Curved Drawer Fronts - Printable

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Curved Drawer Fronts

From: Woodcraft

Nothing looks more elegant to me than a curved drawer face. Found on
fine furniture, these fronts typically follow a curved top. Fabricating a
curved drawer front is more work, but not much different than making
a square drawer. Taking the curve diameter from the apron, lay out the
drawer box with a full-size drawing. The most difficult part of this job
is the curved front. This can be fabricated by lamination, steam
bending, segmented construction, or sawing from a single piece of
solid wood (Figure 8-53). An advantage to the one-piece solid-wood
method is that the drawer interior can remain square. Whichever
method you choose, take care in matching the radius to the front of the
apron.

Figure 8-53 Curved drawer fronts can
be constructed with angled segments,
1/8-inch lamination, steam-bent parts,
or single pieces cut to the curve.

Figure 8-54: When gluing up a curved
drawer face, construct a form built to the
proper radius. Use enough pieces of
1/8-inch bending plywood to achieve the
desired thickness and laminate them
together in the press. Glue the core first
without the veneer faces.

Figure 8-55: During the initial vacuum
extraction, keep an eye on the veneer
assembly. Pieces tend to shift when
pressure is applied.

Curved Drawer Fronts - Printable

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Figure 5-55: Apply glue to the core and
line up the veneer. I like to sandwich
brown paper between the veneer and the
platen (wax paper can also be used).
This prevents glue squeeze-out from
adhering the platen to the veneer face.

This article is excerpted from The Illustrated Guide to Cabinet Doors
and Drawers by David Getts.

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(Figure 8-57). Make certain that it fits the opening with the proper
reveal, including an edge-banding allowance, before proceeding.
Rout the bottom slot in the front using a curved base on the router
that matches the radius of the drawer front (Figure 8-58).

Figure 8-57: The curved Face can be
ripped to width on the table saw. Be
careful and maintain equal and deliberate
pressure.

Figure 8-58: To rout the slot for the
1/4-inch bottom, secure the piece to the
bench, Make a curved router base that
matches the face.

The 3/8-inch veneer inlay is applied next (Figure 8-59). Now the face is
crosscut to the finish length (Figure 8-60) and the veneer edge-band is

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25/09/2006 3:12 PM

glued on. The drawer box in this project was specified with dowel
joints. Because of the curved face, I had to angle the ends of the drawer
sides to conform to the front (Figure 8-61). The box can now be
assembled. By gluing the face and table apron together, the grain will
match throughout the piece (Figure 8-62).

Figure 5-59: A 3/8-inch groove was routed
on the face side of the drawer front to
house a wood inlay. This groove was
routed just like the drawer bottom, except
with a concave router base.

Figure 8-61: Because of the curve, the
holes for the dowel joint were drilled at an
angle in the back of the drawer face.

Figure 8-62: By gluing the face to the
table apron, the grain will match
throughout the piece.

Figure 8-60: Lay out the drawer face end-cuts from your full- size drawing. Clamp

the face onto a miter gauge and crosscut to size.

This article is excerpted from The Illustrated Guide to Cabinet Doors
and Drawers by David Getts.