Best wood to use for chest of drawers?

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uptown47

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Hi all,
I've been dabbling with some woodwork over the last year and really enjoying it, so when my wife asked for some drawers in an upstairs cupboard I said I'd build them myself.

I thought that it would be best to use 18mm plywood for the carcass and then 12mm plywood for the drawers. However, when I've measured everything up it's coming in at six 1200x600 sheets of each (i.e. 6 x 18mm - 1200x600 and another 6 x 12mm - 1200x600).

This is coming in at over £200 of wood at B&Q (although I would get it cheaper as I would go to our local timber place instead).

I just thought that maybe I didn't need plywood and there might be a cheaper alternative for parts of the build so thought I'd ask for advice about? I'm struggling to justify building them myself at that cost so it would be good if I could get it cheaper?

Any advice or do I just bite the bullet?

Thanks :)
 
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If you want something to last you have to spend money.
Otherwise Ikea do all sorts of rubbish to be replaced every 2/5 years.
 
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This guy will get you started on the drawers..
Going from 1 to about 30, 20 minute tutorials.
 
Some great advice there. Thanks to @JobAndKnock @EddieM @johnny2007 and @Ryler

That video you linked Ryler looks like it will be very handy!

I think I'm going to just bite the bullet with the wood. As johnny says - probably better to have something that will last. I did think about MDF but it doesn't seem to take a screw as well as plywood and I'd be worried that, over time, the runners might come loose.

Thanks again for all your input. You've settled my mind now. Cheers :)
 
I would say buy 2no 2440 x 1220 x 18mm sheets of plywood for the carcases and drawers
then 1 sheet of 6mm for the drawer bottoms
 
Thanks for the info. I've ordered my wood earlier so will be having a crack at it with 18mm and 12mm and see what happens. It's going to be hidden in a cupboard anyway so at least if I mess it up I just won't tell anyone about it :)
 
All the old style chests of drawers have no plywood.
Have a large antique one and its all solid wood.
Cosman goes into great detail on wood movement.
 
Last edited:
Ryler said:
All the old style chests of drawers have no plywood.
Click to expand...
Manufactured furniture as opposed to one-off hand made items, in my experience particularly from France, was using plywood for drawer bottoms and carcase backs from as the early 1880s. My brother has a really nice art nouveau tallboy ( a bit later, c. 1905) in a mixture of timbers stained to resemble cherry (in fact some of it is cherry but most is poplar or tulip) where the drawer fronts are cherry, the drawer boxes are oak but the drawer bottoms are 1/4in hardwood plywood. AFAIK they are the original drawers
 
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