension ball brg slides, and they are loaded with clamps. all bottoms are 1/4 inch thick.

 

Well before I build drawers tommorow I was going to figure out the best way to mount the vise so it can be easily be removed from the bench top and stored when not in use .
I bought those threaded inserts you put underneath and seeing as the benches top is 1" thick mdf I was thinking about glueing a piece of 3/4" plywood underneath first so the threaded parts have something to sink into . I was going to mount the vise on a piece of 3/4" plywood and have knobs with threaded rod on them go threw the plywood base to secure it. I bought the wrong knobs as the ones I have are threaded threw . Hopefully HD has knobs that you attach different length of bolts to



I was going to mount the grinder to the right hand side of the bench though and not make it detachable as its not really in the way

 

I was going to mount the grinder to the right hand side of the bench though and not make it detachable as its not really in the way

Everything at some point gets in the way, Especially on a work surface.