Cabinet Drawer Joints

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

Cabinet drawer joints.

There is a certain amount of skill and special attention required when constructing a dovetail joint. With 1 2 drawer material you simply subtract 1 2 from the desired drawer width. The grooves will be exposed and we want those to be hidden by the false drawer front. Just because a cabinet includes dovetail joints doesn t mean it s a great quality drawer.

For this type of joint the best choice is a half blind dovetail. Wood magazine shear test mortise tenon joint took 1 005 lbs force over double to triple the force to break compared to other. Do screw add any strength to a joint. 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.

However they can also be the most difficult to make. Which of the woodworking joints give the most strength. For the wood joint torture test in wood magazine issue 173 they created and then destroyed more than 100 joints. The grooves used to make up the locking rabbet drawer joint are 1 4 deep.

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.