Wicked Fast Shop Drawers (Offsets & Butt Joints) - How To Install Drawer Slides EASY

these drawers are extremely simple drawers they look simple they're simple to make I love them because my drawer strategy benefits from a drawer that's very simple to spin up really quickly without getting out a dovetail jig I'm gonna show you how to install slides based on offsets instead of measurements because that's something that a lot of people are intimidated by if they've ever done drawers before so I just want to show you how to make these things because most drawers are much nicer than s end and I don't think that's proper for my shop I think simple strong is ideal no rabbits no dovetails just glue and staples extremely solid this one here is loaded with spray paint cans been like this for five years hasn't given out fortunately the drawer slides came with instructions unfortunately I cut right through them but fortunately we don't need them it's pretty easy to do some subtractive analysis because we have all the parts right here to measure the drawer bottom is gonna be are sort of starting point and then tack on the front in the back then we'll tack on these sides so let's figure out what size this needs to be then build the rest of the drawer around it to do that we need to know the depth of the box in the width so depth is 14 and the width is 26 and a half now I don't like to make the drawers go all the way back to the board in the back of the cabinet I just like to account for maybe a little bit of error or just have a little bit of playback there so that each time I closed the drawer it's not smacking the wood back there so I'm going to go and change this 14 deep to thirteen point seven five that's gonna be our working space we're gonna start with those numbers or subtracting the parts for the drawer to get to the bottom of this which would be in 26 and a half - besides - the slides the width of all of those when you subtract is two inches and if you look very close there I don't if you can see it but it's actually more like 1.9 and 29 five inches or something like that because the Baltic birch plywood is a little bit thinner than half of an inch that's alright we don't need to account for that because these slides have a little bit of play in them and these slides like to be mounted when they're kind of being pulled out like that just a little bit they seem to work a lot better that way then if they're just sort of crammed in to the spot exactly as the dimensions show all right so this is our pretends drawer base and we know it's going to be 24 and a half inches wide as we just established and the depth will be thirteen point seven five minus the front in the back which is just about one inch we'll call it one-inch twelve point seven five by 24 and a half and since I'm doing several drawers I'm just gonna go ahead and start with the 24 and a half so I'm gonna go ahead and cut two big strips of 24 and a half inch wide stock that we have them for all the drawer bottoms in the Front's in the back since all those will be 24 and a half inches wide here I'm using the sled to cut the other dimension of the bottoms 12 and 3/4 wide hate these drawers are intended to offload some of the contents of these organizers up here so I determined that an interior height of one in three quarters of an inch would be appropriate for these drawers these five I'm building here so that one and three-quarters plus the half inch for the base equals two and one quarter which means the front back inside pieces need to be cut at two and a quarter inches tall [Applause] I'll put a handle and this you go and find the center of one of those boards group them together just in the center line right there now I'm using the combination square not to measure anything but to simply use it as an offset tool so I'm just into punching at the corner but I'm aligning the other side of the tool with the line I drew at the top of the board earlier that just helps to quickly make these marks without actually having to figure out a dimension or doing any real measuring just all about the offset [Music] these lines are merely instructions for the bandsaw the important part is to just knock the edges off doesn't really matter to get it nice disciplinary fits off now this may not be the proper tool for the job but gets it done fast so when my wife was reviewing this video she mentioned that maybe I should make a note that sometimes I actually do make nice things [Music] because this video makes it look otherwise like I just really don't care about things hold on thought I'm making a video about this at some point but there was a certain time that I saw that honey butter don't care video and it changed the way I work there were things that I was carrying too much about like a tape shelf I was being really obsessive over the design of a tape shelf and when it occurred to me that it rather spend my time making nice things that aren't too tape shelves I grabbed my air nailer and just started spraying the wall with nails and plywood and made a tape shelf in a record time anyway that's kind of extreme but yeah the aesthetics of this thing are a little bit honey badger ition that's by design the sort of thing I use one-inch long narrow crown staples the crown of the staple is sort of clamping by nature it pulls that first board into the next one when that staple shot in there one quick tip I haven't had any shoot throughs not because I'm really accurate or anything but I'm using the workbench as a guide for the stapler and for glue cleanup I just smear it on the rest of the board and that's okay because it's a shop drawer and you can do that alright so the drawers are pretty much done but I haven't done the sides yet and that's because I much prefer to do the sides when I can measure exactly what they need to be rather than whatever sort of odd calculations it takes to try and figure that out before it's assembled with the undersized plywood and if I ended up making this a little bit different size it's just easier to see thirteen and seven eighths our important note here on reference edges again on each of these sides I'm aligning it with the front of the drawer even want to rotate it and make sure to align it with the first staple at the front of the drawer so the front is flush since the front is the reference edge for an amount of slides on here it's time to install the drawer slides but before we go just willy-nilly screwing these things into the wood let's think through reference surfaces because we're gonna be doing offsets to those reference surfaces we're done with measuring so let's pause and talk about reference surfaces when I'm thinking through placement I might think okay I want this slide to be say four inches from the top that would be the reference surface the top if I'm referring to that with my placement or maybe one inch setback from this front edge in that case the front edge would be the reference surface the reference edge for these slides that reference edge for the front will be equal to the front edge don't want it all the way up to the top because then it would rub up there instead we want it some distance from the top to Pho WindowBlinds from the top that should give us enough gap so assuming the cabinet has been built square which this one has at least I think as I'm counting on that has and it should go together pretty easily I'm scooting it forward so that this edge of the slide is flush with the front edge of the cabinet after the drawer is installed I can go back and add more screws line to that front edge all booked myself good there screws are sharp all right it's amusing technique like before reference surface for this thing will be the front of this drawer here do the same thing on the other side fling it out so I'm making sure that I'm putting pressure up against the back of the cabinet okay so use basic opposites there to not complicate things to put this slide farther down the drawer you might want to do a half inch offset on a glide and then just a blind or two from the drawer top there it is super simple and now that it works now that I know it's all squared up one down four to go wow they're so sharp when I hadn't verified they're the distance from the top to the bottom of the second drawer was the same on both sides just in case there are some sort of flexing that happened here with the blinds it's important to get that the screw in the center of the hole especially if the screws are tapered like this so that the screw doesn't pull the slide or the drawer up or down the bit is magnetized watch this can you see that I want to try and go in the center of the hole and the bit keeps on moving to the edges that hole new plan Center punch with a screw [Music] [Music] so we have noticed that there has been a fidgety part of this which is holding the spacers in place so you can get around that by measuring all this does to sort of make the process less intimidating by using the spacers but drawer slides were always really intimidating for me because I just really didn't feel like calculating all the offsets didn't know that I understood it okay hear that knocking just screw sticking out too far somewhere screws in there kind of an entangled PS one of the questions that I'm sure will show up is about whether or not I'm going to put faces on these to protect these slides and the answer would be no because I know dust is supposed to hurt these make them not slide as well dust getting kicked in there just doesn't sound that good idea and technically that's not a good idea at all if I was aware of that whenever I built these which are just totally caked in dust because I clean this place out with a leaf blower look at that you can also see other problems with this cabinet by the way cuz I didn't build a square these slides have been in for five years I think and even this this load of spray paint works awesome [Music] some of these are soft clothes grizzly summer soft clothes kV shop Fox and the other cabinets I have non soft clothes ones but these slides work so well they haven't shown any signs of annoyance yet I have not covered them up and don't plan on it because yeah it hasn't been an issue I'm not saying it won't be you could be proper and do things the right way but I didn't and it's worked fine [Music]

