Anyone make drawers & slides from scratch?

rambleonrose wrote:
Gearing up to piece the gutted old RV back together, and as expected, we're WAY past budget.

One of the big cabinetry problems we had from the water damage is that the old drawers had gotten repeatedly wet, and the wood sides expanded and has mostly fallen apart. The single metal slide piece got smashed up over the years from previous owners, so they weren't salvageable, either.

We're rebuilding almost all the cabinets now as economically as possible, but the drawer situation has me a bit worried. I priced out buying slides (which I've done before in my kitchen) and just for a few drawers in there, it's a couple hundred extra bucks.

What I'm asking is if anyone has built wood on wood drawers and the slides, and how well they work. We're fairly handy with tools, but we're also on a timeline (and a budget, obviously!)

Is this worth trying? Anyone?

I've built many drawer boxes over the years being a builder that I am. They can be very easy to build. I would keep it simple and build it out of 1/2" baltic birch ply and simply butt joint it with glue and with a brad nailer with 1.25" brads. Have your sides overlap the front and back pieces. Typical side mount full extension guides need 1" so make your drawers obviously 1" narrower than your opening. Dado in a 1/4" piece of ply for your bottom and you are all set.

Dan