Just because a cabinet includes dovetail joints doesn t mean it s a great quality drawer.
Cabinet drawer joints.
For this type of joint the best choice is a half blind dovetail.
The front and back pieces are the captive pieces locked into the sides.
Wood magazine shear test mortise tenon joint took 1 005 lbs force over double to triple the force to break compared to other.
Do screw add any strength to a joint.
The grooves used to make up the locking rabbet drawer joint are 1 4 deep.
The grooves will be exposed and we want those to be hidden by the false drawer front.
Dovetail joints are the most durable.
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.
For the wood joint torture test in wood magazine issue 173 they created and then destroyed more than 100 joints.
Which of the woodworking joints give the most strength.
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.
There is a certain amount of skill and special attention required when constructing a dovetail joint.