Channel: Keith's Test Garage

Views: 727,396

Keywords: drawers, shop drawers, easy shop drawers, drawer slides, how to build drawers, how to install drawer slides, how to make a drawer, drawer how to, ball bearing drawer slides, drawer tutorial, how to make drawers, keiths test garage, workshop, woodworking, organizer, projects, diy, do it yourself, how to, woodworking projects, baltic birch plywood, butt joints, wicked fast, shop usability, organize, organizing, plywood, maker

Id: tcr2QyD9vf8

Length: 14min 48sec (888 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/kn8ife]

I have been intimidated by drawer slides even though I am a seasoned maker of things. Just something about them always felt a bit ...voodoo? Anyways for those of you naysaying. So what? If a drawer takes a shit after ten years just run some screws into it and put it back in service. The simplicity is the attractive feature here.

[u/Tenet15]

I enjoyed this video for many reasons! I also tend to over think and when the day comes to make drawers I’ll keep this in mind. Also thanks for speeding up the “boring parts” that would other wise just be a waste of time yet including the rewarding sounds of screws being driven in. For the tip on how to place the staple gun that is a worthwhile trick and I could have used that repairing a wooden cutting board a couple weeks ago.

I’m definitely going to follow you!

[u/retsot]

Heh...butt joint

[u/TeamShonuff]

I like that he is such a pro that he makes something so daunting and intimidating look so fun and easy. And I appreciate the way he's not afraid to check his blood sugar with randoms screws in a cup.

[u/[deleted]]

Could this be done with just a hand saw, a drill , and hammer 🔨? I have limited tools and experience but I really like the concept and it would really be a good way to store some records and laptops for living room use. I only would need to have 3 drawers

[u/[deleted]]

Yeah. Considering how easy dados are to make, and how much stronger than butt joints with staples, not sure I’d be proud of this feat.

I have seen the “no jigs” thing used a time or two here as a pride point. I have to assume it means “store bought jugs”, like from Kreg or MicroJig. Otherwise, why the hate for jigs? I make and use jigs all the time where accuracy and repeatability (like for making drawers), is important.

Edit... a crosscut sled is a jig. So is using a spacer between the drawers.

[u/footjam]

Wish I had a shop with 20,000 worth of tools to make it look this easy. Nice work though, certainly helpful information

[u/meryjo]

Good video. I got a cheap air stapler to repair my fence because so much cheaper than an air nailer. It’s now my new favorite power tool. I want to do this to make kitchen cabinet drawers. Could the front panel be just wide enough to hide the slides? Or would that small gap coverage be too difficult to achieve?
I feel like glue and staples with the good 1/2” Baltic plywood will make these sturdy for years, despite the naysayers above. From what I’ve seen of mass produced kitchen drawers it would indeed be an upgrade.

[u/pkpkm]

I really loved this video. Very informative and entertaining. Your personality really shines through.