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Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer boxes?

2/17/18       
Gene Davis

How cost-effective can my design be, which involves blind-dado fronts and backs, full dado captive bottom, edgebanded top edges (no ends)?

By necessity, my design is such that every front and every back needs to be flipped to complete the CNC cutting.

When it is all said and done, is there still a nice savings when compared to doing these d'boxes this way, versus using 5/8 baltic birch, dovetailed?


View higher quality, full size image (803 X 652)

2/17/18       #3: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
JM

Only suggestion I can make is forget the grrove for the bottom on the CNC. Just set up a small tablesaw with a dado. It will be much faster than flipping the sheet.

2/17/18       #4: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
rich c.

I'd think a dowel drawer would be just as strong and faster to make.

2/18/18       #5: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
Dan cook

I agree a dowelled drawer is much quicker and holds itself together once assembled. Ther are no visible fasteners and construction is solid. Been doing it that way since the early 80’s. Never a complaint or failure with a drawer.

2/18/18       #6: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
JP Member

Mozaik has a drawer option like that. I didn't want to flip sheets so I haven't tried it. Plus you would have to leave them in clamps until they set.

Like the others I use dowels.
Dovetails in solid drawers.
For less money metaboxes.

2/18/18       #7: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
Gene Davis

The CNC shop we use is routinely making drawers exactly like this, and I'll find out whether they flip parts to cut the dados in the front and back, or do it on another machine such as a table router or table saw.

Dowels are out of the question as they would require edge boring, something the CNC shop is not set up to do.

The drawerbox shown in the original post was for pairing with 3/4 Blum 230 standard slides. We've another design the CNC can cut that adds the rear notches and 6mm hook holes for matching the drawer to Blum Tandem slides.

2/18/18       #8: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
JM

and another option, dont dado the front and the back. Cut them short and run the bottoms the full length from front to back so its only captured in a dado on the sides.

2/18/18       #9: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
Gene Davis

Here is an image of sixteen drawer parts nested for CNC cutting, using two sheets each of 1/4 and 5/8 melamine. The drawers are 4-1/2" high and for a 24" wide cabinet.

I'm thinking it would be faster and easier to take the 32 parts that are the front and back sides and zip them across a table saw with a stack dado blade, than positioning one at a time for flip cuts on the CNC.


View higher quality, full size image (1046 X 937)

2/18/18       #10: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
JP Member

You can do flip side cuts easy enough. Do the whole sheet at once.

I use qualified tenons on my cases. You do the flip operations first, then turn the sheet over and cut everything else and cut the parts out. Everything is done that way.

I just didn't want to do flip side operations on drawer parts.
Then those tenons either have to be clamped or shoot a few brads in to hold them while the glue drys.

You could position them one at a time for flip side operations, but that would be crazy:)
Typically I only do large parts seperate with flip side. Here is an example, I have dados and shelf pin holes on both sides of a center partition. Just bump the part up to the locating pins and turn on the vacuum.


View higher quality, full size image (820 X 412)

2/19/18       #11: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
Jared Emery

I do 3/4 plywood drawer boxes, edgebanded on the top edge. They're cut along with case parts so they don't increase the material needed by much, and assembled with Hafele's Rafix flush cam. Drawers go together quickly and self-square with the bottom fully captured. No horizontal boring needed, and yes we flip sheets, but we do that anyway for a few of our cabinet parts and the software is smart enough to minimize the number of sheets so all the parts that need it are nested together. On a 40 sheet job, maybe we flip 4 sheets.

2/21/18       #12: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
Gene Davis

OK, the word is back from the CNC guy, and he confirms he does these regularly, each front and back being flip positioned for groove cutting on reverse side, and that all goes quickly and precisely, no chipping, no problem.

So here is a look at the details, in Sketchfab, which you can open, spin around, zoom as you wish, and inspect.

As can be seen, this box is detailed for the notch and hook hole needed for Blum Tandem slides.

Click here to see in Sketchfab

2/23/18       #13: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
Derrek

Website: http://closetdr.com

We build our boxes very similar to this. We run them in 3/4" material with the rest of the job. To avoid the flip, fronts and backs are 3/4" shorter and the bottom is full length of drawer. Bottom is screwed into front and back from bottom with a couple screws. We have guides aligned so that screw that holds it in place goes into dado on bottom.
Running the dados takes some time on the cnc, but makes assembly a breeze

2/26/18       #14: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
Derrek

Here a video on how we build boxes

https://youtu.be/Q9dEiUIhwCw

2/26/18       #15: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
Gene Davis

That's a helpful video. Thanks.

We'll go ahead and re-think the drawerbox assembly used when 3/4 Blum Standard slides are used.

When using Blum Tandem undermounts, we need the 1/2" inset for bottoms, and also that back end notch and hook hole, so I'm not sure how 5/8" through-end bottoms will work, but we'll revisit that, too.

2/26/18       #16: Cost-effective CNC melamine drawer ...
Derrek

The drawers in the video require no flip on the sheet. We build cabinets in a similar manner also and no flip is needed..

We talked about doing undermounts and they have some different requirements, my cabinet vision guy said he has done them with a 3/4" bottom and added a route to the bottom for clearance. Our solution was we dont do undermounts.


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