Cabinet Drawer Joints

There is a certain amount of skill and special attention required when constructing a dovetail joint.

Cabinet drawer joints.

The grooves used to make up the locking rabbet drawer joint are 1 4 deep. For this type of joint the best choice is a half blind dovetail. A perfect example is a drawer front where you don t want to see the end of the through dovetail on the face of the drawer. Learn how to build a clean strong and beautiful half blind dovetail joint and when to use this type of wood joinery.

However they can also be the most difficult to make. The grooves will be exposed and we want those to be hidden by the false drawer front. Wood magazine shear test mortise tenon joint took 1 005 lbs force over double to triple the force to break compared to other. 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.

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. Dovetail joints are the most durable. With 1 2 drawer material you simply subtract 1 2 from the desired drawer width. For the wood joint torture test in wood magazine issue 173 they created and then destroyed more than 100 joints.

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