Drill pilot holes for the screws. In solid-wood construction, be sure to
elongate the holes toward the back of the guide to allow for wood movement
in the case sides.for strength there should be at least^1 ⁄ 4 in. of wood remaining
between the bottom of the groove and the inside of the drawer.
Also, cutting the drawer back about^1 ⁄ 4 in. shorter in height than
the sides and the front allows you to plow the grooves in both
sides with only one stop setup.
Cut matching stopped grooves in the drawer sides—To
make things go smoothly when building a bank of drawers, create
a story stick out of scrapwood that shows all of the drawer heights,
the reveal between each drawer, and the guide/groove locations.
If all the drawers are the same size, you can use the same router
setups for all the cuts. For drawers of different heights, you’ll have
to adjust the fence and stop, as needed.
Start by transferring the groove location from the story stick to
each drawer side. Mark the top, bottom, and depth of the groove
(the thickness of the guide). If the drawers are all the same size,
you don’t need to transfer this location to every drawer.
Next, chuck a straight bit in the router. Ideally, you should
use a bit with the same diameter as the width of the groove. If
that’s not possible, set up the fence to cut one side of the groove.Tight, but not too tight. The guides should ride in the
grooves smoothly with very little slop top and bottom.Smooth the edges and chamfer the tips. Sand lightly and
chamfer the tips of the guides to make installation easier.Begin by planing the guides slightly thicker than the
depth of the groove before cutting them to width and
length. Check their fit in the drawer grooves. Leaving the
guides slightly proud of the sides will allow you to plane
them down later to get a perfect-fitting drawer.Then mill the guides to fit
After cutting to depth, readjust the fence in or out to plow the
rest of the waste.
To ensure the same length groove and stopping point for the
drawer, I devised a stop-block setup that works for the cuts on
both sides of the drawer (see photos, facing page). I typically
stop the groove 1^1 ⁄ 2 in. from the front of the drawer. There’s no
hard-and-fast rule here, but to avoid compromising the joinery at
the drawer front, you should clear it by at least^1 ⁄ 2 in.
The stop can be made from scrap about^1 ⁄ 2 in. thick and wide
enough to be clamped to the router-table fence. To determine
the length of the block, measure the distance from the front
edge of the drawer to the stopping point of the groove. Subtract
the thickness of the drawer front, multiply that number by two,
then add the diameter of the bit. For example, if you are using a(^3) ⁄ 4 -in.-dia. bit and want the groove to stop 1 (^1) ⁄ 2 in. from the edge of a
drawer front that’s^3 ⁄ 4 in. thick, make the stop block 2^1 ⁄ 4 in. long.
Mark the center of the stop block, align it with the center of the
router bit, and clamp it in place. To keep the drawer from wandering
away from the fence, create a channel for it by adding a long strip
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