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1/2-Inch Drawer Bottoms
Question
Forum Responses
From the original questioner: That sounds good - thank you. From contributor R: If you do it that way, don't forget to change the dado position so that you have the right clearance under the drawer for the slide. On the rare occasion that we make a drawer that wide, we usually just add a 1/2" x 6" strip of plywood under the 1/4" bottom in the center of the drawer from front to back. From contributor J: We don't dovetail our drawers but we do use 1/2" Baltic birch for drawer bottoms. The selling point that we don't use 1/4" goes over very well. Now that everyone is fighting over what little Baltic birch is available, I'm going to have to use apple ply - $$ yikes! It's getting close to just buying maple dovetailed drawers. Then I'm back to 1/4" bottoms like in the old days, but then again, I won't have to make any drawers and I can sell dovetail construction. Here's one for ya - the salesman at Emerson thought the core material was apple wood - that's a good one! From contributor T: I do what contributor B suggested. I use Accuride side-mounted slides and for drawers as wide as you're talking about, I put a third slide on its side in the center of the drawer-bottom to prevent side-to-side wobble. I bust out the retaining tab on the third slide so it's easy to remove the drawer. From contributor H: I am the one that posted a drawing of my drawers with 1/2 bottoms. I use pre-finished ply for my drawers, but you can use the same concept with a dovetail box. Don't make any groove. Make 1/2 bottom to fit inside and pocket hole the bottom to the sides and front and back. I use the Tandem undermounts so I leave the front and back 1"shorter so that there is clearance for the slide and I do not have to make a notch. From contributor E: I use 3/8" ply or MDF for the bottoms. It's just the right size so that it's beefy enough for heavy loads, and the groove still fits between the dovetails. The only downside is yet another sheet thickness to keep in stock. Would you like to add information to this article? Interested in writing or submitting an article? Have a question about this article? Have you reviewed the related Knowledge Base areas below? 
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